Product Launch Checklist

For a Product Manager, a launch is the culmination of months of hard work. A successful launch can make or break a product. It's not just about flipping a switch and making the code live. It involves coordination across product, engineering, marketing, sales, and support. A launch checklist is an indispensable tool to manage this complexity. It ensures everyone knows their role, all dependencies are tracked, and the product is introduced to the market in a way that maximizes its chances of success. It turns a potentially chaotic process into a well-orchestrated event.

The Essential Product Launch Checklist:

• Pre-Launch (Weeks Before)

  1. Define Launch Goals & Metrics: What does a successful launch look like? (e.g., 1,000 sign-ups in the first week, 10% adoption rate of the new feature).
  2. Finalize Go-To-Market Strategy: Who is the target audience? What is the key messaging? What channels will we use to reach them? (Align with Marketing).
  3. Prepare Marketing & Sales Collateral: Create blog posts, landing pages, email campaigns, social media content, and sales decks.
  4. Train Internal Teams: Ensure the support team is ready to handle inquiries with FAQs and training sessions. Make sure the sales team knows how to sell the new product/feature.
  5. Set Up Analytics: Ensure tracking and analytics are in place to measure your launch goals. Create the necessary dashboards.
  6. Finalize Legal & Compliance: Review and approve any changes to Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, etc.
  7. Conduct Beta Testing: Release the product to a small group of friendly users to catch last-minute bugs and get feedback.

• Launch Day

  1. Final Engineering Checks: Run final tests. Deploy the code. Monitor system health closely.
  2. Execute Marketing Plan: Publish the blog post. Send the email announcement. Post on social media.
  3. Internal Communication: Announce the launch to the entire company. Create a "war room" (physical or virtual, e.g., a dedicated Slack channel) for all launch-related communication.
  4. Monitor Customer Feedback: Watch social media, support tickets, and community forums for real-time feedback.

• Post-Launch (Weeks After)

  1. Analyze Launch Metrics: After a set period (e.g., one week), analyze the data. Did you hit your launch goals?
  2. Gather and Synthesize Feedback: Consolidate all the customer feedback you've received. Look for patterns and bugs.
  3. Create a Post-Launch Report: Summarize the launch performance, key learnings, and feedback. Share this with all stakeholders.
  4. Plan for Iteration: Based on the data and feedback, create a prioritized backlog of bugs to fix and improvements to make. The launch is the beginning, not the end.

Tools & Recommended Resources:

• Asana / Trello: For creating a detailed checklist and assigning tasks to owners across different teams.
• Notion / Confluence: For creating a central launch planning document that links to all other assets (marketing copy, training docs, etc.).
• LaunchDarkly: A feature flagging and release management tool that allows you to de-risk your launch by rolling out features to a small percentage of users first.

Case Study: Superhuman's Invite-Only Launch

Superhuman, the premium email client, executed a masterful launch by turning their product's scarcity into a key marketing asset.

Instead of a big, public launch, they used an invite-only model. You couldn't just sign up; you had to join a waitlist. This created a sense of exclusivity and buzz. To get an invite, you had to go through a personalized, 1-on-1 onboarding call with a member of their team. This was not scalable, but it wasn't supposed to be. This "high-touch" launch strategy allowed them to:

1. Ensure every single new user was perfectly onboarded and successful.
2. Gather incredibly high-quality feedback.
3. Create a passionate group of early evangelists.
4. Generate massive word-of-mouth marketing and desire for the product.