Product Launch Checklist
A comprehensive checklist covering pre-launch preparation, marketing readiness, launch day coordination, and post-launch follow-up. Do not let a preventable oversight derail your launch.
Why product launches need a checklist
Launches involve many moving parts across engineering, marketing, support, legal, and leadership. Without a shared checklist, each team assumes someone else is handling critical tasks. The result is preventable issues on launch day: broken analytics, missing support docs, legal objections, or infrastructure that cannot handle the traffic.
A launch checklist does not guarantee success, but it prevents failure from unforced errors. The most successful launches are not the flashiest. They are the ones where every detail was handled before the spotlight turned on. Use this checklist to coordinate across teams and phases.
Launch checklist phases
Four phases from preparation to post-launch follow-up.
Pre-Launch (4-6 weeks before)
Everything that must be ready before launch day. This phase is where most launches succeed or fail. Rushing pre-launch preparation leads to preventable issues on launch day.
Example checklist items: QA signoff on all critical paths. Load testing at 2x expected traffic. Support documentation written and reviewed. Legal review of terms and privacy policy. Pricing page finalized. Analytics instrumented for all key events.
Tips
- Complete QA, load testing, and security review
- Write support docs and internal FAQ before launch
- Instrument all analytics events and verify they fire
- Get legal, security, and compliance signoff
Marketing Readiness (2-4 weeks before)
Marketing assets, content, and campaigns that need to be ready before launch. Content creation takes longer than most teams expect. Start early.
Example checklist items: Landing page copy and design finalized. Blog post announcing the launch written. Email sequences drafted (welcome, onboarding, day 3, day 7). Social media posts scheduled. Product Hunt listing prepared. Press kit assembled.
Tips
- Landing page live and tested across devices
- Email sequences drafted and loaded into your ESP
- Social media content scheduled, not just drafted
- Product Hunt listing ready with assets and copy
Launch Day
The coordinated set of actions on launch day. Have a war room (physical or virtual) with all stakeholders present. Assign clear roles: who handles support, who monitors infrastructure, who manages social, who coordinates press.
Example checklist items: War room open with all stakeholders. Social media posts published. Product Hunt launched at 12:01 AM PT. Email blast sent to waitlist. Infrastructure monitoring on large screen. Support team on standby with escalation paths.
Tips
- Assign clear roles: support, infra, social, press
- Monitor infrastructure metrics in real time
- Have a rollback plan if critical issues emerge
- Celebrate the launch, then shift to monitoring
Post-Launch (1-4 weeks after)
The work after launch day that determines long-term success. Most teams underinvest in post-launch follow-up. The first 30 days set the trajectory for the product.
Example checklist items: Review analytics daily for the first week. Respond to every user feedback message within 24 hours. Publish a case study within 2 weeks. Run a retrospective within 1 week. Address top 3 user-reported issues within 5 business days.
Tips
- Review analytics daily for the first week, weekly after
- Respond to all user feedback within 24 hours
- Publish learnings and next steps within 2 weeks
- Run a launch retrospective while details are fresh
Related templates
Frequently asked questions
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