Product Launch Checklist
A 50-point pre-launch checklist covering product readiness, marketing, sales enablement, support preparation, engineering ops, and post-launch review. Free to copy, download, and use. No signup required.
# Product Launch Checklist **Feature / Product:** [Name] **Launch Date:** [Date] **PM Owner:** [Name] **Status:** In Progress / Ready / Launched --- ## 4 Weeks Before Launch ### Product Readiness - [ ] Feature complete and merged to main - [ ] All P0 and P1 bugs resolved - [ ] End-to-end testing complete on staging - [ ] Accessibility review passed (WCAG 2.1 AA) - [ ] Mobile and cross-browser testing done - [ ] Performance benchmarks met (load time, API latency) - [ ] Security review signed off - [ ] Feature flag configured; rollout % set to 0% ### Analytics & Instrumentation - [ ] All analytics events defined and implemented - [ ] Dashboard created to track launch metrics - [ ] Baseline metrics captured before launch - [ ] Error monitoring alerts configured --- ## 2 Weeks Before Launch ### Marketing & Comms - [ ] Launch blog post written and reviewed - [ ] Email campaign drafted and approved - [ ] In-app announcement / tooltip written - [ ] Social media posts scheduled - [ ] Landing page or docs page updated - [ ] SEO metadata updated for new pages - [ ] Screenshots / demo video recorded ### Sales Enablement - [ ] Sales one-pager updated with new feature - [ ] Demo script updated - [ ] Sales team briefed in a 30-min session - [ ] Objection-handling FAQ shared with sales - [ ] Key accounts identified for early outreach ### Support Readiness - [ ] Help center article written and published - [ ] Support team trained on new feature - [ ] Known limitations documented for support - [ ] Escalation path defined for launch-day issues - [ ] FAQ page updated --- ## 1 Week Before Launch ### Legal & Compliance - [ ] Privacy policy updated if data handling changed - [ ] Terms of service updated if needed - [ ] Legal sign-off received ### Internal Alignment - [ ] Launch announcement sent to all-hands channel - [ ] Engineering on-call briefed on launch risks - [ ] Rollback plan documented and reviewed - [ ] Launch war-room channel created in Slack - [ ] Go / No-Go criteria defined --- ## Launch Day - [ ] Feature flag ramped to target % (e.g. 10% → 50% → 100%) - [ ] Analytics dashboard monitored for 2 hours post-launch - [ ] Error rate checked every 30 minutes - [ ] Customer support queue monitored - [ ] Blog post and email published - [ ] Social posts published - [ ] Sales team notified: "live now" --- ## 1 Week Post-Launch - [ ] Launch metrics reviewed against baseline - [ ] Customer feedback collected (in-app, support tickets, sales calls) - [ ] Top 3 issues identified and triaged - [ ] Retrospective scheduled with team - [ ] Learnings documented in launch log --- ## Launch Log (fill in after) | Date | What happened | Action taken | |---|---|---| | Launch day | | | | Day 3 | | | | Week 1 | | |
How to use this Launch Checklist template
Assign owners to every section
A checklist without owners is a wishlist. Before the 4-week mark, assign Marketing, Eng, and Support owners to their sections so nobody assumes someone else is handling it.
Use the Go/No-Go criteria
Define your Go/No-Go threshold explicitly: 'We launch if zero P0 bugs exist and error rate on staging is below 0.1%'. Vague criteria lead to last-minute debates.
Start with a feature flag at 0%
Always launch behind a feature flag at 0% and ramp gradually. This gives you a kill switch if something goes wrong without a full rollback.
Monitor for the first 2 hours
Most launch-day issues surface in the first 2 hours. Keep the PM and an engineer watching the dashboard during the initial ramp — don't walk away after pressing go.
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Frequently asked questions
How far in advance should launch prep begin?
4 weeks is the minimum for a significant feature. For major product launches, 8 weeks is safer. The most common mistake is treating launch prep as a 1-week task — marketing and sales enablement alone take 2–3 weeks to do well.
What's a feature flag and why does it matter for launches?
A feature flag is a code toggle that lets you enable or disable a feature for specific users or percentages without deploying new code. It gives you a kill switch if a launch goes wrong and lets you do gradual rollouts (10% → 50% → 100%) to catch issues before they affect everyone.
What should be in the Go/No-Go criteria?
Minimum: zero P0 bugs, error rate within acceptable range, analytics firing correctly, and support team briefed. Optional but valuable: a successful internal beta with at least 5 users, and sign-off from legal if the feature touches data or payments.
How do I handle a bad launch?
First, kill the feature flag if the issue is severe. Second, communicate internally before externally — the team needs to know before customers do. Third, write a blameless post-mortem within 48 hours. Customers tolerate mistakes; what they don't tolerate is silence.
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