kienbui1995/launch-planning

Launch Planning

When to Use

When taking a new product, major feature, or significant update to market — ensuring coordinated, high-impact execution.

Core Jobs

1. Define the Launch Tier

Not every release needs a full launch:

• Tier 1 (major): new product, pricing change, major rebrand → full GTM plan, 4+ weeks prep
• Tier 2 (significant): major feature, new integration → 1–2 weeks prep, targeted comms
• Tier 3 (standard): regular feature release → changelog + in-app notification

Match effort to impact.

2. GTM Strategy

Answer before building the launch plan:

• Who is the target customer for this launch?
• What's the hook (one sentence that makes them want to learn more)?
• What channels will you use to reach them?
• What's the desired action (sign up, upgrade, share)?

3. Launch Checklist (Tier 1)

4 weeks out:

• [ ] Launch brief written and approved
• [ ] Pricing finalized
• [ ] Landing page copy and design approved
• [ ] PR outreach started (embargo briefings)

2 weeks out:

• [ ] Blog post written, reviewed, scheduled
• [ ] Email sequence built and tested
• [ ] Social content created and scheduled
• [ ] Sales team briefed and enabled (battle cards, FAQ)
• [ ] Support team briefed (expect increased volume)

Launch day:

• [ ] Published: landing page, blog, social, email
• [ ] Team on standby for support spike
• [ ] Real-time monitoring: sign-ups, errors, support volume

1 week post:

• [ ] Performance report: sign-ups, coverage, social engagement
• [ ] What worked / what to do differently next time

4. Coordinate Cross-Functional

• Weekly launch sync starting 4 weeks out
• RACI for each workstream: Product, Marketing, Sales, Support, Engineering
• Single Slack channel for launch coordination

Key Outputs

• Launch brief (audience, hook, channels, goal)
• Launch checklist with owners
• Launch metrics dashboard
• Post-launch report

Anti-Patterns

• Launch planned after feature is built (too late to shape the narrative)
• Engineering shipping without telling marketing
• No support prep (first-day support spike goes unanswered)
• No post-launch analysis — same mistakes repeated next launch