Skip to main content

Product Launch Checklist: [Product Name]

Template Instructions

Replace all text in [brackets] with your content. Delete this callout when done. This checklist ensures smooth, successful product launches with minimal issues.

Launch Overview​

Product: [Product Name]

Launch Type:

  • New product
  • Major feature
  • Version update
  • Beta launch
  • Public launch

Launch Date: [YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM UTC]

Launch Lead: [Name]

Go-Live Decision Maker: [Name]

Expected Impact: [Number of users, revenue, etc.]

Pre-Launch Phase (T-2 weeks)​

Product Readiness​

  • Feature complete

    • All planned features implemented
    • Acceptance criteria met
    • No P0/P1 bugs outstanding
    • Known issues documented

  • Design finalized

    • UI/UX approved
    • Brand guidelines followed
    • Responsive design verified
    • Accessibility standards met

  • Content complete

    • All copy written and approved
    • Images/assets finalized
    • Legal disclaimers included
    • Translations complete (if applicable)

Testing & Quality​

  • Testing complete

    • Unit tests: [X% coverage]
    • Integration tests passed
    • E2E tests passed
    • Performance tests passed
    • Security tests passed
    • Browser compatibility verified
    • Mobile responsiveness verified

  • UAT (User Acceptance Testing)

    • Internal stakeholders tested
    • Beta users tested (if applicable)
    • Customer feedback incorporated
    • Sign-off received from: [Names]

  • Load testing completed

    • Expected load simulated
    • Peak load tested
    • System remained stable
    • Bottlenecks identified and resolved

  • Security review passed

    • Security scan completed
    • Vulnerabilities addressed
    • Penetration testing done (if applicable)
    • Security sign-off: [Name]

Infrastructure & Technical​

  • Production environment ready

    • Infrastructure provisioned
    • Resources scaled appropriately
    • Database optimized
    • CDN configured
    • SSL certificates valid

  • Performance optimized

    • Page load time: [< X seconds]
    • API response time: [< Y ms]
    • Database queries optimized
    • Caching configured
    • Assets compressed

  • Monitoring configured

    • Application monitoring: [Tool name]
    • Error tracking: [Sentry, etc.]
    • Performance monitoring: [Tool name]
    • Log aggregation: [Tool name]
    • Uptime monitoring: [Uptime Kuma, etc.]

  • Alerting configured

    • Error rate alerts
    • Performance degradation alerts
    • Uptime alerts
    • Alert channels: [Slack, email, SMS]
    • On-call schedule defined

Analytics & Tracking​

  • Analytics setup complete

    • Analytics tool: [PostHog, Google Analytics, etc.]
    • Tracking code implemented
    • Key events defined and tracked
    • Conversion funnels configured
    • Goals/KPIs configured

  • Event tracking verified

    • Page views
    • User interactions
    • Conversions
    • Custom events: [List]
    • Events tested in staging

  • Dashboards created

    • Real-time dashboard
    • KPI dashboard
    • User behavior dashboard
    • Business metrics dashboard

Documentation​

  • Internal documentation complete

    • System profile created/updated
    • API documentation current
    • Runbooks created
    • Architecture documented
    • Known issues documented

  • User documentation complete

    • User guide written
    • Help articles created
    • FAQs documented
    • Video tutorials (if applicable)
    • Documentation reviewed by non-technical person

  • Support documentation ready

    • Support playbook created
    • Common issues documented
    • Escalation procedures defined
    • Support scripts prepared

Marketing & Communication​

  • Marketing materials ready

    • Landing page live
    • Marketing website updated
    • Blog post drafted
    • Social media posts prepared
    • Press release (if applicable)
    • Email campaigns ready

  • Product positioning defined

    • Value proposition clear
    • Target audience defined
    • Competitive differentiation documented
    • Messaging approved

  • Launch communications prepared

    • Internal announcement email
    • Customer announcement email
    • Blog post
    • Social media content
    • Press kit (if applicable)

Legal & Compliance​

  • Legal review complete

    • Terms of service updated
    • Privacy policy updated
    • Cookie policy updated (if applicable)
    • GDPR compliance verified
    • Data processing agreements signed

  • Compliance verified

    • Industry regulations met
    • Security standards met
    • Accessibility standards met
    • Data protection requirements met

Support Readiness​

  • Support team prepared

    • Support team trained
    • Support documentation reviewed
    • Support hours confirmed
    • Escalation path defined
    • Extra support coverage scheduled

  • Help resources ready

    • Help center updated
    • FAQs published
    • Chatbot updated (if applicable)
    • Support email templates ready

  • Feedback collection ready

    • Feedback mechanisms in place
    • Survey tools configured
    • Issue tracking ready
    • Feedback routing defined

Pre-Launch Phase (T-1 week)​

Final Testing​

  • Smoke testing in production

    • Basic functionality verified
    • Critical paths tested
    • No major issues found

  • Staging environment matches production

    • Code versions match
    • Configuration matches
    • Data is realistic

  • Rollback plan tested

    • Rollback procedure documented
    • Rollback tested in staging
    • Rollback triggers defined
    • Team knows rollback process

Team Preparation​

  • Launch team briefing

    • Launch plan reviewed
    • Roles and responsibilities confirmed
    • Communication channels established
    • Emergency contacts shared

  • On-call schedule confirmed

    • Launch week coverage: [Names]
    • Backup coverage: [Names]
    • Escalation path clear

  • War room established

    • Slack channel: [#product-launch]
    • Video call link ready
    • Dashboard links shared

Final Checks​

  • Go/No-Go meeting scheduled

    • Date/Time: [YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM]
    • Attendees: [List key decision makers]
    • Criteria reviewed

  • Stakeholder approvals obtained

    • Product: ✅
    • Engineering: ✅
    • Design: ✅
    • Marketing: ✅
    • Legal: ✅
    • Executive: ✅

  • Dependencies confirmed

    • No blocking dependencies
    • Third-party services ready
    • External teams notified

Launch Day (T-0)​

Pre-Launch (Morning)​

  • Final go/no-go decision

    • Decision time: [HH:MM UTC]
    • Decision maker: [Name]
    • Decision: GO / NO-GO / DELAY
    • If NO-GO, reason: [Description]

  • Status page updated

    • Maintenance notice (if applicable)
    • Launch announcement posted

  • Team check-in

    • All team members available
    • War room active
    • Monitoring dashboards open

Launch Execution​

  • Deploy to production

    • Deployment started: [HH:MM UTC]
    • Deployment method: [CI/CD, manual, etc.]
    • Deployment completed: [HH:MM UTC]
    • No errors: ✅/❌

  • Immediate verification

    • Application loads: ✅
    • Health check passes: ✅
    • Database connectivity: ✅
    • API responds: ✅
    • Monitoring shows green: ✅

  • Feature flags enabled (if applicable)

    • Gradual rollout started
    • Initial percentage: [X%]
    • Monitoring for issues

Post-Launch Verification​

  • Smoke tests passed

    • User can sign up
    • User can log in
    • Core feature 1 works
    • Core feature 2 works
    • Core feature 3 works
    • Payment works (if applicable)
    • Email sends (if applicable)

  • Analytics tracking verified

    • Events firing correctly
    • Data appearing in dashboards
    • No tracking errors

  • Performance verified

    • Response times normal
    • No errors spiking
    • Resource usage normal
    • No alerts triggered

  • Integrations verified

Communications​

  • Internal announcement sent

    • Team notified: [HH:MM UTC]
    • Company-wide announcement: [HH:MM UTC]
    • Congratulations shared

  • External announcement sent

    • Email sent to customers: [HH:MM UTC]
    • Blog post published: [HH:MM UTC]
    • Social media posts: [HH:MM UTC]
    • Press release (if applicable): [HH:MM UTC]

  • Status page updated

    • "All systems operational"
    • Launch announcement

Post-Launch Monitoring (Day 1-7)​

Active Monitoring (Day 1)​

  • Hourly checks (first 8 hours)

    • Error rates: [Normal/Elevated]
    • Response times: [Normal/Slow]
    • User activity: [As expected/Higher/Lower]
    • Support tickets: [Count]

  • Issue triage

    • P0 issues: [Count]
    • P1 issues: [Count]
    • P2 issues: [Count]
    • All issues triaged and assigned

  • Performance monitoring

    • No performance degradation
    • Scaling working as expected
    • No bottlenecks identified

Feedback Collection​

  • User feedback monitored

    • Support tickets reviewed
    • Social media mentions tracked
    • App store reviews (if applicable)
    • In-app feedback collected

  • Analytics reviewed

    • User adoption: [X new users]
    • Engagement: [Metrics]
    • Conversion rate: [X%]
    • Drop-off points identified

  • Issues categorized

    • Bugs: [Count]
    • Feature requests: [Count]
    • Usability issues: [Count]
    • Documentation gaps: [Count]

Daily Checks (Day 2-7)​

  • Day 2 review

    • Key metrics: [Values]
    • Issues: [Count and severity]
    • Actions taken: [List]

  • Day 3 review

    • Key metrics: [Values]
    • Issues: [Count and severity]
    • Actions taken: [List]

  • Day 7 review

    • Key metrics: [Values]
    • Issues: [Count and severity]
    • Actions taken: [List]
    • Ready to reduce monitoring: ✅/❌

Communication Updates​

  • Daily updates to stakeholders

    • Day 1 update sent
    • Day 2 update sent
    • Day 3 update sent
    • Week 1 summary sent

  • Issue communication

    • Critical issues communicated immediately
    • Status page updated for incidents
    • Users informed of issues and fixes

Rollback Procedures​

When to Rollback

Rollback if: P0 bug affecting majority of users, data integrity issues, security vulnerability discovered, system instability, or unable to fix forward quickly.

Rollback Decision​

  • Rollback trigger criteria

  • Rollback decision made by: [Name]

  • Rollback time: [HH:MM UTC]

Rollback Execution​

  • Rollback initiated

    • Rollback start: [HH:MM UTC]
    • Method: [Git revert, feature flag, previous version]
    • Team notified

  • Previous version deployed

    • Deployment completed: [HH:MM UTC]
    • Verification passed: ✅
    • System stable: ✅

  • Rollback communication

    • Internal team notified
    • Stakeholders informed
    • Customers notified (if needed)
    • Status page updated

  • Post-rollback review scheduled

    • Date: [YYYY-MM-DD]
    • Attendees: [List]
    • Purpose: Understand what went wrong

Post-Launch (Week 2-4)​

Stabilization​

  • All P0 issues resolved
  • All P1 issues resolved or scheduled
  • Feature performance optimized
  • Monitoring thresholds adjusted

Optimization​

  • Performance optimizations applied

    • Based on real usage data
    • Load patterns understood
    • Bottlenecks removed

  • User experience improvements

    • Based on user feedback
    • Usability issues addressed
    • Documentation improved

Review & Learn​

  • Launch retrospective held

    • Date: [YYYY-MM-DD]
    • What went well
    • What could be improved
    • Action items created

  • Metrics reviewed

    • Against success criteria
    • Against forecasts
    • Trends identified

  • Documentation updated

    • Based on issues encountered
    • Based on user questions
    • Based on team learnings

Handoff​

  • Monitoring normalized

    • Back to standard monitoring
    • On-call rotation to normal
    • War room closed

  • Support handoff complete

    • Support team fully trained
    • Launch team support ended
    • Support metrics normal

  • Project closed

    • Final report written
    • Lessons learned documented
    • Team thanked and celebrated

Success Criteria​

Launch Success Defined As:​

  • Zero P0 incidents
  • < [X] P1 incidents
  • Uptime > [99.X%]
  • User adoption meets target: [X users]
  • Conversion rate meets target: [X%]
  • Performance meets targets
  • Positive user feedback > [X%]
  • No rollback required

Key Metrics (30 Days Post-Launch)​

MetricTargetActualStatus
New Users[X][Y]✅/❌
Active Users[X][Y]✅/❌
Conversion Rate[X%][Y%]✅/❌
Customer Satisfaction[X/10][Y/10]✅/❌
Revenue (if applicable)$[X]$[Y]✅/❌
Support Tickets< [X][Y]✅/❌
P0/P1 Bugs0 / < [X][A] / [B]✅/❌

Issues Log​

Critical Issues​

IDDescriptionImpactResolutionStatus
[1][Issue][Description][How fixed]✅/🟡

Known Limitations​

  • [Limitation 1] - [Workaround]
  • [Limitation 2] - [Future fix planned]

Team & Contacts​

RoleNameContactAvailability
Launch Lead[Name][Phone/Slack]Launch week
Product Manager[Name][Phone/Slack]Launch week
Tech Lead[Name][Phone/Slack]Launch week
Marketing Lead[Name][Phone/Slack]Launch week
Support Lead[Name][Phone/Slack]Launch week

Emergency Escalation: [Name, Contact]

War Room: [Slack channel or video call link]

Timeline Log​

Time (UTC)EventNotes
[HH:MM]Go/No-Go decision: GO
[HH:MM]Deployment started
[HH:MM]Deployment completed
[HH:MM]Verification passed
[HH:MM]Public announcement
[HH:MM]First user sign-up
[HH:MM][Key milestone]
  • [Product Requirements Document]
  • [Technical Specification]
  • [System Profile]
  • [Runbook]
  • [Marketing Plan]
  • [Support Playbook]

Checklist Version: 1.0 Last Updated: [YYYY-MM-DD] Launch Status: Planning / In Progress / Launched / Rolled Back