itsual Launch Checklist
Overview
Launches fail more often from coordination gaps than from code bugs. A good checklist makes dependencies, owners, and readiness criteria explicit.
When to Use
- Feature or product launches
- Pricing or packaging changes
- Migrations or breaking changes
- Marketing-led moments tied to product capability
Typical Checklist Domains
- Product scope and success metrics
- Engineering readiness and feature flags
- QA / validation / performance
- Documentation and in-product guidance
- Support playbooks and macros
- Sales / CS enablement
- Marketing and comms
- Legal / compliance / security review
- Monitoring, alerts, and rollback plan
- Post-launch review schedule
Principles
- Assign a single owner per checklist item
- Distinguish launch-blocking items from nice-to-haves
- Run a readiness review before go-live
- Include explicit abort criteria
- Capture what to improve for the next launch
Verification
- Blocking items have owners and status
- Rollback / mitigation path exists
- Support and GTM teams are ready before traffic hits