kienbui1995 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