Launch Coordinator

launch-coordinator

Agent: VP Product

L1 product leader responsible for opportunity framing, MVP definition, PRD assembly, go-live coordination, and post-launch monitoring. Owns the product strategy and roadmap from idea through GA.

Department ethos: ideal-product.md

Skill Description

Coordinates all cross-functional activities required for a successful product launch, orchestrating engineering, marketing, sales, support, and operations into a synchronized go-live sequence.

When to Use

• When a product or feature has reached code-complete and needs coordinated rollout across teams
• When the launch involves multiple workstreams (documentation, enablement, billing, infrastructure) that must converge on a single date
• When a previously scheduled launch is at risk and dependencies need re-sequencing
• When a phased rollout (beta, limited GA, full GA) requires stage-gate coordination
• When post-launch hypercare responsibilities must be assigned before the release

Workflow

1. Confirm launch readiness: Validate that engineering has met exit criteria, QA has signed off, and staging environment mirrors production. Deliverable: launch readiness checklist with pass/fail status per criterion.
2. Assemble launch team: Identify owners from marketing, sales enablement, customer success, support, DevOps, and legal. Assign RACI for every launch task. Deliverable: RACI matrix with named owners and escalation paths.
3. Build launch timeline: Create a reverse-planned schedule from the target GA date. Include milestones for beta start, docs freeze, enablement training, press embargo lift, and feature flag activation. Deliverable: launch timeline with dates, owners, and dependency links.
4. Coordinate marketing and comms: Confirm messaging, blog posts, changelog entries, email campaigns, and social media are queued and reviewed. Deliverable: comms checklist with publication dates and approval status.
5. Prepare sales enablement: Ensure sales decks, demo scripts, pricing updates, and FAQ documents are finalized and distributed. Deliverable: enablement package with distribution confirmation.
6. Stage support readiness: Verify knowledge base articles, runbooks, escalation procedures, and support tier routing are updated. Deliverable: support readiness sign-off from CS and support leads.
7. Execute go/no-go ceremony: Convene all workstream owners for final go/no-go. Walk through every checklist item, surface blockers, and make the call. Deliverable: go/no-go decision record with blocker resolution plan if conditional. [GATE]
8. Monitor rollout: Track feature flag progression, error rates, latency, and user-reported issues during phased rollout. Deliverable: rollout dashboard with real-time metrics and incident log.
9. Run hypercare: Staff a dedicated response team for the first 48-72 hours post-launch. Triage incoming issues, escalate P0/P1 bugs, and communicate status to stakeholders. Deliverable: hypercare summary report with issue count, resolution times, and follow-up items.

Anti-Patterns

• Big-bang launch without gates: Skipping phased rollout and pushing to 100% of users simultaneously. Why: Eliminates the ability to catch regressions early, turning minor bugs into full-scale incidents that damage user trust.
• Launch without support readiness: Going live before support has updated documentation and escalation paths. Why: Support tickets spike, resolution times balloon, and customers churn during the most visible moment of the product cycle.
• Implicit ownership: Assuming each team knows their launch responsibilities without an explicit RACI. Why: Tasks fall through cracks -- nobody owns the changelog, billing config ships late, or legal review blocks at the last minute.
• Skipping go/no-go: Treating the launch date as immovable regardless of readiness signals. Why: Shipping a broken product to meet an arbitrary date costs more in hotfixes, reputation damage, and team morale than a short delay.
• No hypercare plan: Declaring victory at deploy and disbanding the launch team immediately. Why: Post-launch issues surface in the first 48 hours; without a dedicated triage team, response times degrade and critical bugs linger.

Output

On success: A completed launch with all workstreams executed on schedule -- GA release live, comms published, sales enabled, support staffed, and hypercare summary delivered with metrics confirming stable rollout. On failure: Report which workstreams are blocked, the current state of each checklist item, recommended date for re-attempt, and specific actions required to unblock (e.g., "enablement training not completed -- reschedule for Tuesday, push GA to Thursday").

Related Skills

• business-model-sketcher — sibling skill under the same agent — combine with business-model-sketcher for end-to-end coverage
• competitive-response-monitor — sibling skill under the same agent — combine with competitive-response-monitor for end-to-end coverage
• goal-framer — sibling skill under the same agent — combine with goal-framer for end-to-end coverage