Free Checklist · 24 Items
Launch Readiness
/ Checklist.
A 24-item pre-launch gate across 9 functions. Sign-off columns. Prevents the Sunday-night firefight.
Date: ______
Owner: ______
Version: ______
Owner: ______
Version: ______
How to use it
Run this list on a 5-day-out / 2-day-out / launch-day cadence. Each owner signs in their own column at each milestone — not the launch lead signing for everyone. By T-5 days, every Engineering and QA item should be green. By T-2 days, every Marketing, Sales, Support, and Legal item. By T-0, only Analytics baselines and the launch-day runbook remain. If any item is red at T-2 days, you don’t have a launch — you have a firefight. Move the date.
Engineering
| Item | Owner | Done? |
|---|---|---|
| Feature flag tested in staging with production-like data; on/off path verified end-to-end. | Eng lead | |
| Rollback plan documented — flag off, deploy revert, or DB migration reversal — with named decision-maker. | Eng lead | |
| Error-rate and latency baseline captured for the affected surfaces (last 7 days, p50/p95/p99). | SRE / Eng |
QA
| Item | Owner | Done? |
|---|---|---|
| Full regression run in staging; no P0/P1 issues open. | QA lead | |
| Edge cases tested: empty state, max-size, expired token, offline, concurrent edit. | QA | |
| Load test executed if change touches a hot path; system holds at 2x current peak. | SRE |
Documentation
| Item | Owner | Done? |
|---|---|---|
| Help-center article published, indexed, and linked from the in-product entry point. | Docs / PMM | |
| API docs updated for any new/changed endpoint; deprecation notes on retired endpoints. | DevRel / Eng |
Marketing
| Item | Owner | Done? |
|---|---|---|
| Launch post drafted, reviewed by PM and legal, scheduled in CMS. | PMM | |
| Social assets queued (LinkedIn, X, optional video); spokesperson confirmed. | Marketing | |
| Blog scheduled; preview link sent to Sales and CS for awareness. | PMM |
Sales Enablement
| Item | Owner | Done? |
|---|---|---|
| 1-pager battlecard published: positioning, target segment, top 3 objections + answers, pricing impact. | PMM / Sales | |
| Demo script updated; recorded walkthrough available; AEs trained in 30-min session. | Sales lead |
Support
| Item | Owner | Done? |
|---|---|---|
| Support team trained: live demo, known limitations, top 5 expected questions, sample answers. | Support lead | |
| FAQ created with answers; macros/canned responses configured in support tool. | Support | |
| Escalation path defined: who to ping (Slack channel, on-call PM, on-call eng) for which issue. | Support lead |
Legal & Compliance
| Item | Owner | Done? |
|---|---|---|
| Terms / DPA updated if new data is collected, processed, or shared; effective date set. | Legal | |
| Data-handling reviewed: PII tagging, retention, sub-processor list, regional storage. | Security / Legal |
Customer Success
| Item | Owner | Done? |
|---|---|---|
| Customer notice queued: in-app banner, email, changelog entry — segmented by plan if relevant. | CS / PMM | |
| Key accounts notified individually by CSM with a 1-line value frame and a calendar link. | CS lead | |
| Churn-risk accounts proactively flagged; outreach drafted before the launch breaks anything. | CS lead |
Analytics
| Item | Owner | Done? |
|---|---|---|
| Tracking events deployed in staging and verified end-to-end (clickstream + server events). | Analytics / Eng | |
| Dashboard built and bookmarked; access shared with PM, eng lead, CS lead. | Analytics | |
| Success-metric baseline captured (last 14 days) so post-launch deltas are interpretable. | PM / Analytics |
The launch-day runbook
T-1h
Pre-flight. Eng confirms feature flag is OFF in production. Analytics confirms dashboard is live. Support confirms macros active. CS sends “launching in 1h” ping to key accounts.
T-0
Flip the flag. Eng enables for canary cohort (1–5%). PM watches error rate + key event volume in dashboard. Hold for 15 minutes.
T+15m
Canary check. If error rate within +20% of baseline and key event firing > 80% of expected: ramp to 25%. Otherwise: roll back, investigate, do not retry today.
T+1h
Full ramp. Ramp to 100%. Marketing publishes blog. Social posts go live. Support team on alert in shared channel.
T+2h
Watch. PM, eng lead, support lead in shared channel. Triage tickets every 15 min. Pre-agreed rollback trigger: error rate > 2x baseline for 10 min OR P0 ticket from a paying customer.
T+24h
Day-1 check. Compare key events vs. baseline. Read every ticket and CS conversation tagged with the launch. Decide: hold / roll back / iterate. Brief leadership in 5 lines.
Post-launch retro template
Run within 5 business days of launch. Same format every time so patterns surface across launches.
- What shipped vs. what was planned? Name the cuts and the surprises. No judgment yet — just the delta.
- What broke? Errors, escalations, customer complaints, internal misfires. One bullet each, with owner and follow-up.
- What changes for next launch? Up to three changes. More than three and nothing changes. Pick the ones with leverage.