✦Marketing · 13 recordsProduct launch

Launches go wrong when the product is finished and nobody is waiting, or when an audience is warmed up for something that slips. These are two projects with one date between them, which is the only arrangement that makes the dependency visible.

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✦ Everything it creates

The whole plan, before you install it

Goal

Launch to an audience that is already waiting Month 3

Measured on what happens after the announcement, not on the day itself.

Get the thing ready Month 3

Finished enough to be used by somebody who was not told how.

  • Write down what is in the launch and what is notDo firstDay 5
  • Get it in front of five people who will be honestWeek 6
  • Fix what those five got stuck onDo firstMonth 2

Get the audience ready Month 3

Starts on day one, alongside the build.

  • Decide who this is for, specificallyDo firstDay 3
  • Start telling people it is comingWeek 3
  • Write the announcement a fortnight earlyMonth 3

Routines

  • Talk about it publiclyweekly
  • Weekly review of both halvesweekly
✦ It puts something in the calendar

Dates you will not have to remember

Launch day

Month 309:00480 min
✦ It comes with a note

Two halves, one date

A launch fails when the product is finished and nobody is waiting, or when an audience is warmed up for something that slips. They are separate projects sharing a single date so the dependency stays visible.\n\nIf the date has to move, move both. Holding a launch date the product will not meet is the expensive version of this.

✦ Questions

Product launch, answered.

Early enough that the audience work has a chance to compound, which in this plan means it starts on day one alongside the build. An audience assembled in the final fortnight is a list of people who have never heard of you.
Move the date once, deliberately, and move both projects with it. The failure mode is holding a launch date the product will not meet, because the marketing half is already committed and nobody wants to be the one to move it.
Something that happens after the announcement — signups that convert, or first purchases — rather than the size of the day itself. A launch day is easy to make look busy and tells you almost nothing on its own.
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