The Complete Product Launch Checklist
A failed product launch rarely comes from building the wrong thing. It comes from the right thing shipping while everyone else is out of position: sales unaware, marketing three days late, and support fielding questions without documentation.
The feature shipped on Friday. Jira tickets closed. Engineering moved on. Monday morning, sales gets a customer question about the new feature and has no idea it exists. Marketing’s email goes out on Wednesday, announcing something customers already found on their own. Support has been improvising answers all weekend.
Product launches involve multiple teams working independently on overlapping timelines. When coordination fails, launches feel chaotic even when the product itself is solid.
This checklist covers the cross-functional coordination required for successful product launches, organized by phase and function so nothing falls through the cracks.
Why product launches go wrong
Failed launches are rarely caused by a single catastrophic mistake. They come from accumulated small oversights across teams that are each doing their jobs but not coordinating effectively.
The information silo problem
Each team has its own tools and communication channels. Engineering tracks work in Jira. Marketing plans campaigns in Asana or monday.com, and even connecting monday.com to Jira only solves part of the problem. Sales manages their pipeline in Salesforce. These systems do not naturally share information, so teams operate with different views of what is happening and when.
When the engineering timeline shifts, marketing may not find out until their scheduled launch date passes. When marketing’s messaging changes, sales may still be using old talking points. Information silos create coordination failures even when everyone has good intentions.
The “it’s someone else’s job” problem
Launch coordination falls into gaps between team responsibilities. Engineering’s job is to build and deploy. Marketing’s job is to build attention. The sales team’s job is to sell. Nobody’s explicit job is to ensure these activities happen in the right sequence with the right information. The PM often becomes the implicit coordinator, but without a clear process, things slip.
The timing mismatch problem
Different teams work on different timelines. Engineering commits to sprints. Marketing plans campaigns weeks in advance. Sales forecasts quarterly. A launch date that makes sense for engineering may not align with marketing’s campaign calendar or sales’s quarterly push.
When these timelines are not reconciled early, teams scramble to adapt. Marketing compresses their preparation. Sales gets last-minute updates. Support writes documentation the day before launch. Rush creates errors.
The product launch checklist framework
Rather than a single flat checklist, organize launch preparation into phases. Each phase has its own timing and stakeholders. Completing each phase creates a checkpoint before moving to the next.
Phase one (four to six weeks before launch)
Planning establishes who does what and when. This phase happens before serious launch preparation begins.
Define launch scope and type
Not every release needs the same level of launch. Define the launch tier:
- Tier One (Major): New product, significant new capability, or strategic repositioning. Requires full cross-functional coordination, press, and customer communication.
- Tier Two (Moderate): Meaningful new feature or significant improvement. Requires marketing announcement, sales enablement, and support documentation.
- Tier Three (Minor): Small enhancement or bug fix. Requires release notes and support awareness, minimal marketing.
The tier determines which checklist items apply and how much lead time each team needs.
Establish launch date and dependencies
Confirm the target launch date with engineering. Identify what must be true for that date to hold: feature complete, QA passed, staging validated, performance acceptable. If any dependencies are at risk, adjust the timeline now rather than scrambling later.
Assign launch roles
Who is responsible for each function? Explicit assignments prevent the “I thought you were handling that” problem.
- Launch lead (usually PM): Overall coordination, decision-making, escalation
- Engineering lead: Technical deployment, monitoring, rollback if needed
- Marketing lead: Messaging, campaign execution, content creation
- Sales enablement lead: Training, collateral, objection handling
- Support lead: Documentation, team training, escalation procedures
- Customer success lead (if applicable): High-touch customer communication, early access coordination
Create launch communication channels
Set up a dedicated channel (Slack, Teams) for launch coordination. All launch-related updates flow through this channel. This prevents information from scattering across email threads, DMs, and meeting notes.
Draft the launch brief
Create a single document that captures:
- What is launching (feature description, screenshots, demo)
- Why it matters (customer problems solved, strategic value)
- Who it’s for (target users, use cases)
- When it’s launching (date, time, timezone)
- How teams should prepare (links to detailed plans by function)
This brief becomes the source of truth that all teams reference.
Phase two (two to four weeks before launch)
Each team executes its preparation based on the launch brief. The launch lead coordinates but doesn’t do everything personally.
Engineering preparation
Feature code complete and merged
QA testing complete with sign-off
Performance testing complete (if applicable)
Deployment plan documented
Rollback plan documented
Monitoring and alerting configured
Feature flag strategy confirmed (if using)
Database migrations tested (if applicable)
Marketing preparation
Messaging finalized and approved
Launch blog post drafted and reviewed
Email campaign created and scheduled
Social media content prepared
Website updates ready to publish
Press release drafted (Tier One only)
Customer case study or testimonial lined up (if available)
Internal announcement for company-wide awareness
Sales preparation
Sales talking points documented
Demo environment updated with new feature
Objection handling guide created
Pricing impact documented (if any)
Competitive positioning updated
Target account list for proactive outreach
Sales team training scheduled
Support preparation
Knowledge base articles drafted
Internal support documentation updated
Support team briefed on new feature
Escalation path for new-feature issues defined
FAQ prepared based on anticipated questions
Macros or templates updated for common responses
Customer success preparation (if applicable)
High-touch customers identified for early access or heads-up
Customer communication drafted
Onboarding materials updated
Success metrics defined for new feature adoption
Phase three (one week before launch)
Validation ensures everything is ready before committing to the launch date.
Technical validation
Staging environment demo confirms feature works as expected
PM sign-off on feature completeness and quality
No critical bugs open against launch items
Deployment dry run completed (for complex deployments)
Content validation
All marketing content reviewed for accuracy against final feature
Screenshots and demos reflect actual functionality
Sales materials reviewed by PM for accuracy
Support documentation reviewed for completeness
Coordination validation
All teams confirmed ready for launch date
Launch sequence documented (who does what, in what order)
Rollback triggers defined (what would cause us to delay)
Post-launch monitoring plan confirmed
Go/No-Go decision
One week before launch, hold a go/no-go meeting. All functional leads attend. Review readiness against checklist. Make an explicit decision to proceed, delay, or scope-down. Document the decision and communicate to all stakeholders.
Phase four (launch day)
Launch day should be execution, not preparation. If you are scrambling to prepare materials on launch day, something went wrong earlier.
Pre-launch (morning of)
Final confirmation that deployment is ready
All content staged and ready to publish
Communication channels monitored
All hands on deck for their assigned tasks
Deployment
Feature deployed to production
Smoke testing confirms the feature works in production
Monitoring confirms no errors or performance issues
Feature flag enabled (if using)
Announcement sequence
Execute the announcement sequence in order. Typical sequence:
- Internal announcement (all-hands email or Slack)
- Support documentation published
- In-app announcement or changelog updated
- Customer email sent (if applicable)
- Blog post published
- Social media posts
- Sales team notified to begin outreach
Monitoring
Engineering monitors for technical issues
Support monitors for customer confusion or complaints
Marketing monitors for social engagement and questions
PM monitors for unexpected behavior or edge cases
Phase five (one week after launch)
Post-launch review captures what went well and what to improve for next time.
Metrics review
Adoption metrics: How many users have used the new feature?
Performance metrics: Any degradation in system performance?
Support metrics: Increase in related tickets?
Marketing metrics: Email open rates, blog traffic, social engagement?
Retrospective
Hold a brief retrospective with functional leads:
- What went well? What should we repeat?
- What went poorly? What should we improve?
- What did we learn that affects future launches?
Document the retrospective findings and update the launch checklist template.
Cleanup
Archive launch materials to shared location
Update product documentation with final feature details
Close launch-related Jira tickets and tasks
Send thank-you to contributing teams
Keeping launch activities coordinated
The checklist provides structure, but coordination requires ongoing communication.
Single source of truth for launch status
Everyone involved needs to see the same launch status. This might be a shared project, a dedicated Jira epic, or a dashboard that aggregates status from multiple tools.
If marketing tracks their tasks in Asana while engineering tracks theirs in Jira, someone needs to consolidate the view. Integration platforms can sync launch tasks across tools, creating visibility without requiring everyone to work in the same system.
Launch stand-ups
For Tier One and Tier Two launches, hold brief daily stand-ups during the week before launch. Ten minutes, all functional leads. Three questions: What did you complete? What are you working on? What is blocking you?
These stand-ups catch coordination issues before they become launch-day surprises.
Escalation paths
Define how to escalate if something goes wrong. Who has authority to delay the launch? Who decides whether an issue is launch-blocking? What is the communication plan if launch is delayed?
Having these decisions made in advance prevents chaos when problems emerge.
Adapting the checklist to your team
No checklist works perfectly for every team. Adapt based on your context.
Adjust by launch tier
Tier Three launches do not need four-week preparation. Scale the checklist to match the launch significance. A minor bug fix might need only release notes and support awareness. A major product launch might need everything on this list and more.
Adjust by team size
Small teams may have one person covering multiple roles. The checklist items still apply, but one person may execute several. Large teams may need additional coordination layers and more explicit handoffs.
Adjust by launch cadence
Teams that ship weekly need lighter-weight coordination than teams that ship quarterly. Frequent launches justify investing in automation and templates that reduce per-launch effort.
Capture what you learn
After each launch, update the checklist based on what you learned. If you always forget something specific, add it. If a checklist item never applies, remove it. The checklist should evolve with your team’s experience.
Making product launches repeatable
A successful launch is not the goal. Repeatable successful launches are the goal. That requires a process that scales and improves.
Invest in templates, automation, and coordination tools that reduce per-launch effort. Document what works. Train new team members on the launch process. Treat launch coordination as a capability to build, not a burden to survive.
When launches are repeatable, teams spend less energy on coordination and more on making the product great. Customers experience consistent, well-communicated releases. Stakeholders trust that launch dates are meaningful. And nobody finds out about a new feature from a customer complaint on Monday morning.
If you are ready to coordinate product launches across your tools, see how Unito helps product and engineering teams stay aligned.