A bottleneck in just one area of your product launch can lead to costly delays that impact your goals. Product launch checklists help you pinpoint — and plan for — common barriers like content production, a process that often takes weeks of back-and-forth communication and approvals before launch assets are finally ready.
In this guide, we’ll give you a step-by-step checklist that you can follow through every phase of a coordinated product launch. Each phase includes detailed instructions to ensure your next launch (and the next, and the next) is a success, and that you never get hung up on content production again.
Go-to-market teams that fail to coordinate critical tasks like design, production, and testing can set your launch up to fail right from the start. And if everyone is using different tools to build and communicate, it doesn’t take long for the process to devolve into chaos.
The hidden launch killer? Content production bottlenecks. Creating launch assets like demos, videos, ads, and visuals can take weeks of planning, production, and revisions. Errors compound as the asset passes from one team to another, and conflicting design ideas lead to inconsistencies. It all adds up to huge delays as your team has to re-work — or completely re-make — each asset in order to get approval.
A product launch checklist solves both problems, coordinating the GTM team and executing the plan, including content production.
In this checklist, we’ve broken down the typical launch process into eight phases to help you develop a predictable process that gives your team a clear timeline for every product launch.
Product readiness starts with a clear product-market fit. If you haven’t already conducted market research, use the initial stages of this phase to:
Once you’ve validated your product, apply what you learn from your research to refine it for launch. Evaluate these key areas to ensure the product delivers on your UVP and aligns with the needs of your market:
Now that your product is ready for market, it’s time to assemble your GTM team. A cross-functional team may include:
Bring these teams together to determine your ideal launch timeline and prepare your GTM strategy. A successful strategy lays out a detailed, step-by-step plan for bringing your new product to your target audience, including where and how you’ll connect with prospects, how you’ll generate demand, what you’ll charge, and how you’ll measure the success of your launch.
Here are four steps you can follow to ensure your GTM planning is on track.
Use your market research to refine your product positioning. Make sure your messaging clearly conveys why your product is the best solution to your prospects’ main problem. Visualize the buyer’s journey so you can deliver the most effective messaging at each stage.
To decide what types of content to create in Phase 3, identify the channels your audience frequents and the content they interact with most. For example, if your ideal customer tends to use YouTube to research products, you’ll want to focus your efforts on video content rather than blog posts.
Price your product at a level that makes it easy for your audience to try — and buy. Consider options like:
Use market and competitor research to align prices to the needs and expectations of your audience.
Clarify how you’ll announce your launch to the media, and put together PR assets like a media kit and a list of key outlets, bloggers, or influencers who can help you generate buzz around your product.
You’ll also need to keep stakeholders informed during and after the launch process. Determine how and when you’ll send messages so all key players receive progress updates and get notified of problems or delays.
For internal communications, decide which internal tools you’ll use to keep the GTM team connected throughout the launch process. These may include a messaging tool like Slack or a project management platform like Asana.
Finally, determine what GTM success looks like for your product, and set goals that direct you toward that outcome. Use the SMART model — specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound — to clarify what you want to achieve, and set deadlines for reaching key milestones.
To ensure you stay on track during launch and post-launch, decide what KPIs are most important to monitor. Some common metrics include:
Completing these four steps defines exactly what your team needs to do during the next phases of the launch so they can stay focused on execution even when things get hectic.
Here’s where a lot of product launches get bogged down. Creating compelling content like demos, videos, and other visual assets requires coordination and cooperation between multiple teams, from design to marketing. And if those teams aren’t aligned on your target, market, UVP, and launch goals, communication can break down, leading to delayed handoffs and approvals. But if you create a solid plan and timeline, you can avoid a launch-killing bottleneck.
Start by putting your content plan from Phase 2 into a calendar that covers pre-launch, launch, and post-launch. Define a content creation workflow that includes clear assignments and approvals.
Make sure the entire GTM team can access the calendar so they know what they should be doing and when. Then you can begin creating marketing and sales materials like:
And, of course, you can’t neglect the product demo. Demos are a core asset that showcases how your product helps your audience — and a major factor in their decision to buy.
An effective demo gives prospects an interactive, engaging experience. Plan and script the content so it focuses on their main problem and walks them through the features that solve it. Record the demo, and test it to make sure the steps flow smoothly and the product story is cohesive.
Review and edit all content for consistency to ensure it passes the last round of approvals and is ready for sales and marketing to use during the final stages of launch.
Your sales and support teams need to be ready to handle an intense launch day and keep the momentum going during the post-launch period. Here’s how to equip them to handle an influx of inquiries and successfully pitch your product.
Launch day can spike traffic and strain your infrastructure. Before you go live, have engineering or your QA team test your website, integrations, and billing platform to ensure they can scale to meet demand. And don’t forget about support: Self-service tools like chatbots need to be ready to address increased inquiries and hand off complex issues to live reps.
Internally, you’ll want to test:
Phase 5 is also the time for the entire GTM team to re-test your product and all its features. Don’t be tempted to skip this. You don’t want any unexpected surprises on launch day!
In Phase 6, you’re ready to introduce your product to your audience. Use your content calendar as a guide to start executing your marketing plan, including:
As you release content, be ready to respond in real time. Reply to comments, answer questions, and address feedback to keep your audience engaged.
Keep an eye on analytics to monitor how your marketing is performing once it’s in motion. The numbers will reveal which types of content get the most attention and how many people click through to read blog posts, get more product information, or interact with demos. The results tell you where to hone your marketing efforts, so your team can keep the buzz going on launch day and beyond.
You’ve planned well for this day. Your team is equipped. Now it’s time to go! 🚀
Get the GTM team together and review your launch plan one more time. Make sure everyone is equipped with the tools and content they need to execute a successful launch.
Once the plan is in motion, keep the lines of communication open. If a team member has a problem or asks for help, respond as quickly as possible so the launch can move forward as planned.
Be ready to adjust your product launch strategy based on how your audience responds. Metrics like engagement, click-throughs, site traffic, sales inquiries, and conversions can help you direct your efforts toward the goals you set in Phase 2. Real-time responses can help improve outcomes by concentrating your efforts on the channels generating the most engagement in the moment.
Despite planning, you’ll likely encounter a few issues. To spot potential problems, monitor chatbot conversations and support tickets, and check for traffic spikes to particular FAQs or knowledge base pages. Alert your team to any bugs you find so they can implement fixes right away.
Now that your product is live, your team probably wants nothing more than to escape to a tropical resort for a month. But your job isn’t over. Post-launch is the time to evaluate launch day performance and determine how you’ll continue to drive conversions and adoption over time.
Here’s how to determine if your launch was a success:
A combination of detailed planning, cohesive communication, and the right tools is critical if you want to prevent the holdups that usually happen during Phase 3, content creation. As we mentioned earlier, this is where most GTM teams get stuck.
Why? Think about all the moving parts in traditional content production: internal teams, external agencies, weeks of back-and-forth on testing and approvals. Failing to lay out a production timeline that takes every step into account can result in compounding delays that set your launch back.
Arcade gives your team the tools you need to streamline content production and get to launch faster. With Arcade’s AI-powered tools, you can easily:
After you create your initial demo, Arcade Agent keeps it current with periodic scans of your original demo path. That means you’ll never have to redo an entire demo just to reflect a tiny tweak or brand update. Content production stays moving so you can avoid pre-launch delays and maintain a consistent customer experience through post-launch and beyond.
Follow these tips to get the most from your product launch checklist so you can avoid setbacks and enjoy a smooth launch:
The content production bottleneck doesn’t have to kill your next launch. With a product launch checklist in hand, you and your team can lay out a clear plan for staying on target, bypassing delays, and getting your product to market on time.
And if you need a tool to rescue you from the slog of a seemingly endless content creation process, Arcade has you covered with an AI-powered solution that generates interactive on-brand assets in minutes. Sign up for a free trial to start creating beautiful interactive demos, videos, visuals, and more in minutes.
A product launch checklist keeps your launch on track and makes sure your team doesn’t miss critical steps. When you follow a checklist, it’s easier to coordinate communication, handoffs, and approvals so you can execute your strategy effectively — instead of scrambling to finalize details right before launch day.
Content production is often the biggest bottleneck in a product launch. Demos, video assets, and other content can take weeks to create. If you don’t have a clear plan and a timeline, the process can get hung up at critical points like editing or approvals.
SaaS product launches have eight phases:
Measure the success of your launch against the goals and KPIs you set during your GTM planning. These can include:
Note where you met or exceeded expectations. Analyze user feedback to determine if the overall response was positive. If you hit your goals and your audience is happy, you nailed it!
