Product Launch Checklist

Document firmographics (industry, employee count, revenue band) and the buying-committee personas — economic buyer, champion, end user. Pull win-loss notes from the last four quarters in the CRM; don't write personas from scratch when sales already has the language.

Pull pricing pages, G2/Capterra reviews, recent product launches, and SERP positions for top 5 competitors via Ahrefs or Semrush. Flag the two competitors sales loses to most often — those drive the battlecard, not the long tail.

One-page document: category, audience, value proposition, three proof-point pillars, and the elevator pitch. Get sign-off from product, sales, and the CMO before any creative briefs go out — re-doing creative because positioning shifted is the most expensive launch mistake.

Tier 1 = company-wide moment with PR, paid media, and exec keynote. Tier 2 = standard PMM launch with email + organic social + sales enablement. Tier 3 = release notes only. The tier drives every downstream decision in this checklist.

Pick the headline number (MQLs, pipeline, signups, or activations) and the supporting metrics (traffic, demo requests, trial-to-paid). Define them as GA4 events with explicit event names so analytics can build the dashboard before launch day, not after.

Hero, value props, demo video, social proof, pricing or contact form, FAQ. SEO: target keyword in H1, meta description, and URL slug; schema markup for Product or SoftwareApplication; OG image at 1200×630 for social shares.

Segment by ICP fit and engagement — don't blast a 6-month-quiet list and tank deliverability before the campaign nurtures begin. Confirm CAN-SPAM physical address in footer; for EU contacts confirm GDPR consent basis is recorded in the MAP.

LinkedIn ABM audience for Tier 1, Google Search for high-intent terms, Meta retargeting for site visitors. Apply the UTM convention from the link-builder doc — source/medium/campaign drift breaks attribution within a week.

One-pager, pitch deck, demo script, battlecard against top 2 competitors, objection-handling FAQ, pricing sheet. Drop everything in the shared sales drive with a single index page; reps will not hunt across five Notion pages on a live call.

Headline, dateline, two-sentence lede, customer quote with named title and company, exec quote, boilerplate. Pitch is the personalized 3-sentence version sent to specific reporters covering the category — not the press release pasted into an email.

Embargo time stated in the subject line and the first line of the email — ET timezone, specific date. Include link to press kit (logos, screenshots, exec headshots) and direct line to PR contact for follow-ups.

Use GA4 DebugView and the GTM preview to fire each conversion event in the live flow — signup, demo request, trial start. The classic mistake is a conversion firing on email-blur instead of submit, which inflates reported numbers 3-5x and rots budget allocation.

Run Litmus or Email on Acid against Gmail, Outlook (desktop and web), Apple Mail, and mobile clients. Outlook breaks dark-mode CSS and image rendering most often; check those first.

Legal reviews claims for substantiation (Lanham Act exposure on comparative claims), customer quotes for written permission, and any pricing language. Brand reviews logo lockups, color usage, and tone. Slack DMs do not count — use the approval workflow with a timestamped record.

Toggle each campaign live in Google Ads, LinkedIn Campaign Manager, and Meta. Post on the brand channels with UTM-tagged links. Confirm any influencer or partner posts include #ad or 'Paid partnership with' per FTC Endorsement Guides.

Slack #launches with the announcement link, sales kit index, and on-call PMM for objection coverage. Support gets the FAQ and known-issue list so first-day tickets don't escalate by default.

Watch traffic, signup conversion, ad CTR, and email open / click rates in real time. War-room channel open for the first six hours; pause any ad set tracking under 0.5% CTR after $500 spend rather than letting it bleed budget overnight.

Pipeline sourced, MQLs, signups, paid CPA vs. target, organic traffic lift, top SERP positions for the launch keyword, social engagement rate. Compare against the goals set in the GTM plan, not against gut feel.

Diagnose which step of the funnel failed — landing page conversion, ad CTR, email click-through, or sales follow-up. Test one variable per fix (new hero copy, new audience, revised demo script) so the next read is interpretable.

PMM, demand gen, sales, product, and exec sponsor in the room. What worked, what didn't, what to keep for the next launch. Capture in a written doc — verbal retros disappear by the next launch and the same mistakes repeat.