---
name: launch
description: Plan product launches, feature announcements, and go-to-market moments across owned, rented, and borrowed channels. Use when the user says "launch", "Product Hunt", "GTM plan", "announcement", "beta launch", "waitlist", or "we're about to ship". Not for the nurture emails after signup: use emails. Not for the gated asset that builds the waitlist: use lead-magnets. Not for partner-led campaigns: use co-marketing.
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: TechTide AI (Alex Cinovoj)
  provenance: rewritten from patterns in an open SaaS marketing skills pack (MIT)
  category: Marketing & Growth
---

# Launch Strategy

A launch is not a day, it is a phased ramp that builds momentum, and the best companies launch the same product again and again. Every channel push must land people in a channel you own.

## Workflow

1. **Load context.** If `.agents/product-marketing.md` or `.claude/product-marketing.md` exists, read it first. Pin: what is launching (new product, major feature, minor update), audience size, owned channel inventory, timeline, and what past launches taught.
2. **Size the announcement.** Major (new product, overhaul): full multi-channel campaign. Medium (integration, UI upgrade): targeted email segment plus in-app banner. Minor (fixes, tweaks): changelog entry. Overselling a minor update burns attention you need for the major one.
3. **Map channels with ORB.** Owned (email list, blog, community, product): direct access, compounds over time, start with 1-2. Rented (social platforms, marketplaces, YouTube): fast reach, algorithm risk, pick 1-2 where the audience lives and always route clicks to owned. Borrowed (guest posts, podcasts, influencer and partner audiences): instant credibility, only works if you convert borrowed attention into owned relationships.
4. **Phase the launch.** Five phases: internal (friendly users, one-on-one), alpha (landing page plus individual invites), beta (early-access list, teaser content), early access (leak screenshots and demos, gather usage data, expand in batches), full launch (open signups, charge, announce everywhere). Read references/launch-playbook.md for the phase-by-phase actions, the Product Hunt playbook, and the full checklists.
5. **Prepare assets before, not during.** Landing page, email capture, screenshots, demo video, onboarding flow, analytics. Launch day is for engagement, not production.
6. **Run launch day.** Announcement email, blog post, social posts, in-app notice, website banner. Team responds to everything in real time.
7. **Work the post-launch.** Onboarding sequence live, announcement repeated in the next roundup email, comparison pages published, follow-ups to everyone who engaged. Then schedule the next launch moment: momentum compounds only if you keep shipping announcements.

## Good vs bad

**Bad:** Six months of building, one tweet and a Product Hunt listing on the same morning, no waitlist, no email capture on the landing page. Traffic spikes for a day, converts nowhere, and the team calls launches "not worth it".

**Good:** Waitlist opens at alpha. Beta users get individual invites and produce quotes. Early access leaks GIFs weekly. Full launch fires email, blog, social, and Product Hunt in one week, every link lands on a page with capture, and the next feature announcement is already scheduled.

## Verification

Before declaring launch-ready, walk the funnel as a stranger: click from each planned channel post to the landing page, sign up, and confirm the capture lands in the email system and analytics records the source. Expect every path to complete without a dead link or untracked step. Any break: fix it before the announcement goes out, not after.

## Completion checklist

- [ ] Announcement sized (major, medium, minor) with matching effort
- [ ] ORB map done, every rented and borrowed push routes to owned
- [ ] Phase plan with entry and exit criteria per phase
- [ ] Assets produced before launch day
- [ ] Launch-day sequence scheduled with owners
- [ ] Post-launch actions assigned (onboarding, roundup, follow-ups)
- [ ] Next launch moment identified

Any box unchecked: not done. Fix or say so.

## Footguns

- **Single-moment thinking.** Betting everything on one day and going silent after. Fix: phase the ramp and schedule the next announcement before this one fires.
- **Renting your whole audience.** All momentum lives on social platforms until an algorithm change deletes it. Fix: every campaign's success metric includes owned-channel captures, not just impressions.
- **Skipping straight to full launch.** No internal or alpha phase means the public finds your onboarding bugs. Fix: phases 1-2 are cheap, run them even on a compressed timeline.
- **Launching everything at once.** Shipping five features in one announcement wastes four announcements. Fix: stagger releases to create repeat launch moments.