Product Launch Checklist: 47 Steps to a Successful Launch
The complete product launch checklist covering pre-launch, launch day, and post-launch. Never miss a critical step again.
Launching a product is one of the highest-stakes moments in any founder's journey. Get it right and you build momentum that compounds for months. Get it wrong and you burn through your best opportunity to make a first impression — one you never get back.
The difference between a successful launch and a forgettable one rarely comes down to the product itself. It comes down to preparation. The founders who launch well are the ones who follow a systematic process, starting weeks before launch day and continuing well after it.
This checklist covers every phase of a product launch in 47 actionable steps. Whether you are launching a SaaS tool, a digital product, a physical product, or a service, these steps will keep you on track and ensure nothing critical falls through the cracks.
If you want a printable version you can pin to your wall or reference offline, grab the Product Launch Checklist ($7) — it is the downloadable PDF companion to this guide, formatted for quick reference.
Pre-Launch: 4-6 Weeks Before
This is where the real work happens. The weeks before your launch determine whether you are stepping onto a stage with a crowd already waiting or shouting into an empty room. Invest the time here and launch day takes care of itself.
1. Validate the Problem You Are Solving
Before you go any further, confirm that real people have the problem your product addresses. Talk to at least ten potential customers. Ask them how they currently solve this problem, what frustrates them about existing solutions, and what they would pay for a better one. If you cannot find ten people who care deeply about this problem, reconsider your approach before investing further.
2. Research Your Competitive Landscape
Identify every direct and indirect competitor. Study their positioning, pricing, features, and customer reviews. Look specifically for complaints and unmet needs — these are the gaps your product can fill. Document what makes your approach different and better.
3. Define Your Ideal Customer Profile
Write a detailed description of who this product is for. Be specific. Include demographics, psychographics, where they spend time online, what they read, who they follow, and what motivates their purchasing decisions. A vague audience leads to vague marketing that converts no one.
4. Craft Your Positioning Statement
Distill your product's value into a clear, compelling statement. Use this formula: "For [target customer] who [has this problem], [your product] is a [category] that [key benefit]. Unlike [competitor], we [key differentiator]." Every piece of marketing you create should flow from this statement.
5. Set Your Pricing Strategy
Research what competitors charge and what your target customers are willing to pay. Consider tiered pricing if it makes sense. Factor in your costs, desired margins, and the perceived value of your offer. Test your pricing with a small group before committing publicly. Do not underprice out of fear — it signals low quality and is harder to raise later than to offer launch discounts.
6. Build Your Landing Page
Create a dedicated landing page that clearly communicates what your product does, who it is for, and why it matters. Include a compelling headline, benefit-driven copy, social proof if you have it, and a clear call to action. The Landing Page Copywriting Formula ($7) walks you through a proven structure for high-converting pages. Use the SEO Meta Description Generator to craft your page's meta tags so you start ranking from day one.
7. Set Up Email Capture
Add an email signup form to your landing page for people who are interested but not ready to buy. Offer something valuable in exchange — early access, a discount code, exclusive content, or a free resource related to your product. Every email address you collect before launch is a potential day-one customer.
8. Create Your Email Launch Sequence
Draft the complete email sequence that will nurture leads before launch and convert them on launch day. At minimum, plan a welcome email, two to three value-driven emails that build anticipation, a launch announcement email, and a follow-up. The Email Drip Campaign Framework ($15) gives you proven templates and sequences you can customize for your specific launch.
9. Start Building Your Waitlist
Drive traffic to your landing page through content, social media, and targeted outreach. Share your product story in communities where your ideal customers spend time. Focus on genuine value and conversation, not spam. A waitlist of 500 engaged people will outperform a list of 5,000 cold contacts every time.
10. Recruit Beta Testers
Invite 10 to 30 people from your waitlist or network to test your product before launch. Choose people who match your ideal customer profile. Give them clear instructions on what to test and a simple way to report feedback. Beta testers catch bugs you missed, surface UX issues, and become your earliest advocates if you treat them well.
11. Collect Early Testimonials
As beta testers use your product, ask for honest feedback and permission to use their words as testimonials. Specific results-driven testimonials outperform generic praise. "This tool saved me four hours per week on invoicing" is far more compelling than "Great product, love it."
12. Prepare Legal Foundations
Draft or update your terms of service, privacy policy, and refund policy. If you are selling a product, make sure you understand your tax obligations. If you are using customer data, ensure you comply with relevant regulations like GDPR or CCPA. Handle this now so it does not become a crisis after launch.
13. Set Up Analytics and Tracking
Install analytics on your landing page and product. Set up conversion tracking, UTM parameters for your marketing links, and goal tracking for key actions. You need clean data from day one to understand what is working and what is not. Decide in advance which metrics define success for your launch.
14. Create Your Launch Day Plan
Write a detailed, hour-by-hour plan for launch day. Include every post you will make, every email you will send, every community you will engage with, and every person you will notify. Assign times to each action. Launch day is chaotic — a written plan keeps you focused and ensures nothing gets missed.
15. Prepare Your Support Infrastructure
Set up your customer support channels before launch. This means a support email address, a FAQ page addressing the most common questions your beta testers asked, and a system for tracking and responding to issues. Fast, helpful support during launch week builds loyalty that lasts.
Pre-Launch: 1-2 Weeks Before
The final stretch before launch is about creating content, building buzz, and making sure everything works flawlessly. This is where preparation meets execution.
16. Write Your Launch Announcement Post
Draft a compelling launch announcement that tells your product's story. Cover the problem you are solving, why you built this, who it is for, and what makes it different. Make it personal and genuine — people connect with founder stories, not corporate press releases. Use the Blog Title Generator to test different headline angles that maximize click-through.
17. Create Social Media Content
Prepare at least two weeks of social media content across every platform where your audience is active. Include teaser posts, behind-the-scenes content, countdown posts, the launch announcement, and follow-up posts highlighting different features or benefits. Batch-create these now so you are not scrambling on launch day. The Social Media Content Bank ($7) gives you ready-to-customize templates for every platform, and the Social Media Post Generator can help you create variations quickly.
18. Draft Your Press and Outreach Emails
Write personalized emails for journalists, bloggers, newsletter writers, and influencers in your space. Do not send a generic blast. Reference their recent work, explain why your product is relevant to their audience, and offer an exclusive angle or early access. Prepare these now and schedule them to send on launch day.
19. Set Up Affiliate or Referral Program
If you plan to use affiliates or a referral program, get the infrastructure in place now. Set commission rates, create tracking links, prepare marketing assets for partners, and write onboarding instructions. Reach out to potential affiliates with a personal pitch explaining why your product is worth promoting to their audience.
20. Prepare Product Hunt or Launch Platform Submission
If you plan to launch on Product Hunt, Indie Hackers, Hacker News, or similar platforms, prepare your submissions in advance. Write your tagline, description, and first comment. Prepare screenshots and a demo video. Research the best day and time to post on each platform. Line up supporters who will engage with your listing early.
21. Record a Demo or Walkthrough Video
Create a short video showing your product in action. Keep it under three minutes. Focus on the key workflow and the primary benefit, not every feature. A simple screen recording with voiceover is sufficient — polish matters less than clarity. This video will serve you across your landing page, social media, emails, and launch platform listings.
22. Conduct Final QA and Testing
Go through every user flow in your product. Test every button, form, payment process, and edge case. Test on different devices and browsers. Have someone outside your team go through the purchase or signup process from scratch. Fix any bugs that would embarrass you on launch day.
23. Test Your Email Sequences
Send test versions of every email in your launch sequence. Check formatting across email clients, verify all links work, confirm personalization tokens render correctly, and proofread everything. A broken link in your launch email is a conversion killer.
24. Prepare a Launch Day FAQ
Compile a list of questions people are likely to ask on launch day. Write clear, concise answers. Have this document open and ready so you can respond quickly in comments, emails, and social media without typing the same answers repeatedly.
25. Brief Your Support Network
Contact friends, colleagues, mentors, and anyone who has offered to help with your launch. Give them specific, easy actions: share this post, leave a comment, upvote on Product Hunt, forward this email. People want to help but need clear instructions on exactly how.
Launch Day
This is the day everything comes together. Your job is to execute your plan, engage authentically, and stay calm. The preparation you have done will carry you.
26. Publish Your Launch Announcement
Post your announcement blog post, update your landing page to reflect that the product is live, and remove any "coming soon" messaging. Make sure the buy or signup flow is fully functional before you tell anyone the product is live.
27. Send Your Launch Email
Send the launch announcement to your entire email list. This email should be direct and exciting. Lead with the value proposition, include a clear call to action, and consider offering a limited-time launch discount to reward early supporters. This single email will likely drive more launch day revenue than any other channel.
28. Activate Social Media Campaign
Post your launch announcement across all platforms according to your content plan. Do not just post once and walk away. Plan multiple posts throughout the day — the announcement, a thread breaking down the product story, a short video clip, a customer testimonial, and an end-of-day update. Use the Content Calendar Template ($5) to keep your posting schedule organized.
29. Submit to Launch Platforms
Submit to Product Hunt, Indie Hackers, Hacker News, and any other relevant platforms. Post your prepared first comment immediately after submission. Engage thoughtfully with every comment and question that comes in. Authenticity wins on these platforms — hard selling does not.
30. Notify Your Press and Influencer Contacts
Send your prepared outreach emails to journalists, bloggers, and influencers. Follow up on social media with a brief, friendly message. Make it easy for them to cover your product by providing all the assets they need: images, screenshots, key facts, and a unique angle for their audience.
31. Engage in Relevant Communities
Share your launch in communities where you have been an active, contributing member. This includes Slack groups, Discord servers, Reddit communities, Facebook groups, and forums specific to your niche. Lead with value and your story, not a hard pitch. Answer questions thoroughly and gratefully.
32. Respond to Every Comment and Message
On launch day, responsiveness is everything. Reply to every comment on your posts, every question in communities, every email, and every social media message. Speed matters. A quick, helpful response during launch can convert a curious visitor into a paying customer and an advocate who spreads the word.
33. Monitor Your Analytics in Real Time
Watch your analytics dashboard throughout the day. Track landing page visits, conversion rates, email open and click rates, and revenue. If something is underperforming, you can adjust in real time — tweak a headline, resend to email segments that did not open, or boost a social post that is gaining traction.
34. Document Everything
Take screenshots of milestones — your first sale, your first customer comment, your Product Hunt ranking, your traffic spikes. Capture interesting feedback and reactions. This content becomes marketing material for weeks to come and serves as a motivating record of what you accomplished.
35. Send a Thank-You to Early Customers
At the end of launch day, send a personal thank-you email to everyone who purchased or signed up. Acknowledge that they took a chance on something new and tell them what to expect next. This small gesture builds loyalty and encourages word-of-mouth referrals.
Post-Launch: Weeks 1-4
The launch is not the finish line. It is the starting line. What you do in the four weeks after launch determines whether your initial momentum compounds into sustained growth or fades into silence.
36. Collect and Organize Customer Feedback
Reach out to every early customer for feedback within the first week. Use a short survey or a direct email asking what they love, what confuses them, and what they wish the product did differently. Look for patterns. The most common complaints and requests should shape your immediate roadmap.
37. Fix Critical Bugs Immediately
Any bug that blocks a core user flow or causes data loss gets fixed within 24 hours. Communicate openly with affected customers about what happened, what you are doing about it, and when it will be resolved. How you handle problems in the first week shapes your reputation for months.
38. Review Your Launch Metrics
Sit down with your analytics one week after launch and do a thorough review. Compare results against the goals you set during pre-launch. Analyze your conversion funnel to identify where people drop off. Calculate your customer acquisition cost across channels. Understand which marketing activities drove the most revenue per hour of effort.
39. Publish a Launch Retrospective
Write a transparent post about your launch results — what worked, what did not, and what you would do differently. Share real numbers if you are comfortable doing so. The startup and indie maker community values transparency, and these posts consistently perform well, driving traffic and building trust.
40. Iterate on Your Product
Use customer feedback to ship meaningful improvements within the first two to three weeks. Prioritize changes that address the most common pain points or that unlock value for the largest number of users. Communicate updates to your customers so they see that their feedback matters.
41. Start a Content Marketing Engine
Publish at least one piece of valuable content per week related to the problem your product solves. Blog posts, tutorials, case studies, and comparison guides all work. Optimize each piece for search engines so you build an organic traffic channel that compounds over time. The Content Calendar Template ($5) helps you plan and maintain a consistent publishing cadence. Use the Blog Title Generator and SEO Meta Description Generator to optimize each post for maximum reach.
42. Set Up Retargeting Campaigns
Install retargeting pixels on your landing page and set up campaigns targeting people who visited but did not convert. These visitors already know about your product — they just need another touchpoint. A well-crafted retargeting ad with social proof or a limited-time offer can recover a significant percentage of lost visitors.
43. Build Your First Case Study
Identify your happiest early customer and ask if you can tell their story. A detailed case study showing a real person achieving real results with your product is one of the most powerful marketing assets you can create. Include specific numbers wherever possible — time saved, revenue generated, problems eliminated.
44. Launch a Referral Incentive
Give your existing customers a reason to spread the word. This could be a discount on future purchases, free months of service, exclusive features, or a cash incentive. Make the referral process dead simple — one click to share a unique link. Customers acquired through referrals tend to have higher lifetime value and lower churn.
45. Optimize Your Pricing Based on Data
Review your pricing after you have real customer data. Are people converting at the rate you expected? Is there a price tier that nobody chooses? Are customers asking for a plan that does not exist? Adjust your pricing structure based on actual behavior, not assumptions.
46. Expand to New Channels
Identify one or two new marketing channels to test based on what you learned during launch. If social media drove most of your traffic, try SEO or partnerships. If email was your strongest converter, invest in growing your list faster. Diversifying your acquisition channels protects you from dependence on any single source.
47. Plan Your Next Milestone
A launch is a moment, not a strategy. Within the first month, define your next major milestone — whether that is a feature release, a revenue target, a content milestone, or a partnership goal. Set a date, break it into steps, and start executing. The discipline that got you through launch is exactly what sustains growth afterward.
The Launch Is Just the Beginning
The 47 steps in this checklist represent a system that works. Not every launch will be a blockbuster, and that is fine. What matters is that you show up prepared, execute with discipline, listen to your customers, and keep improving.
The founders who win long-term are not the ones with the flashiest launch day. They are the ones who treat the launch as the first step in a sustained effort to build something people genuinely value.
If you want a printable, quick-reference version of this entire checklist, the Product Launch Checklist ($7) gives you all 47 steps in a clean, actionable PDF you can work through for every product you launch.
For more tools to support your launch — from copywriting frameworks to content templates to social media assets — browse the full FounderKit Store. And if you need help generating content, naming products, or optimizing your copy, check out our free AI-powered tools built specifically for founders.