GTM Product Launch Checklist

Template Overview

A flawless product launch requires synchronized coordination across product development, growth marketing, public relations, developer advocacy, customer support, and sales. Misaligned launch timing often causes embarrassing press coverage of half-baked features or overwhelmed support teams. The GTM Product Launch Checklist establishes a disciplined T-minus launch countdown framework to ensure every operational deliverable is verified before public launch day.

Markdown Template Structure

Copy the block below or click Download .md File to add this template directly to your personal vault:

---
title: "GTM Checklist: [Product / Major Version Launch]"
date: [YYYY-MM-DD]
launch_commander: "[[GTM Lead / Product Marketing Director]]"
target_launch_date: [YYYY-MM-DD]
launch_tier: "[Tier 1 Major Flagship / Tier 2 Feature / Tier 3 Minor]"
primary_distribution_channels: ["Product Hunt", "Hacker News", "Direct Email", "X / LinkedIn"]
tags: [go-to-market, gtm, product-launch, marketing, release-management, coordination]
---

# GTM Product Launch Checklist — [Product / Version]

## 1. Launch Mission & Target Audience
- **The Core Value Hook:** "The private, on-device AI meeting assistant that never touches the cloud."
- **Target Audience:** Privacy-conscious lawyers, doctors, software architects, and knowledge workers.
- **Primary Success Metric (Day 1):** 2,500 downloads, #1 Product of the Day, 0 critical crash reports.

## 2. T-Minus Operational Launch Matrix
### T-Minus 14 Days (Hardening & Assets)
- [ ] **Product:** Release Candidate (RC-1) frozen and distributed to internal dogfooding team.
- [ ] **Marketing:** High-resolution product screenshots, animated GIFs, and 60-second demo video finalized.
- [ ] **Legal:** Terms of Service and Privacy Policy reviewed and signed off by outside counsel.
- [ ] **Support:** Help center FAQs and installation troubleshooting guides authored and published.

### T-Minus 7 Days (Outreach & Seed Press)
- [ ] **PR:** Embargoed press briefing emails sent to targeted tech journalists and newsletter writers.
- [ ] **Product Hunt:** Product Hunt maker page pre-scheduled with badges, maker comments, and gallery.
- [ ] **Infrastructure:** Server edge bandwidth load-tested to withstand 10x traffic spikes.
- [ ] **Documentation:** All 24 SEO gates passing; static templates and sitemaps verified live.

### T-Minus 24 Hours (Launch Eve War Room)
- [ ] **Production Build:** Production binary signed, packaged for macOS, and pushed to CDN.
- [ ] **Social Media:** Announcement threads pre-written and queued in social scheduler.
- [ ] **War Room Bridge:** Dedicated incident channel `#war-room-launch` active with on-call leads assigned.

### Launch Day (T-Zero Execution)
- [ ] **07:01 UTC:** Product Hunt listing goes live; initial maker comment posted.
- [ ] **08:00 UTC:** Hacker News "Show HN" thread posted with technical architecture focus.
- [ ] **08:30 UTC:** Announcement email sent to early waitlist subscribers.
- [ ] **09:00 UTC:** X / LinkedIn announcement threads published by founder and company accounts.
- [ ] **All Day:** Continuous monitoring of support tickets, crash logs, and community comments.

## 3. Communication & Escalation Contacts
| Function | On-Call Lead | Backup Lead | Contact Channel |
|---|---|---|---|
| Launch Commander | [[PMM Lead]] | [[VP Marketing]] | `#war-room-launch` |
| Technical / SRE | [[SRE Lead]] | [[Tech Lead]] | PagerDuty Launch Schedule |
| Community & Social | [[Community Lead]] | [[Growth Lead]] | Discord / Twitter DM |

## 4. Post-Launch Wrap-Up (T+48 Hours)
- [ ] Compile launch day traffic, download numbers, and conversion metrics into debrief deck.
- [ ] Conduct blameless launch retrospective to capture lessons for future releases.

Filled Real-World Example

Here is a realistic example demonstrating how this template captures actual deliberations:

---
title: "GTM Checklist: Oyma Desktop v2.4 Launch"
date: 2026-10-09
launch_commander: "[[Julian Thorne]]"
target_launch_date: 2026-10-15
launch_tier: "Tier 1 Major Flagship"
primary_distribution_channels: ["Product Hunt", "Hacker News", "Personal Newsletter"]
tags: [go-to-market, gtm, product-launch, marketing, release-management, coordination]
---

# GTM Product Launch Checklist — Oyma Desktop v2.4 Launch

## 1. Launch Mission
Launch the world's most private meeting recorder with 360 curated Markdown templates and local Whisper transcription on Apple Silicon.

## 2. Status
- All 12 browser tools live and verified.
- 360 templates authored with 100% gate pass.
- Show HN copy drafted emphasizing zero-cloud privacy architecture.

## 3. Next Actions
- Verify Apple notarization tickets for production macOS installer dmg.

When to Use and When to Avoid

When to Use

• Use when coordinating major product launches, version releases, or service rollouts.
• Use to keep cross-functional teams synchronized and eliminate last-minute launch oversights.
• Use to manage high-traffic launch days (Product Hunt, Hacker News, major press announcements).

When to Avoid

• Avoid using for routine weekly minor patch releases.
• Avoid using for internal infrastructure refactors with zero public footprint.

On-Device AI Integration

Summarize your recording in Oyma with this local instruction:

Analyze the GTM product launch checklist:
1. Verify the logical sequencing of T-minus deliverables across marketing, product, and support.
2. Flag any missing assets or unassigned roles that could cause launch-day bottlenecks.
3. Formulate three high-impact opening lines for the Hacker News 'Show HN' submission.
Output in structured Markdown.

Your data remains securely on your Mac with zero cloud exposure.