Launch readiness checklist1
- Product brief approved
- Security review complete2
- Support playbook ready
- Analytics dashboards verified
- Rollback plan tested
The Product Lead is the final go/no-go decision owner.
Decision criteria
The launch proceeds only when every critical requirement is complete or has an explicitly accepted exception. Any unresolved security, privacy, reliability, legal, or customer-impacting issue blocks release until the accountable owner documents the risk, mitigation, and approval. Lower-severity gaps may be deferred only when they have a named owner, a due date, and a tracked follow-up item.
Product and quality
- Acceptance criteria have been validated against the approved product brief.
- Critical user journeys pass in production-like environments across supported devices and browsers.
- Known limitations are documented for Support, Sales, and Customer Success.
- Accessibility checks cover keyboard navigation, readable contrast, focus states, and assistive technology.
- Localization, time zones, currencies, and regional requirements have been reviewed where applicable.
Security and compliance
- The security review includes authentication, authorization, data handling, dependency risks, and abuse scenarios.
- Privacy and legal teams have approved any changes to data collection, retention, consent, or customer terms.
- Secrets, credentials, and production permissions follow least-privilege access and have clear rotation owners.
- Incident escalation contacts and evidence-retention procedures are current.
Operations and support
- Monitoring covers availability, latency, error rates, capacity, and the primary business conversion signals.
- Alerts have actionable thresholds, named responders, and links to relevant dashboards and runbooks.
- Support has troubleshooting steps, escalation paths, customer-facing language, and a list of known issues.
- On-call coverage is confirmed for the launch window and the first high-risk operating period.
- Status-page access and customer communication templates are ready if service quality degrades.
Launch execution
Before release, the Product Lead confirms the final scope, approved exceptions, launch sequence, communication timing, and rollback authority. Engineering records the deployed version and verifies database migrations, feature flags, configuration changes, and third-party dependencies. Analytics confirms that key events and dashboards are receiving accurate data.
The launch channel remains active throughout deployment. Each milestone is acknowledged by its owner, and unexpected behavior is logged with a timestamp, impact assessment, and decision. If rollback criteria are met, the designated engineering owner initiates the tested rollback plan without waiting for informal consensus.
Post-launch verification
During the first 24 hours, the team reviews technical health, customer feedback, support volume, conversion metrics, and unexpected usage patterns. Material issues receive an owner and resolution target. After the initial monitoring period, the Product Lead shares a concise launch summary covering outcomes, incidents, open follow-ups, and lessons learned.
Within one week, the team holds a retrospective and converts agreed improvements into tracked actions. The launch is considered fully closed only when urgent follow-ups are resolved, deferred risks are still owned, and operational responsibility has transitioned to the steady-state team.