Product Launch Checklist
A real checklist founders can use to prepare clarity, assets, destinations, copy, risk mitigation, and tracking before hitting publish.
Use this comprehensive checklist to ensure you don't miss any critical steps before, during, and after your product launch.
1. Product Clarity
- Product name: Clear and easy to spell.
- One-liner: Under 60 characters explaining what it does.
- Target user: Exactly who benefits most.
- Main pain: The specific problem you are solving.
- Promise: The outcome the user gets.
- Primary CTA: What you want them to do (e.g., "Start free trial", "Download").
- Pricing: Clearly stated.
- Founder story: Why you built this (crucial for community launches).
2. Assets
- Logo: High-resolution icon.
- Thumbnail: Often a GIF or engaging image for directories.
- Screenshots: Clear images of the core workflow (no generic device mockups).
- Demo video: A short (under 2 min) walkthrough of the value proposition.
- Landing page: Optimized for conversions and mobile-friendly.
- Pitch deck: (If relevant for investors/partners).
- Press kit: (If reaching out to journalists).
3. Destinations
- Product Hunt: For the initial spike and early adopters.
- Reddit/communities: For niche feedback and targeted users.
- Directories: For long-term SEO backlinks.
- LinkedIn/X: For leveraging your personal network.
- Newsletters: Partnering with relevant creators.
- Niche forums: e.g., Indie Hackers, Hacker News.
- Outreach: Direct messages to high-intent leads.
4. Copy
- Product Hunt tagline: Punchy, benefit-driven.
- Short description: For quick directory submissions.
- Long description: For detailed directory listings.
- Founder story post: Authentic narrative for LinkedIn/communities.
- No-link post: A pure value-add post for strict subreddits.
- Soft CTA version: E.g., "Happy to share the link in comments if anyone is interested."
- Follow-up replies: Prepared answers for common objections.
- Email announcement: For your existing waitlist or network.
5. Risk Review
- Too promotional? Are you using words like "revolutionary"? Remove them.
- Too much hype? Stick to facts and specific workflows.
- Too many links? Keep it to one primary link, or none if the community forbids it.
- Missing discussion angle? Are you inviting conversation or just dropping an ad?
- Missing founder context? People connect with people. Include why you built it.
- Wrong tone for the destination? Don't use a LinkedIn tone on Reddit.
6. Tracking
- Destination tracked: Log where you posted.
- Draft used: Note which version of your copy you used.
- Submitted URL: Save the exact link to your post to monitor comments.
- Status: Pending approval, live, or removed.
- Outcome: Upvotes, traffic, conversions, specific feedback.
- Notes: Any immediate observations.
- Learnings: What to do differently next time.
Common Mistakes
- Launching without screenshots or a demo.
- Ignoring community rules and posting generic ads.
- Not tracking submitted URLs, meaning you miss out on replying to engaged users.
- Only launching once. A real launch is an ongoing process of entering new communities.
How LaunchSprint Helps
LaunchSprint acts as your central command for this checklist. You input your product clarity details once into your Product Profile. We then automatically generate your assets (like the no-link post and soft CTA variants), check them for risk, and provide a dedicated Submission Tracker to log your URLs, statuses, and learnings.
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