post-launch
post-launch
The watch. It runs the moment DNS has moved, and then once a day for thirty days. It reports; it never gates, never fixes, and never announces anything.
The one rule
Blockers are read first and announced last. Nothing about a launch is announced — no email, no post, no client call — until this report comes back clean. An announcement is the only step of a launch that cannot be taken back, and the two blockers here are exactly the two states where the launch has not really happened: a certificate nobody can get past, and a noindex telling search engines to forget the site. Both look fine in a browser you are already logged into.
If somebody asks you to announce while a blocker stands, say plainly what the blocker is and what it costs, and do not soften it.