Product Launch
Installation
SKILL.md
The arc, not the day
The launch is a 2-4 week arc with three phases; the #1000 plans Day 1, the #1 plans the arc and lets Day 1 be the peak of accumulated momentum.
- Pre-launch (7-14 days out): build the audience you launch TO, not the assets you launch WITH. A warmed waitlist converts 3-5x a cold audience on Day 1; a launch into an empty room is the default flop.
- Teaser (3-7 days out): one piece that creates curiosity without satisfying it. Goal: collect the email or follower, not explain the product. Over-explaining in the teaser burns the Day 1 reveal.
- Soft launch (24-48h before): ship to friends, family, a small slice of the waitlist, behind a private link. This is the bug catch: break it before the public does, and dry-run signup end to end.
- Launch day: a 2-4 hour concentrated push, not a 24h trickle. The warmest audience goes first to create visible momentum (signups, comments, social proof) that the broader audience lands into.
- Post-launch (7-14 days after): the second wave and the retention pivot. The #1000 launches and goes quiet; the #1 has the post-launch plan written before launch day.
- Date selection: avoid Monday (news cycle crowded) and Friday (dead weekend for B2B). Tuesday-Thursday for B2B. Avoid major news events, holidays, and known competitor launches; a launch competing with a bigger story is invisible.
- Thin vs thick launch: thin = one big day; thick = a week of content. Thick wins for products needing education (new category, complex value prop); thin works for a clear, self-explanatory improvement.
- Ship-readiness != feature-completeness. The product is never done; launch-readiness = core flow works, story is clear, assets are done. Ship the core, launch, iterate. Slipping the date for "one more feature" is the most common cause of a launch that never happens.