Playbook #4: Launch Planning

Introduction

Building an effective launch plan is crucial for product marketers, especially those working in startups where resources are limited and every launch counts. This playbook will walk you through creating and executing a successful launch plan, based on proven strategies (plus some examples from Jetpack’s own launch!)

4 Benefits of Having a Launch Plan (That Actually Make Your Life Easier)

A solid launch plan is the difference between random acts of marketing and a coordinated GTM effort.

Having this template was my lifeline when launching the PMM Jetpack. Logan and I could make decisions quickly because we had this framework, while leaving room for those last minute sparks of inspiration (more on this later). Compared to staring with a blank page thinking "We gotta launch this," this plan gives you the key things to think through. It’s all outlined right there.

Here's why having a launch plan (plus a launch plan template that you refine over a number of launches) matters:

• Templates Provide Clear Structure: Because the plan template outlined everything I usually needed to think through, I felt a sense of confidence and ease going into the launch.
• Enable Quick Decision Making: Our plan allowed us to make decisions quickly because we knew what needed to be done and could easily adjust on the fly (without worrying that we were forgetting something).
• Balances Planning and Flexibility: We were able to take advantage of several last-minute opportunities for collaboration. Instead of dreading another task on our plate, we could just check our plan to see if we had the bandwidth for them (we did), and could quickly say yes.
• Keeps You Focused on Goals: The plan forces you to think through what your goals are before getting into the weeds of execution, deliverables, and tactics… Which leads to superior execution overall.

Launch Plan Template

This template is meant to help you plan and project manage your next Tier 1 product launch.

jetpack.productivepmm.com

5 Launch Plan Killers (That Wreck Even the Best Products)

The biggest launch killers are the things you think you can control, but actually can't.

I've run launches at startups, plus my own products (like the Jetpack,) and here's the reality - launch dates are always moving targets. Product teams often don't know when the product will be finished, let alone when it can launch. With the PMM Jetpack, we didn’t firm up the launch date until about three weeks out.

And even with a solid plan, you've got to watch for external factors.

After running dozens of launches, here are the major pitfalls I see teams falling into:

• Having Too Large a Launch Team: A big launch team can be a huge pain. The closer you can get to quick decision-making, the better your launch will go.
• Ignoring Critical Bottlenecks: Better yet, anticipate bottlenecks early. Need approval from your CEO on messaging? Don't leave it to the last day. Got a video production team that's always swamped? Plan way ahead.
• Being Too Rigid With Plans: Some of the best things in our Jetpack launch came from last-minute ideas, like Logan reaching out to LinkedIn commenters for landing page feedback. You've got to leave room for those final 48-hour inspirations.
• Missing External Events: Always check your calendar for major events that could impact your launch. I had 40+ people ready to post about the Jetpack, then realized it was the day after the election. (Still, we nearly launched the day after the US election before my wife talked some sense into me.😅)
• Not Planning for “Rolling Thunder”: Your launch isn't just one day. Think of it like a book launch: you need multiple moments to reach your audience. For Jetpack, we're keeping the momentum going through end of year. (More on how to plan for this later.)

OK, with that in mind, let’s get into the launch template itself! I’ll break it down step by step for you, then we’ll get into some tips and best practices for your own launches.

Launch Plan Template

This template is meant to help you plan and project manage your next Tier 1 product launch.

jetpack.productivepmm.com

The 6-Part Launch Plan (That We Followed For Our Jetpack Launch)

Watch the video below for an in-depth walk through of the launch plan template. Then keep reading for a section-by-section breakdown.

Instead of an empty template, I actually walk you through our launch plan for the PMM Jetpack!

Step 1: Details

The Details section is where you get your head straight about what the heck you're actually launching.

This contains essential info everyone needs to know right away. When we launched the PMM Jetpack, this was the very first thing we tackled. This is part of the early strategy phase. Think of this as a forcing function to mix product strategy with launch strategy.

For PMMs in larger companies, your product might already be baked, but you still need this clarity up front.

Here's exactly what needs to go in your Details section, based on what's worked for me:

• Lock Down Your Product Name: The first thing in your Details section is what you're calling this product. Sometimes there will be a clear winner that everyone is already agreed on, but in other cases this naming exercise template will come in handy.
• Write a Clear Description: This isn't your marketing copy - it's the straight-up "here's what it is" version. An internal description to answer the question “what are we selling?”
• Assign the GTM Owner: Depending on which tier this launch falls into, there are recommendations on whether this should be the product marketer or product manager, but in most cases it will be the PMM.
• Pick Your Target Launch Date: Set an initial launch date. (But remember what I said about this being flexible! For Jetpack, this shifted until we were about three weeks out.)
• Define Your Core Team: Keep it tight. Again, the smaller the team, the faster you can move.

Step 2: Executive Summary

Think of the exec summary as your "boss just hopped in and needs to know what's up" section.

One thing about this: Too many PMMs spending hours trying to craft the perfect executive summary when really, this should be the easiest part of your launch plan.

Again, this is what you pull out if your boss hops in they can read and understand immediately (or whoever wants a quick high-level overview).

For Jetpack, I literally just took my whole plan, tossed it in ChatGPT, and boom. An instant exec summary. Don't overthink this part. If you can't explain your launch in 30 seconds, you've got bigger problems than your executive summary.

OK, now let's move on to arguably the most important part of your launch plan - your OKRs.

Step 3: OKRs

Setting goals is the next big thing you tackle before diving into execution.

Your OKRs are what get you out of bed in the morning and keep you honest about what success actually looks like. I use the OKR framework because it lets you be both aspirational and practical at the same time.

Here's how to nail your launch OKRs without overcomplicating things:

• Keep It Focused: For most launches, stick to 2-3 objectives. When you start having too many goals, you're trying to optimize for too many things. We focused on revenue growth, adoption, and becoming the recommended resource.
• Make Key Results Measurable: The key results ladder up to your objectives. And they need numbers. We set specific targets like "10k in launch week" and "25k by end of year." No fuzzy metrics allowed.
• Align With Product Goals: Make sure your key results sync with what your product team cares about. If product cares about adoption, then your key result could be "150 monthly active users by end of year". They won’t care about this their goal is revenue.
• Set Time Boundaries: Your goals need deadlines. We had two deadlines for Jetpack: the end of launch week and the end of the year. (For most companies, I'd recommend end of quarter instead of end of year. We only did year-end because it was just two months away.)
• Track Progress Visually: Keep your OKRs right in the template where you can update how far you've come. Your template should let you know how you're tracking against these goals at any time.

Finally, I've found the launch objects usually boil down to three key areas:

• Revenue
• Adoption
• Awareness

With Jetpack for example, here were our three main objectives:

1. Making it a meaningful revenue driver
2. Building something PMMs genuinely love to use
3. Becoming the first content library that influencers actually recommend

These drove everything else in our launch plan - from our messaging to our rollout strategy to how we engaged with our community. And our launched worked because every decision we made tied back to these core objectives.

Step 4: Audience

Understanding your audience isn't just about creating a buyer persona. It's about getting into your buyer’s head so deeply you can predict what they'll say before they say it.

It's not just about who they are — It's also about their company profile, their daily struggles, and what they're trying to achieve. And if you're a PMM at a larger company, you need both. What kind of companies they're coming from and who these people really are.

When we launched Jetpack, we knew exactly who we were talking to: solo and founding product marketers at B2B startups. Every single post that went out during launch mentioned this specifically.

Here's what your audience section needs to nail:

• Company Profile: What unique characteristics define the ideal company you sell to? This could include their category, industry, or size. For example, we were targeting B2B SaaS Startups.
• Persona: Who specifically are you talking to within those companies? This could include specific job titles, years of experience, and responsibilities within the company. In our case, we were targeting founding and solo product marketers.
• Pains / Challenges: What problems is your ICP looking to solve? What are they struggling with?
• Desired Outcomes: What are they hoping will happen when their problem is solved? What will your product help them achieve?
• Use Cases: Get specific about exactly how they'll use your product. The clearer you are here, the better your messaging will land later.
• Opportunity: What's the real potential with this particular audience? Why are we choosing them, and why now? This helps justify your launch tier and resources needed.

For my launches, I pull all this straight from our Audience Profile template.

If you’re new to Audience Profiles, check out the template that’s included in your Jetpack membership. In there, you’ll also find a 3-minute Loom video showing you exactly how to come up with this, before pulling it into your launch template.

Audience Profile

One of the most important questions to answer when planning your launch is: who is our audience? Use this template to define your audience profile(s).

jetpack.productivepmm.com

Step 5: Milestones

Your milestones are about working backwards from launch day to figure out what needs to happen and when.

Here's the thing about launch dates. The closer you get to launch, the clearer everything becomes. In fact, everything’s a moving target until you're 2-3 weeks out. That's just the reality, especially in startups.

Here's what I've learned about setting and hitting launch milestones:

• Start With Product Readiness: The first milestone is always about product. For Jetpack, Logan and I were building it ourselves, but in bigger companies, you need those product completion checkpoints locked in.
• Lock In Your Supporters: Get your influencers, champions, or key stakeholders confirmed early. We had a hard deadline of October 25 to have everyone on board and clear on their launch day responsibilities.
• Plan Your Communication Flow: We structured our comms in waves - first waitlist, then newsletter, then LinkedIn, and eventually Product Hunt. For you, this may start with internal enablement, then partners, customers, and finally prospects.
• Build In Buffer Time: Give yourself an extra week of buffer on everything. Even if someone says they can do something in a day, give them a week. Trust me on this one.
• Plan For Rolling Thunder: Your milestones don't stop at launch day. Map out those post-launch moments, like blog posts or follow-up events. Even your launch retrospective.

Step 6: Bill of Materials

The Bill of Materials is your daily dashboard, as well as your game day playbook.

This is where you put everything that needs to happen, laid out in a way that lets you just check things off and keep moving, from your launch planning to Day 1. Some people like to organize by type of tactic - all email stuff together, all social stuff together - but I prefer to organize it chronologically.

For Jetpack, I wanted to be able to come in each day and immediately see what needed to happen. On launch day, I just needed to scroll down to that section, start going through it, and mark things complete.

Here's a few tips on structuring your own Bill of Materials:

• Keep Tasks High-Level: Don't break every task into a million subtasks. I see people in Asana or Notion listing out "outline email, draft email, review email, final review, put in marketing automation" - just make it one task: "send email to waitlist."
• Organize Chronologically: Makes it dead simple to find what you need when you need it. If it's launch day stuff, it's towards the bottom. Pre-launch? Up top. I've found this helps most with execution.
• Include Categories: When viewing your tasks in the timeline view, you have the option to group by category. This makes it easy to see all your email work together or all your social work in one place - especially helpful when you're batching work.
• Keep Status Tracking Simple: Is it done or not done? That's it. Don't overthink it.

In Jetpack, you'll notice the Bill of Materials almost exactly follows the milestones. That's intentional. It lets you move through the launch chronologically while keeping everything connected.

Here’s a quick view walking through our Bill of materials for the Jetpack launch, plus some additional tips.

5 Launch Tips Over the Years

Let me share some real talk about launches that you won't find anywhere else. I've owned dozens of launches and I've made pretty much every mistake you can make.

Here are the hard-earned lessons that have saved me multiple times:

1. Keep Your Team Pumped: Drop those Slack notifications celebrating wins. “We just hit 100 signups!🎉” or "Big props to John who just used our latest messaging on this call." When people see others getting props, they want to join in.
2. Know and Manage Your Misses: Some stuff won't be perfect, and that's fine. Trust your content team to write that launch post, let your video team own their piece. You can't control everything.
3. Be the Most Active on Launch Day: If social media is part of your launch, you better be the most engaged person out there. I was always on LinkedIn all day during our launches at Klue, commenting on every post, liking everything. It shows your team this matters.
4. Stay Ready to Sell: Every opportunity is a sales opportunity on launch day. Someone can't find the link? Boom, send it. Someone has a specific question? Make them a quick Loom video walking through it. Today is not the day to be shy.
5. Watch the Calendar: And this isn’t just for your launch date! Look out weeks ahead for holidays, elections (learned that one the hard way), industry events, anything that could impact your launch. And when you spot a conflict, don't be afraid to pivot.

What I love about running Jetpack's launch was that we could move fast and break things, but in a good way… Because we were working off of our launch plan.

We had communities reaching out asking for special discount codes.

We pivoted our entire PMM Files newsletter strategy at the last minute to focus on launch examples.

Logan had this killer idea about reaching out to LinkedIn commenters for landing page feedback and a couple of them bought the product.

This kind of stuff doesn't happen if you're too rigid with your plan. And it all worked because we had the structure to be flexible.

And ultimately, that’s what a good launch plan does: It keeps you organized without slowing you down. And it gives you the foundation to be creative when it counts.

Final Thoughts: The Launch Plan That Scales With You

This might seem like a lot to take in. But you don't have to nail everything perfectly on day one.

Treat your launch plan like a living document.

Start with the basics - your Details section and OKRs. Get those locked in. Then build out your Audience Profile and Milestones. The rest will follow.

The key is to just start. Get your foundation in place with the six core sections:

1. Details (the what and who)
2. Executive Summary (the why)
3. OKRs (the goals)
4. Audience (the who it's for)
5. Milestones (the when)
6. Bill of Materials (the how)

Once you've got those down, you can start playing with different ways to organize and execute.

Maybe you'll find chronological organization works better than categorical for your team. Maybe you'll discover your own way of handling Rolling Thunder that fits your product perfectly.

I still tweak my launch plan template after every launch because I'm always learning new things that work better.

Remember: A launch plan isn't about limiting your creativity - it's about giving you the foundation to be bold when it counts.

[If you want to learn how to build your own Bill of Materials, check out this playbook to learn more about launch day strategies, stakeholder management, and how to keep the momentum going long after your initial announcement.]

Resources

• Launch Plan Template - Plan and project manage your next Tier 1 product launch.
• Launch Playbook Template - Use this template with your product manager to define how you prioritize product launches. Create a framework for tiering product launches and knowing what is expected for each of them.
• Audience Profile Template - Use this template to define your audience profile(s).
• Launch Articles - Learn more about how the top minds in product marketing and GTM think about launches.
• Launch Examples - Get more inspiration on how other companies maximize visibility and impact on KPIs with their launches.
• Launch Tiering Playbook - Learn how to define your own internal playbook for prioritizing launches.

• Introduction
• 4 Benefits of Having a Launch Plan (That Actually Make Your Life Easier)
• 5 Launch Plan Killers (That Wreck Even the Best Products)
• The 6-Part Launch Plan (That We Followed For Our Jetpack Launch)
• Step 1: Details
• Step 2: Executive Summary
• Step 3: OKRs
• Step 4: Audience
• Step 5: Milestones
• Step 6: Bill of Materials
• 5 Launch Tips Over the Years
• Final Thoughts: The Launch Plan That Scales With You
• Resources