Launch checklist

Everything to do for a new app or SaaS launch, from four weeks before to two weeks after, in the order you'll need it. Tick things off as you go: the ticks stay in this browser, and "Copy link to my progress" gives you a link that brings them back on any device. Or save it as a PDF and print it.

Four weeks before

Decide what a good launch looks like

Most of what makes a launch work is settled before the day: who you're telling, where, and how you'll know it worked.

Write down the one number you'll judge the launch by, and what counts as good.
Signups, paying customers or demo calls: pick one before the day, or every result will look like a success.

How to know if your launch worked
Pick three to five places to announce, and read each one's rules.
Hacker News, Product Hunt, a subreddit or a newsletter each have their own rules and their own audience. Breaking a rule can get a post removed.

How to post a Show HN that gets read
Start collecting people who want it: a page with one clear promise and an email field.
A launch to a list of people who asked to be told goes further than a launch to nobody.

Do you need a waitlist?

Nordva Launch has a hosted waitlist page and an embeddable form, free for up to 100 signups.
Set up analytics that shows where visitors came from and who signed up.
Page views alone won't tell you which post brought the people who signed up. Test it: open your site from a tagged link and check the visit shows up with its source.

What to track first

Nordva Launch's one-line script shows sources, UTM tags and signups, and links a signup to the visit that brought it.
Make a tagged link for every place you'll post.
Many apps and email clients send no referrer, so an untagged click shows up as direct. A UTM tag on each link keeps the source.

UTM parameters, explained
Let a handful of people use it before launch, and fix what trips them up.
Five people who try it for real find the confusing step before a thousand strangers do.

How to run a beta with your waitlist

The week before

Test everything on the real site

Things that worked on your machine break on the real domain. Go through the whole path as a stranger would.

Sign up, confirm your email and use the product on the live site, on a phone and on a laptop.
A form that works on localhost can be refused on the real domain, and an email that looks fine on a laptop can be broken on a phone.
Buy it with a real card, then refund yourself.
Test mode and live mode use different keys and webhooks. The first real payment is not the moment to find out one is missing.

Stripe works in test mode but not live
Check that secret keys are only in server code and that your environment file is not in the repository.
A secret key in a browser bundle or a public repository can be copied by anyone who looks.
Make sure you'll hear about errors and downtime: error alerts to your email or phone, and an uptime check.
On launch day you'll be reading comments, not logs.
Write the launch post for each place in that place's own voice, and have screenshots or a short video ready.
The same text pasted everywhere reads like an advert everywhere.

How to write a landing page headline
Decide on a soft or a hard launch, and pick the day and time.
Letting people in in small batches first gives you time to fix things; a date gives everyone something to act on.

Soft launch or hard launch?
Draft the email to your waitlist and tell them the date.
The people who asked to be told are your first audience. Don't make them find out from someone else.

Tell your waitlist you launched

On the Indie plan, Nordva Launch sends the announcement to your waitlist and reports who then paid.
Write a changelog or "what's new" entry for the launch.
Visitors who look for signs of life find an empty changelog, and it's the easiest page to write the week before.

How to announce a new feature

Launch day

Post, stay and watch

The work on the day is mostly being there.

Post in each place at the time you picked, using its tagged link.
Timing matters less than the post itself, but spreading posts over the day lets you answer each one.

When to post on Hacker News
Stay in the threads and answer every question.
People notice when the maker is there, and the questions show you what the page didn't explain.
Send the email to your waitlist.
It's the one message that goes to people who already said yes.
Watch signups and errors as they come in, and fix what breaks straight away.
A broken signup on launch day loses the people who were most curious.

Nordva Launch shows who is on the site right now and which source each signup came from.
Write down everything you change during the day, with the time.
Tomorrow you'll want to know whether signups rose because of a post or because of the fix you made at 14:00.

The two weeks after

Find out what worked

The traffic fades within days. What you learn in these two weeks decides what you do next.

Check the number you picked four weeks ago, by source.
Which place brought signups, and which brought the people who paid, are usually different answers.

Which channel brings paying customers?
Talk to your first users, and ask each one what nearly stopped them.
They remember the friction now; in a month they won't.

What to ask users for feedback
Follow up with people who signed up but never used it.
A short personal email asking what they were hoping for often brings back a few, and tells you why the rest left.

People sign up but never use it
Ship the fixes people asked for, and tell those people.
Someone who hears that their request shipped is more likely to stay and to tell others.
Pick the next place to launch, based on what the numbers said.
A launch is not one day: the first place you tried is only one data point, and the numbers by source tell you where to try next.

What to do after launch

If you'd rather have it checked for you

Building with an AI coding agent? The launch-day checklist a coding agent can run has it check your repository and tools against the technical items. Not sure you're ready? The eight-question launch check tells you what to fix first. Still building? Build with AI covers the whole road from the idea to launch.

This checklist is from Nordva, who make Nordva Launch: waitlists, analytics that show where signups and customers came from, a changelog and in-app feedback, with a free plan. Every step above works without it.