Plan product launches with the right tier and coordinated checklists. Use when asked to plan a launch, coordinate a release, prepare for go-to-market, or figure out how to announce a new feature or product. Covers silent, soft, and big-bang launch tiers.
Launch based on the size of the bet, not the size of your ambition. Most features deserve a silent or soft launch. Save the big-bang for genuinely new products or major pivots. Linear's principle: launch early, launch often, launch multiple times.
Ship it, turn it on, see what happens. No announcement.
Use for: Bug fixes, minor improvements, internal tools, infrastructure changes, experiments.
Checklist:
Ship it, tell existing users, collect feedback before going wide.
Use for: New features for existing users, significant UX changes, pricing changes, beta programs.
Checklist:
Example: Launching real-time collaboration — Changelog: "Edit together, see cursors live." Support FAQ covers latency expectations and max concurrent editors. Roll out to 20% of teams for 3 days via feature flag, then 100%. Rollback: disable WebSocket sync, fall back to polling. Feedback widget live for 2 weeks. Success metric: % of teams with 2+ simultaneous editors.
Coordinated, public, designed for maximum reach. Expensive in time and attention.
Use for: New product launch, major pivot, rebrand, entering a new market. Maximum 2-3 per year.
Checklist:
Product
Content
Distribution
Support
Measurement
Regardless of tier:
Built on Linear's "launch multiple times" philosophy. Skills from productskills.