Launch support
with measures that show what resonates.
Launch support covers the assets a launch needs, a focused plan and the measures that show what resonates. It matters when the date is set and what the launch should tell you has not been written down.
The real question
Which of the message, the channel or the product a quiet launch would point to.
Step 06 of 06 · Product & Venture Building
The path
From idea
to launch.
Six steps, each feeding the next. This page is one of them.
- Product discovery
- MVPs
- UX
- Implementation
- Brand
- Launch support (this page)
01Questions
The questions
it answers.
What is this launch meant to teach you?
The plan names the one assumption about audience or message the launch tests first, and what you will do with each answer.
Which assets does it need, and which not?
The asset set is agreed and short: each one has an audience, a claim from the core messaging and a measure attached.
How will you know what resonated?
Each message and channel can be read on its own, because the measures were in place before the first visitor arrived.
Who makes the call on launch day?
One named person decides whether to go or to hold, and the release goes out ahead of the announcement, so failures surface quietly.
02Pitfalls
Where it
usually breaks.
One message on every channel, read as one total
The same copy goes everywhere and the dashboard shows one number. When the result is flat, nobody can say whether the message, the channel or the product failed.
Measures wired in after the announcement
Analytics go in once the launch is out. The first burst of attention is a sample you cannot rerun, and it passes unrecorded.
Activity reported as the result
The launch report counts posts, visits and sign-ups. Nothing shows who reached the first key action or came back, so a busy launch and a successful one look the same.
A first day nobody rehearsed
The release and the announcement share a day, so a missing redirect or a failed first action is found in public. The team works an incident instead of reading the response.
03Approach
How I work
on it.
Fix the question before the assets
With your team I write down the assumption the launch tests first, what would count as an answer and which channels are left out.
Build assets and measures together
I produce the agreed assets from the core messaging, and agree with your engineers the events behind each measure before anything goes out.
Walk the day, then read the response
I walk through launch day with your team before it happens, then report the response apart from the activity, with what to change next.
What you leave with
- An agreed set of launch assets, such as website pages, product visuals and social content.
- A focused launch plan: the assumption under test, the channels chosen and those left out, with the reason.
- Measures in place before launch, set up so that each message and channel can be read on its own.
- A launch-day checklist and a written reading of the response: what resonated, what did not and what to change next.
04Measures
What I
would measure.
Signals to read, not targets to hit: what counts as good enough is your team’s decision.
Response by message and by channel
One message ahead on the same channel points at the wording, one channel behind on every message at its audience; small counts back neither reading.
Arrivals that reach the first key action
Arrivals rising while first actions stay flat means the assets draw the wrong people, or promise what first use does not deliver.
Organic use beside prompted use
Use that continues without outreach says the proposition stands on its own; use that stops when outreach stops says it does not yet.
05Evidence
The topic,
in practice.
From ventures of my own, each at its actual stage: two are live and one has not launched. The live two show launches I ran; neither publishes figures for the launch response.
Ventures of my own
City Dreams
A trading business with a live site: I ran the launch of the direct-booking site, including the migration, the redirects, the quota incident and the fix that followed it.
Deal Wizard
Live as a free public beta, no commercial model set: I took it public and ran the outreach; a full example analysis is published, so that the report speaks for itself.
YoMaxi
In development, not released: launch is planned, with no dates. The preparation so far is the identity and two commercial concepts; no beta, listing or users yet.
Building or launching
something similar?
Tell me about the product, where it is today and what you need next.