A launch plan template that starts from your own decisions

A launch plan should start from your own decisions: what you chose to build, who it is for, what you chose not to do, and what actually shipped. A blank template asks you to invent those answers again under deadline. The template below starts from the record instead, then adds the sequence to launch day and what would delay it.

Why start a launch plan from decisions?

You start from decisions because the launch plan is a summary of calls the team already made. Who the product is for, what it costs, and what it does not do were decided months ago. The launch plan should repeat them, not reopen them.

Blank templates cause a quiet problem. Someone fills in "target audience" from memory, and it drifts from what the team agreed. The announcement promises a feature that was cut. Support learns about a limit from a customer. Starting from the decision record keeps every launch document saying the same thing.

What goes into a launch plan?

A launch plan covers what is going public, who it is for, the sequence to launch day, and what would delay it. Here is the template.

1. What is going public. One paragraph. Name what shipped, in the words the product uses. Link the decision that approved each part.

2. Who it is for. The customer you decided to serve first. Copy it from the decision, do not rewrite it.

3. Why now. The outcome this launch is meant to move, and the North Star it serves.

4. What we chose not to do. The options the team turned down, and why. This section protects the launch from scope creep in its final week.

5. The sequence to launch day. Each step, its owner, and its date. Start from launch day and work backward.

6. What would delay it. The conditions that would move the date, written before launch week, so nobody has to argue about them during it.

7. How we will know it worked. The measure, the date you will check it, and who checks.

How do you write launch messaging that stays true?

Launch messaging stays true when it lists what must not be claimed next to what should be said. Write the one-line description, the three things to say, and the claims you cannot make yet.

The "must not claim" list is the most useful part. It catches the features that slipped, the limits that still apply, and the words a competitor would check first. Write it from what shipped, not from the roadmap.

What other documents does a launch need?

A launch needs a launch plan, messaging, an announcement draft, a run of show for the day itself, and an FAQ. The launch plan covers everything before launch day. The run of show covers the day.

Write the FAQ last, and answer each question only from what shipped. If an answer needs the word "soon," cut the question or say plainly that it is not available yet.

How does the Launch kit in Workspace by Ask The W work?

The Launch kit in Workspace by Ask The W writes these five documents from the project's own record: a launch plan, launch messaging, an announcement draft, a run of show, and a launch FAQ.

To write them, Workspace reads the project's W Card, its North Star, the decisions the team kept, and the project files it kept. It writes only from that record and cites the project files behind each claim. Launch messaging includes what must not be claimed, and the FAQ answers only from what shipped. When the documents already exist, the kit revises them instead of starting over.

The kit drafts. A person reviews every document, and a person decides when to launch. The decisions it reads come from Way by Ask The W, where the team records what it picked and why. Each document the kit writes is one listed job.

For what the Launch kit writes and reads, see Launch kit.

How do you use this template without Ask The W?

Open your decision record before you open the template. For each section, find the decision that answers it and link it. Any section you cannot link is a decision you have not made yet. Make it before launch week, not during it.