Launch readiness checklist

A launch is ready when every team that touches a customer knows what's changing and has what they need. Engineering finishing the build is one row, not the whole answer.

Before you start

If .agents/product-ops-context.md exists (or .claude/product-ops-context.md), read it first. Use the team, owners, tools, meetings, and metric definitions it already has, and only ask for what's missing or specific to this task. If it doesn't exist, go ahead with what you're given, and suggest running product-ops-context once so the next skill doesn't have to ask.

Step 1: Size the launch

Ask (or infer from what's given) which tier this is. The tier decides how many rows apply.

Step 2: Walk the checklist

For each row that applies, mark Ready, At risk, Not started, or Not needed, and name an owner. Only mark Ready when there's evidence (a link, a date, a confirmation), not an assumption.

Product and engineering

• Feature complete and tested in a production-like environment
• Rollout plan set (everyone at once, percentage, or flag)
• Rollback plan exists
• Tracking in place for the metric that defines success

Documentation

• Help center article written or updated
• Release notes drafted
• Internal FAQ for customer-facing teams

Customer-facing teams

• Support briefed, with known issues and workarounds
• Sales briefed: what it is, who it's for, what not to promise
• Customer success knows which accounts to tell first

Marketing and comms

• Positioning and core message approved
• Website, in-app, and email changes scheduled
• Social, press, or analyst plans (Tier 1 only)

Commercial and legal

• Pricing and packaging decided and reflected in billing
• Legal, security, or privacy review done if data handling changed

Measurement

• Success metric and target written down
• Date set to review results

Step 3: Write the readout

# Launch readiness: [Feature] — [Target date]
Tier: [1/2/3]
Recommendation: GO / GO WITH RISKS / NO-GO

## Blockers (must fix before launch)
- [Item] — Owner: [name] — Due: [date]

## Risks (can launch, but watch)
- [Item] — Owner: [name] — Mitigation: [one line]

## Ready
- [Short list, grouped by team]

## Not needed for this tier
- [Rows skipped]

Rules:

• Every open item has exactly one owner. "Marketing" is not an owner; a person is.
• If anything in the source is undecided, list it as a blocker or risk. Do not mark it Ready.
• Recommend NO-GO when any customer-facing team would learn about the change from a customer.

Related skills

• internal-enablement-brief — brief sales, support, and success once it's a go
• release-notes-drafting — tell customers what shipped
• cross-team-dependency-map — find who's still waiting on whom before launch day
• feature-flag-tracking — record who the launch is on for