Project Launch Checklist
A project launch checklist for teams shipping a product, feature, or campaign. Covers pre-launch readiness, go-live steps, and post-launch monitoring.
Checklist preview
- All features or deliverables completed and tested
- QA sign-off received
- Stakeholder review and approval obtained
- Legal and compliance review completed
- Documentation and release notes prepared
- Support team briefed and ready
- Rollback or contingency plan documented
- Production environment configured and tested
- Performance tested under expected load
- Security review completed
- Monitoring and alerting set up
- Error tracking enabled (Sentry, Datadog, etc.)
- Backups verified and recovery tested
- DNS, SSL, and domain configuration confirmed
- Product owner sign-off received
- Legal sign-off received (if required)
- Marketing assets approved
- Launch date and time confirmed with all teams
- Communication plan approved
- Launch executed per the deployment plan
- Smoke test completed on production
- Key user flows verified as working
- Announcement or communication sent
- Team notified that launch is live
- Monitoring dashboards checked for errors or anomalies
- User feedback channels monitored
- Critical bugs triaged and assigned
- Launch retrospective scheduled
- Success metrics reviewed against targets
A project launch checklist prevents the most common launch failures: something is untested, someone did not sign off, or a post-launch monitoring alert was never set up. It is the final quality gate before a product, feature, or campaign goes live.
This checklist covers the five stages of a launch: confirming readiness, verifying technical setup, collecting sign-offs, executing the go-live, and monitoring the first hours after launch.
Who uses this project launch checklist
Product managers and project managers coordinating cross-functional launches. Engineering leads responsible for technical go-live steps. Marketing teams launching campaigns or new product pages. Agencies delivering client projects who need a repeatable pre-launch sign-off process.
How to run it
Open CheckRun in your browser a few days before the planned launch date. Start a run and work through pre-launch readiness and technical items as a team. Use Fail items to create a task list for blockers. Run through the go-live section on launch day itself, then leave the checklist open for post-launch monitoring.
Adapting this pre-launch checklist for your context
- Add a “Content & SEO” section for website launches: sitemap submitted, canonical tags set, redirects verified, Google Search Console configured
- Use it as a Shopify launch checklist by adding storefront-specific items: theme tested on mobile, payment gateway verified, tax settings confirmed, test order placed
- Add an “App Store” section for mobile launches: screenshots uploaded, metadata approved, review guidelines checked
- Add “Localization” items for international launches
- Simplify to just Pre-Launch and Go-Live sections for smaller internal releases
- Use alongside the Project Management Checklist for the full project lifecycle
Product launch checklist vs project launch checklist
A product launch checklist focuses on the product itself — positioning, pricing, GTM, marketing assets. A project launch checklist focuses on execution readiness — is everything built, tested, approved, and monitored. In most launches you need both; this template covers the execution side.