Lifecycle · Phase 6 of 8
Launch is about readiness, not just timing. 31 governed templates help confirm that everything needed for release is in place before the team commits to go.
Launch is the readiness phase. Before a product reaches customers, the team confirms that everything needed for release, including positioning, support, measurement and communications, is in place. The phase ends with a clear go decision based on evidence and agreed readiness criteria.
Before launch, the team needs to be clear on:
Gensudo includes 31 Launch templates, making it the smallest phase in the library by design. The Product Owner has the largest share with 10 templates, helping coordinate readiness across the wider team. Key documents include the Product Launch Checklist, Customer Journey Map and Tone of Voice Guidelines, supporting everything from final readiness checks to customer experience and launch communications. Each template also explains why it matters, what good looks like and who needs to approve it, helping teams make the final go decision with confidence.
Agree the launch criteria while the date is still comfortably distant. Criteria written under deadline pressure have a way of shrinking to fit whatever happens to be finished.
Move through the Product Launch Checklist item by item, with a named owner for each. An item can be done or consciously waived — the one thing it cannot be is silently skipped.
Walk the customer journey end to end as a customer would meet it — onboarding, support paths, communications. Launches rarely fail at the feature; they fail at the seams.
Named people, written criteria, an explicit call. If the evidence says not yet, the date moves — that's the readiness discipline paying for itself.
Have measurement live before customers arrive, with owners assigned to watch the early numbers. The first days of data are the bridge into Optimise.
Everything the release genuinely depends on, grouped by function: the product itself, positioning and communications, support readiness, and measurement. Each item needs a named owner and an honest status — done, in progress, or consciously waived. The discipline isn't the list; it's the rule that nothing gets skipped silently. Gensudo's Product Launch Checklist template structures exactly this, with sign-off guidance included.
When it meets criteria that were written down before the pressure arrived. Readiness defined near the date tends to shrink to fit whatever happens to be finished — so the honest answer is set earlier in the phase, then tested against evidence: checklist status, a rehearsed customer journey, live measurement, briefed support. A date arriving is not evidence of readiness.
Named people, explicitly — not a meeting that drifts into consensus. The right names vary by organisation, but the pattern doesn't: the decision-makers are identified in advance, the criteria are written, and the call is recorded either way. A go decision nobody can attribute is really a decision nobody made, which matters enormously if the launch goes wrong.
Readiness starts with an honest build record — known issues written down, scope changes owned. If those are missing, look back a phase.
Revisit the Build phase →The product is live. Now the question changes from "are we ready?" to "is it working?" — and the data starts answering.
Go to the Optimise phase →Use clear checklists, customer journey reviews and sign-off guidance to make sure launch day is based on readiness, not assumptions.