Launching a product doesn’t should really feel like blindly fixing a Rubik’s dice — the correct product launch template will provide help to map out your technique, high-level targets, in-the-weeds particulars, and all of the work it’ll take to get there.
These are a number of the greatest instruments and templates to start out with, whether or not you’re introducing your first digital course or your tenth bodily product to the market
monday.com: A product launch template for advertising and marketing groups
monday.com is an all-in-one device for launching merchandise, managing advertising and marketing campaigns, and dealing with dozens (or lots of) of tasks.
The free plan comes with two consumer seats, over 200+ templates, and three undertaking boards. It’s high-quality in case you’re simply getting began or wish to strive monday.com, however groups will seemingly should improve to a paid plan fairly fast.
My favourite product launch template is particularly for entrepreneurs — it helps guarantee model messaging is constant and that your entire promo supplies align alongside the way in which.
Extra on monday.com: monday.com Evaluate | monday.com vs Wrike | monday.com vs Airtable.
monday.com makes it simple to change between massive image planning and weekly duties. This helps advertising and marketing groups keep targeted on their priorities whereas by no means shedding sight of the excessive degree launch plan.
It’s a completely customizable template with 30+ column varieties, supplying you with the whole lot it is advisable to make it work in your group.
You need to use it to create pre-launch campaigns and maintain your entire belongings organized for emails, social posts, blogs, PR campaigns, and extra. With superior options like real-time notifications for accomplished duties, you possibly can rapidly begin work on the proper electronic mail or press launch when the product photos or reside demo is able to share.
Whereas monday.com is nice for all sorts of groups, this one’s particularly targeted on advertising and marketing groups.
You possibly can share it with different division heads and leaders or join it to different group boards throughout the platform, however the whole lot was designed round what entrepreneurs want.
ClickUp: Complete product launch guidelines + template
ClickUp is an alternative choice that works properly for groups of all sizes. Whether or not you’re launching a bodily product or new software program, the platform works nice for monitoring duties and preserving your whole firm on the identical web page.
The free endlessly plan is among the greatest on the market with limitless customers and duties. You need to use it for fairly some time, even in case you’re a small group.
Whereas it’s not as versatile as monday.com, it’s extra inexpensive and offers you much more performance at a cheaper price.
Extra on ClickUp: ClickUp Evaluate | ClickUp vs Asana | ClickUp vs Notion.
The most effective product launch template for ClickUp is a sophisticated answer for planning and executing detailed launch methods. Out of the field, it really works nice for analyzing market traits, planning surveys targeted in your audience, and finalizing your pricing technique previous to launch.
You too can create a customized guidelines that features subcategories for every activity, which is tremendous useful if possession of various phases is assigned to totally different groups.
From there, it’s simple to show it right into a timeline to make sure the whole lot’s on schedule. You possibly can even set milestones to suggest main occasions alongside the way in which.
With practically a dozen built-in undertaking views, ClickUp makes it simple to visualise work in several methods, relying on what you wish to see. Kanban board is nice for particular person contributors whereas timelines and dashboards are sport altering for managers.
The most important draw back? This template is probably going overkill in case you’re a solo consumer because it has a ton of collaboration options you’ll by no means use.
However its flexibility, feature-rich nature, and collaborative surroundings make it a no brainer for groups of all sizes.
Wrike: A product launch template with sequential phases
Wrike is a extra inflexible undertaking administration platform that’s glorious for mid-sized and huge groups. Smaller groups can use it without cost, but it surely’s fairly restricted in comparison with different free plans we’ve checked out because it’s probably not meant for use long-term.
General, it’s an amazing choice for managing product launches as a result of it has the whole lot it is advisable to execute your plan and proceed supporting the product post-launch.
The official product launch template is properly accomplished with pre constructed views, workflows, and directions on learn how to profit from it.
Extra on Wrike: Wrike Evaluate | Wrike vs Smartsheet | Wrike vs. Asana.
By default, this Wrike template breaks down each product launch into three distinct phases — pre-launch, product launch, and post-launch. This may also help make huge tasks really feel much less overwhelming since you possibly can deal with the part you’re in whereas planning forward so that you’re all the time ready for what’s subsequent.
The construction makes numerous sense as a result of most launches have duties that needs to be accomplished in a sequential order.
With different instruments, monitoring these dependencies can get sophisticated. With this template, it’s simple to set them up and perceive what ought to occur when. In any case, you possibly can’t actually work on product messaging or creatives till you’ve chosen a audience.
Product managers may also use Wrike to determine potential roadblocks earlier than they turn into a much bigger downside and pressure you to push again your launch date.
You’ll additionally be capable of observe the progress of your entire undertaking, every part, and duties with subtasks utilizing its in-built timeline view.
As soon as a activity has a deadline, visualizing its standing and understanding its influence on different components of your launch is a breeze.
The most important draw back of this template is how lengthy it takes to arrange. There’s a little bit of configuring you’ll should do earlier than it’s prepared so that you can use. You’ll seemingly additionally should repeatedly make tweaks till it really works the way you want it to.
Teamwork: A collaborative launch template for businesses
Teamwork is a undertaking administration and group collaboration answer bundled right into a single platform. It’s nice for day-to-day activity administration and big-picture alignment — two issues which might be important in rolling out new merchandise.
Particularly, it’s for businesses, consultants, and firms that handle work throughout dozens, lots of, or 1000’s of various shoppers.
It’s free for groups of as much as 5 customers. In any other case, you possibly can strive any premium plan free for 30 days.
Extra on Teamwork: Teamwork Evaluate | Teamwork vs monday.com.
Other than Teamwork’s in-built performance for managing shopper work, this template makes it simple to create a backlog of duties, assign them to the suitable folks, set due dates, and centralize communications.
Assignees will be different folks in your group, a distinct group, or perhaps a shopper. Out of the gate, this helps maintain shoppers accountable for his or her half in what you’re doing.
You too can simply add information and different belongings to every card so everybody will get entry to the weather that make your launch tick.
Say a designer creates a customized picture and uploads the file to your Teamwork area. From there, your shopper can approve or reject it, triggering the suitable workflow. In the event that they approve, your social media supervisor can use the file to schedule an upcoming submit to advertise the shopper’s new product — all with no prolonged electronic mail chain or Slack thread.
In comparison with different platforms, Teamwork could be very simple and user-friendly. It doesn’t take numerous tweaking or configuring.
This comes on the expense of flexibility. You gained’t be capable of make main changes to the platform itself so that you’ll seemingly should construct a few of your workflows across the platform fairly than the opposite means round.
TeamGantt: A launch template for software program improvement
TeamGantt is a undertaking administration answer recognized for its prime quality Gantt charts. It’s generally utilized by groups that use agile methodologies, like software program improvement groups launching a brand new product, characteristic, or model launch.
Other than launches, it has quite a few templates for dev groups, together with bug monitoring, characteristic backlogs, request administration, and excessive degree improvement plans.
The free plan is okay for a single small private undertaking with as much as 60 duties, though you’ll miss out on numerous the important thing options that make TeamGantt an amazing answer.
Alternatively, you possibly can strive their Professional plan free for seven days to see if it’s proper in your group earlier than you commit.
Extra on TeamGantt: TeamGantt Evaluate.
TeamGantt works properly for software program improvement as a result of its interface ought to really feel acquainted in case you’re already doing agile undertaking administration. Making the swap will likely be comparatively simple vs spending weeks or months studying one thing new.
Their product launch template makes it simple to arrange an entire roadmap that covers just a few months, 1 / 4, and even half a yr.
From there, managers can work with their group to stipulate main themes and epics earlier than breaking the whole lot down into even smaller sprints and duties.
With a plan in place, you need to use TeamGantt’s workload administration instruments to assign the work with out burning anybody out. It even has in-built time monitoring and hourly estimating to make it simple to plan for sources forward of time.
You possibly can shade code the whole lot by possession, kind, or some other area you’d wish to visually sign no matter you’d like.
The device additionally enables you to arrange activity dependencies to assist management processes.
One final fascinating level about TeamGantt is its pricing construction. You solely should pay for managers — collaborators are completely free and you’ll have as many as you’d like so long as you’re on a paid plan.
Notion: Excessive degree product launch templates
In contrast to the others to this point, Notion is a productiveness suite with undertaking administration options in-built. Many people use it to take notes and manage to do lists whereas companies can use it to handle group work, documentation, SOPs, assembly notes, and extra.
It’s versatile and extremely customizable, which can be considered one of its greatest drawbacks. It begins as a clean slate — the way you set it up is completely as much as you.
For those who’re somebody who likes to tweak issues and enhance programs or processes as you go, you’ll admire the freeform nature. If that sounds horrible to you, you’re higher off selecting one thing else.
Notion affords a free plan that’s nice for solo customers but it surely’s extra of a free trial for groups.
There’s a large ecosystem of Notion templates on the market and I couldn’t slender it all the way down to only one for this submit. You need to use both or each, relying on how detailed you need your excessive degree plan to be.
Extra on Notion: Notion Evaluate | Notion vs Asana | Notion vs Confluence.
Template 1: A launch temporary for group alignment
Notion’s product launch temporary template is ideal for placing your plan in writing. Whereas you need to use it to arrange ideas as a person consumer, I like to recommend it as a one-pager (or two-pager) for sharing these plans along with your group and stakeholders.
Everybody concerned can simply reference this doc as a reminder of your targets, what you’re launching, and why.
It’s a lot easier than anything we’ve talked about to this point. As an alternative of mapping out duties and assigning them, you’ll get a template for summarizing your technique, targets, launch date, and the tasks for everybody in your group.
You too can add product-specific data, like specs, pricing, and phases.
The template features a area to plan launch deliverables organized by standing and group. There’s additionally a easy pre-launch and post-launch guidelines included on the template. Nonetheless, it’s probably not meant for managing work throughout your group.
All of this can be a good start line however you’ll seemingly wish to add extra strong undertaking administration capabilities or pair this with one other template to really execute the plan you wrote.
Template 2: A extra detailed product launch to do checklist
If you wish to put collectively a extra granular guidelines, this template has a greater format.
It comes pre loaded with an inventory of motion objects for a typical product launch. You possibly can simply replace it to match your processes. Plus, it’s far easier than constructing out a whole undertaking administration system in Notion in case you don’t have to get that fancy.
By default, it comes with seven levels in your product launch — market analysis, objective identification, advertising and marketing plan, gross sales assist and coaching, testing, launch occasion, and post-launch analysis.
It features a bunch of duties for every stage, however you possibly can simply add or take away levels (and duties) primarily based in your state of affairs.
This template enables you to tag group members and assign due dates, but it surely’s fairly naked bones. It’s much more suited to solo use. For those who’re working with a number of folks, you’ll most likely want one thing extra strong.
In that case, you possibly can add this guidelines to your undertaking administration system after which customise it, assign every activity, set due dates, and handle progress with out having to start out from scratch.
Launch trackers for Excel, Google Sheets, Phrase, and PDF
For those who’re working alone or launching a easy product, you most likely don’t want an entire undertaking administration system. You possibly can seemingly get by simply high-quality utilizing a spreadsheet or commonplace doc.
Whereas these don’t have as many collaboration options or automations, they’re far easier and simpler to make use of.
Template 1: 90-day product launch plan
Smartsheet is a strong spreadsheet-based enterprise app builder. It doesn’t have a free plan, but it surely does supply free spreadsheets and doc templates for numerous use circumstances, together with launching a brand new product.
Their product launch plan template is nice for launches that’ll take three months or much less.
You possibly can obtain it and use it without cost with Excel, Phrase, or PDF — and it’s so easy you can begin planning your launch in a matter of minutes (no configuration required).
It’s damaged up into segments for the primary 30 days, days 31-60, and 61-90. All you need to do is add motion objects for every section into the suitable column.
Every activity can have its personal standing and objective or part for further context. It might assist to start out by figuring out key targets, phases, and milestones. From there, you possibly can break them down additional into duties and observe progress as wanted.
After you’ve added begin and finish dates in your launch, the template will mechanically spotlight overdue duties that can assist you prioritize them and ensure nothing slips via the cracks.
Template 2: A template for launch-specific advertising and marketing plans
Just like the template above, this one was created by Smartsheet. You possibly can obtain it for Excel, Google Sheets, or as a PDF without cost.
Quite than masking all points of your product launch, this one focuses on serving to you develop and execute a advertising and marketing plan to advertise your new product, service, launch, line, or characteristic.
This template is lifeless easy as a result of it doesn’t embody work concerned with creating no matter you’re launching.
It’s solely targeted on advertising and marketing actions, permitting your group to remain laser targeted.
There are fairly just a few sections designed that can assist you determine key strengths, examine your product to your opponents, and place your self in a means that may resonate along with your audience.
From pre launch to submit launch, it’s an amazing useful resource anybody in your advertising and marketing group can discuss with when engaged on belongings or campaigns round your launch.
It may be particularly useful in case your group manages numerous launches — it will possibly assist everybody maintain totally different services straight from a advertising and marketing perspective with out having to reinvent the wheel each time.
None of those templates work for me. Now what?
You possibly can both customise an current template or construct your personal system to plan and handle the work concerned. Both means, your first choice needs to be the software program you’re going to make use of.
SEE: Be taught in regards to the greatest undertaking administration options in the marketplace.
From there, it’s best to make an inventory of priorities, together with what it is advisable to maintain observe of, totally different views that could be useful, how a lot you’re capable of spend (if something), and the way a lot work you wish to put into setting it up.
At a minimal, your product launch answer ought to:
- Outline the product you’re launching.
- Clarify what it does and the issues it solves.
- Spotlight your goal market and why they need to care.
- Estimated ship dates and a remaining launch date.
- Your excessive degree targets and goals.
- Particular pre-launch deliverables.
- A promotion plan if relevant.
Most of the templates above cowl all of those components after which some. You might want or wish to go into extra element and that’s okay too.
Say you’re launching a brand new piece of software program. You might have to play for beta testing, market analysis, focus teams, hiring builders, and coaching. These are all essential steps that’ll influence your launch, so they need to be lined in your template as properly.
SEE: Take a look at these free buyer satisfaction survey templates in case you want them.
The best route is discovering a template for the device you wish to use that will get you as shut as potential to what you want.
What’s the distinction between a product launch and go-to-market (GTM) technique?
Launching a product is a chunk of your go to market technique. In different phrases, your GTM technique is broad and encompasses numerous issues, together with your product launch.
GTM methods can be utilized to carry new merchandise to current markets, present merchandise into new markets, take a look at new markets, and even begin a brand new enterprise. These methods are sometimes extra concerned — together with components associated to danger administration and aggressive analysis.
Product launches are product-specific and don’t should rehash your total model, different merchandise, or total enterprise technique. Take a look at my favourite go to market technique templates if you wish to begin there. You possibly can all the time add a product launch template in if you’re able to get extra particular.
