home / skills / pluginagentmarketplace / custom-plugin-product-manager / launch

launch skill

/skills/launch

This skill masters go-to-market planning and launch execution to coordinate teams and achieve rapid market momentum.

npx playbooks add skill pluginagentmarketplace/custom-plugin-product-manager --skill launch

Review the files below or copy the command above to add this skill to your agents.

Files (4)
SKILL.md
8.8 KB
---
name: launch-gtm-execution
version: "2.0.0"
description: Master go-to-market strategy, launch planning and execution, sales enablement, and marketing campaigns. Execute successful product launches.
sasmp_version: "1.3.0"
bonded_agent: 05-launch-gtm
bond_type: PRIMARY_BOND
parameters:
  - name: launch_date
    type: string
    format: date
    required: true
  - name: gtm_model
    type: string
    enum: [direct_sales, self_service, sales_dev, channel]
retry_logic:
  max_attempts: 3
  backoff: exponential
logging:
  level: info
  hooks: [start, complete, error]
---

# Launch & Go-To-Market Skill

Master the art of successful product launches. From GTM strategy through launch execution, learn to coordinate teams, build momentum, and achieve market success.

## Go-To-Market (GTM) Strategy

### GTM Framework Decision

**1. Direct Sales Model**
- Your team directly sells to customers
- Best for: High ACV (>$10K), complex product
- Sales cycle: 3-6 months
- Team size: 1 AE per $500K-$1M ARR target
- Examples: Salesforce, HubSpot, Workday

**Pros:**
- Control over message
- Deep customer relationships
- Higher deal size possible
- Custom solutions

**Cons:**
- Expensive ($200K+ per rep)
- Slower to scale
- Long sales cycles
- Small addressable market needed for ROI

**Key Metrics:**
- Sales Qualified Lead (SQL)
- Close rate (typically 20-40%)
- Sales cycle length
- Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

---

**2. Self-Service / Freemium Model**
- Customers discover and sign up themselves
- Best for: Low ACV (<$1K), self-explanatory product
- Sales cycle: Minutes to days
- Team: Product + Marketing focused

**Pros:**
- Scales without sales team
- Low CAC
- Fast adoption
- Land and expand opportunity

**Cons:**
- High churn risk
- Need viral/network effects
- Requires excellent product
- Difficult to reach enterprise

**Key Metrics:**
- Free-to-paid conversion (2-5% target)
- Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)
- Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)
- CAC < 30% LTV

---

**3. Sales Development (SMB)**
- SDR/AE team for smaller deals
- Best for: SMB market ($2K-$50K ACV)
- Sales cycle: 1-3 months
- Lower cost than enterprise sales

**Pros:**
- Better ROI than enterprise sales
- Faster sales cycles
- Larger addressable market
- Still personal touch

**Cons:**
- Volume required
- Lower margins
- Churn challenges

---

**4. Channel/Partner Model**
- Resellers, integrations, platforms
- Best for: Reaching wide market cheaply
- Examples: App stores, Zapier, AWS Marketplace

**Pros:**
- Low CAC (partner pays)
- Wide distribution
- Established customer relationships

**Cons:**
- Less control
- Lower margins (revenue sharing)
- Partner incentive alignment

### GTM Positioning

**Template:**

```
For [target customer]
Who [customer problem]
The [product name]
Is [category]
That [primary benefit]
Unlike [alternative/competitor]
We [unique differentiator]
```

**Messaging Hierarchy:**
1. **Hero message** (one sentence)
   - "Collaborate in real-time, anywhere"
2. **Sub-message 1** (supporting feature)
   - "Works offline, syncs when online"
3. **Sub-message 2** (why it matters)
   - "No more lost work"
4. **Social proof**
   - "Used by 100K teams"

### Target Customer Profile (ICP)

Define your ideal customer:

**Company Characteristics:**
- Company size: 50-500 employees
- Industry: SaaS companies
- Revenue: $10M-$100M ARR
- Geography: US + EU
- Growth stage: Growth stage

**Individual Buyer:**
- Title: VP of Operations
- Reports to: COO/CFO
- Budget owner: Yes
- Decision timeline: 90 days

**Why they'll buy:**
- Main pain: 40% time on manual process
- Impact: Save $500K/year
- Decision criteria: ROI, ease of use, support

## Launch Planning (12-Week Timeline)

### Weeks 1-4: Strategy & Preparation

**Week 1-2: Launch Kickoff**
- [ ] Define launch goals (# signups, NPS, revenue)
- [ ] Identify target segments
- [ ] Competitive positioning finalized
- [ ] Go/no-go criteria defined
- [ ] Launch date locked

**Week 3-4: Content & Collateral**
- [ ] Launch press release drafted
- [ ] Product one-pagers created
- [ ] Demo video script written
- [ ] FAQ documentation started
- [ ] Sales pitch refined

### Weeks 5-8: Content Creation & Team Prep

**Week 5-6: Marketing Preparation**
- [ ] Website landing page built
- [ ] Email campaign drafted
- [ ] Social media content scheduled
- [ ] Influencer outreach list built
- [ ] PR/media contact list built

**Week 7-8: Team Training**
- [ ] Sales team training (2 days)
- [ ] Customer success onboarding materials
- [ ] Support team training
- [ ] Executive briefing
- [ ] Talking points finalized

### Weeks 9-10: Beta & Feedback

**Week 9-10: Beta Program**
- [ ] 50-100 beta users selected
- [ ] Beta feedback system set up
- [ ] Daily feedback review
- [ ] Bug fixes prioritized
- [ ] Product stability achieved

### Weeks 11-12: Final Launch Prep

**Week 11: Final Preparations**
- [ ] All content finalized and approved
- [ ] Marketing assets tested
- [ ] Sales collateral printed/digital ready
- [ ] Support documentation complete
- [ ] Systems and infrastructure scaling verified

**Week 12: Launch Week Readiness**
- [ ] Final product testing complete
- [ ] Team communication plan reviewed
- [ ] Monitoring and alerts configured
- [ ] Support team on high alert
- [ ] Celebration planned!

## Launch Week Execution

### Launch Day Schedule

**6:00 AM - Team Standup**
- Goals for the day
- Potential issues
- Communication channels

**9:00 AM - LAUNCH**
- Press release goes out
- Email campaign sends
- Social media posts
- Website live
- Sales team activated

**9:00 AM - 5:00 PM: Monitoring**
- Metrics dashboard live
- Support team responding
- Sales team following up
- Marketing team posting
- Exec team celebrating

**5:00 PM - 9:00 PM: Close Monitoring**
- Continued metric tracking
- Issue response
- Team updates hourly
- Press/media engagement

### Post-Launch Week (Days 2-7)

**Day 2 (Friday):**
- Performance review
- Bug prioritization
- Customer feedback analysis
- Day 2 communication push

**Day 3-5 (Weekend/Monday):**
- 24/7 support coverage
- Customer success outreach
- High-priority fixes
- Feedback pattern analysis

**Day 6-7 (Tuesday/Wednesday):**
- Retrospective planning
- Performance vs goals review
- Course correction planning
- Team debrief

## Sales Enablement

### Sales One-Pager (2 pages)

**Page 1:**
- Product/company logo
- One-line pitch
- 3 key features/benefits
- Comparison vs competitors
- Pricing

**Page 2:**
- Customer testimonial/quote
- Use case scenario
- ROI calculator
- Call to action
- Contact info

### Pitch Structure (3 minutes)

1. **Hook** (15 sec)
   - Current state: "Teams spend 40% time on manual sync"

2. **Problem** (30 sec)
   - Real impact: "Causes delays, errors, frustration"

3. **Solution** (60 sec)
   - How you solve: "We automate the sync process"
   - Key benefit: "Save 5 hours/week per team member"

4. **Social Proof** (15 sec)
   - Used by: "100 teams across industries"
   - Outcomes: "Avg 40% time savings"

5. **Call to Action** (15 sec)
   - Next step: "Let's run a quick 30-min POC with your team"

### Objection Handling

**Objection: "We're fine with current solution"**
- Response: "I understand. What if we could cut your manual sync time in half? Worth 20 minutes to see how?"

**Objection: "We don't have budget"**
- Response: "What if this saves $50K in productivity? Would you make budget? Let's see if it applies to you."

**Objection: "We need to evaluate competitors"**
- Response: "Smart. Here's how we compare to X and Y. What's most important to you - speed, ease of use, or cost?"

### Sales Process

1. **Prospecting** - Outbound/inbound leads
2. **Discovery Call** - Understand needs
3. **Proposal/Demo** - Show solution
4. **Negotiation** - Pricing/terms
5. **Close** - Customer acquisition!

## Launch Metrics

**Acquisition Metrics:**
- Sign-ups: [Target #]
- Conversion rate: [Target %]
- Cost per acquisition: [Budget]

**Engagement Metrics:**
- DAU (Daily Active Users)
- Feature adoption rate
- Time in app

**Retention Metrics:**
- Day 7/30 retention
- Churn rate
- NPS score

**Business Metrics:**
- MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue)
- ACV (Average Contract Value)
- Payback period

## Troubleshooting

### Yaygın Hatalar & Çözümler

| Hata | Olası Sebep | Çözüm |
|------|-------------|-------|
| Launch delay | Product not ready | Parallel tracks, beta extend |
| Low buzz | Insufficient marketing | 4-week teaser campaign |
| Sales not ready | Late enablement | Training week 6 |
| Support overwhelmed | Under-staffed | Temp staff, extended hours |

### Debug Checklist

```
[ ] GTM model clearly defined mi?
[ ] Target segments validated mi?
[ ] Messaging tested mi?
[ ] Sales team trained mi?
[ ] Support docs ready mi?
[ ] Rollback plan var mı?
[ ] Monitoring configured mı?
```

### Recovery Procedures

1. **Launch Date Slip** → Communicate early, propose new date
2. **Critical Bug** → Activate rollback procedure
3. **Low Adoption** → Accelerate marketing, CS outreach

---

**Master launch execution and create market momentum!**

Overview

This skill helps product leaders and teams plan and execute successful go-to-market (GTM) strategies and product launches. It combines GTM model selection, positioning templates, a 12-week launch plan, launch-week runbooks, and sales enablement tools to drive measurable outcomes. Use it to coordinate teams, reduce launch risk, and accelerate time-to-value.

How this skill works

I walk you through choosing the right GTM model (direct sales, self-service, SMB, or channel) based on ACV, sales cycle, and team structure. I provide a compact positioning template and ICP checklist, a week-by-week 12-week launch plan with concrete deliverables, a launch-day schedule, and post-launch recovery steps. You also get sales one-pager and pitch structures, objection handling scripts, and the key metrics to monitor during and after launch.

When to use it

  • Preparing a first public launch or major feature release
  • Deciding between direct, freemium, SMB, or partner GTM models
  • Coordinating cross-functional launch readiness across product, sales, marketing, and support
  • Onboarding sales and support teams before launch week
  • Running a beta program to validate product/market fit

Best practices

  • Choose a GTM model aligned to ACV and target buyer behavior, not wishful thinking
  • Lock go/no-go criteria and launch date during kickoff to avoid last-minute slips
  • Run a 50–100 user beta to catch stability issues and validate messaging
  • Train sales and support at least two weeks before launch and provide one-pager collateral
  • Monitor acquisition, engagement, and retention metrics from day one and iterate quickly

Example use cases

  • Launching a SaaS product targeting 50–500 employee tech companies with a direct sales motion
  • Switching an app from invite-only beta to self-serve growth with a freemium model
  • Coordinating a partner-led marketplace launch with reseller enablement materials
  • Preparing a 12-week launch roadmap and checklists for a cross-functional product release
  • Creating sales enablement materials and a 3-minute pitch for rapid prospecting

FAQ

How do I pick the right GTM model?

Match the model to expected ACV, sales cycle, and product complexity: direct sales for high ACV and complex solutions, self-service for low ACV and highly intuitive products, SMB for mid-range ACV, and channel for broad distribution with partner alignment.

What is the minimum beta size and duration?

Select 50–100 engaged beta users over 2–4 weeks to uncover stability issues and early adoption patterns; prioritize daily feedback and quick bug triage during that window.