Launch a product: the playbook

A launch is not one skill, it is a sequence. Skip the upstream steps and you launch a well-marketed product nobody wants, or a great product with a message nobody remembers. Run the steps in order. Each step names the discipline skill to invoke and what to walk away with.

When to use this

• Launching a new product, feature, store, or major version.
• Planning a Product Hunt launch, a press push, or a limited/capped drop.
• A time-boxed go-to-market moment where several disciplines have to line up.
• The user asks "how do we launch", "what's the plan", or "what order do I do this in".

If the goal is steady zero-to-first-users acquisition rather than a launch moment, use the acquire-first-users playbook instead. If the request is a single piece of a launch (just the copy, just the ads), invoke that discipline skill directly.

The sequence

Step 1 - Decide the bet (before any asset)

Invoke strategy-fundamentals. Get: which segment and job-to-be-done you are launching for, whether the product actually has fit, which one or two channels you will concentrate on, and a one-line strategy. If there is no diagnosis, everything downstream is guesswork. Do not skip this even under deadline.

Step 2 - Positioning and brand

Invoke brand (pull in strategy-fundamentals output). Get: the positioning against an incumbent or category, the differentiator competitors cannot also claim, the name/tagline, and the voice the launch speaks in. This is what makes the launch memorable instead of generic.

Step 3 - Message and copy

Invoke copywriting-messaging; add marketing-psychology for the persuasion triggers. Get: the launch headline, value prop, the announcement copy, and the hooks you will reuse across Product Hunt, email, social, and ads. Turn features into benefits and handle the obvious objections here, once, then reuse everywhere.

Step 4 - Price and offer (if money changes hands at launch)

Invoke pricing-monetization. Get: the launch pricing, any launch-only discount or founder tier, and how the price is displayed. Lock this before the assets quote a number.

Step 5 - Run the launch moment

Invoke launch-gtm. Get: the channel for first users, the Product Hunt run-of-show, the press outreach list and angle, and any scarcity mechanic for a limited drop. This is the spike-day playbook.

Step 6 - Carry it with acquisition channels

Invoke the channel skills that fit the concentrated channel from Step 1:

• paid-acquisition to put spend behind the launch creative.
• organic-social to earn reach and ride the launch-day attention.
• email-marketing to fire the launch sequence to your list.
• sales-outbound if the motion is founder-led or sales-driven.
• influencer-creator to seed creators around the moment.

Get: live campaigns using the Step-3 hooks, message-matched to the landing page.

Step 7 - Convert the attention

Invoke conversion-cro. Get: a launch landing page that turns the spike into signups or sales, with the ad-to-page message match verified so paid clicks do not bounce.

Step 8 - Prove it worked

Invoke analytics-data. Get: the launch North Star and the handful of KPIs to watch, an honest read on whether the lift was real (not just platform-reported ROAS), and the ranked list of what to fix next.

How to adapt

• Tiny or solo launch: collapse Steps 2 to 4 into a single positioning-plus-copy pass, but

never skip Step 1 (strategy) or Step 8 (measurement).

• No press or Product Hunt in scope: Step 5 shrinks to the launch checklist; put the weight

on Steps 6 and 7.

• Ecommerce/DTC launch: add ecommerce alongside Steps 5 to 7 for store mechanics, cart

recovery, and AOV, and use retention-lifecycle for the post-purchase flow.

• Free product with a viral angle: insert product-led-growth between Steps 5 and 6 to build

the invite/referral loop into the launch itself.

• Want a proven template first: run growth-teardowns before Step 5 to copy a launch pattern

from a company that already nailed it.

When any single step raises a question bigger than the launch ("is this even the right channel", "why is nothing converting"), stop and route through the growth-os master router.

From God of Skills: a curated, hand-tested directory of AI skills, prompts, templates and image style guides. Source: https://godofskills.com/skills/launch-a-product?ref=claude-skill