A launch checklist for people who build alone
George · 4 min read
Most launch checklists are written for teams. They assume someone to make the video, someone to write the posts, someone to answer comments while you sleep. If it is just you, you need a shorter list, and you need to know which parts can be skipped.
This is the one I use.
Before: the things you cannot skip
- The product works for a stranger. Sign up with a fresh email address and do the main thing your product does. Fix whatever stopped you.
- Your website says what it is in one line. Above everything else on the page. If a visitor has to scroll to find out what you make, most will not. The free ready to launch check looks at this and twelve other things for you.
- One clear thing to do. Sign up, download, buy. One button, not five.
- Three or four screenshots. Real ones, of the product doing its job.
- A way to reach you. An email address or your X handle, somewhere obvious.
Before: nice to have
- A short video. Thirty seconds of the product in use is plenty.
- A simple way to see how many people visit and where they come from.
- A logo that still reads at the size of a thumbnail.
- A picture for when your link is shared. You can make one with the free OG image generator and see the result in the link preview checker.
- Two or three people who will try it and tell you the truth.
On the day
- Post it where you launch. One place first. Add the others over the following days.
- Tell the people who already know you. A post, a message to friends, a note in a community you are part of. Ask them to look, not to vote.
- Stay close. Answer every comment and every email quickly. On day one, speed is the one thing a solo founder can do better than a company.
- Write down what confuses people. The same question asked twice is your next fix.
The week after
- Fix the top three things people stumbled on.
- Thank everyone who tried it, and ask one question: what almost stopped you?
- Launch on the next site.
- Write a short post about how it went, with real numbers. People read and share those.
What you can skip
A press kit. A launch trailer. A countdown page. A perfect landing page. Coordinated posts across six networks. None of these decide whether a first launch goes well. A working product, a clear sentence, and you being around to answer do.
If your checklist has grown so long that it has become the reason you have not launched, it is too long.
Where ShipDesk.dev comes in
A launch here covers a few lines of this list by itself: you get a page for your product, a link to your site, and a week on the board instead of a single day, so "on the day" becomes "during the week" and you have room to breathe.