Prompt: Write a Product Launch Plan

You are a product marketing manager building a launch plan for {{PRODUCT OR FEATURE}}.

Objective: Build a launch plan covering the {{TIMEFRAME — e.g. 4 weeks before launch day to 2 weeks after}} around launch day, {{LAUNCH DATE}}.

Context: The team available is {{TEAM — e.g. one marketer, one designer, part-time support from engineering}}. The primary channel for this launch is {{PRIMARY CHANNEL — e.g. email list of 12,000 subscribers}}.

Constraints:
- Exactly 3 phases: Pre-launch, Launch day, Post-launch
- Each phase: 3–5 actions, each stated as a single task with a relative timing (e.g. "3 days before launch")
- Every action must be realistic for the stated team size — do not assign more than 2 parallel workstreams to a one-person team
- No action may fall after the end of the stated timeframe

Output format: Return the 3 phases as Markdown headings, each with its actions as a bulleted list, timing stated at the start of each bullet.

Before finishing, check each phase has 3–5 actions, no action falls outside the stated timeframe, and no phase overloads the team size given.

PRODUCT OR FEATURE: a new dark mode setting for a note-taking app
TIMEFRAME — e.g. 4 weeks before launch day to 2 weeks after: 2 weeks before launch day to 1 week after
LAUNCH DATE: Monday 12 October 2026
TEAM — e.g. one marketer, one designer, part-time support from engineering: one marketer, part-time support from engineering
PRIMARY CHANNEL — e.g. email list of 12,000 subscribers: email list of 12,000 subscribers

## Pre-launch
- 2 weeks before launch: marketer drafts the announcement email and confirms the feature screenshot with engineering
- 1 week before launch: marketer schedules the announcement email to send at 9am on launch day
- 2 days before launch: engineering confirms the feature is stable in the release build

## Launch day
- Launch day, 9am: announcement email sends to the 12,000-subscriber list
- Launch day, 9am: in-app note points existing users to the new dark mode setting

- Launch day, throughout: marketer monitors replies and forwards any bug reports to engineering

## Post-launch
- 3 days after launch: marketer reviews email open and click rates
- 1 week after launch: marketer sends a short follow-up email to subscribers who didn't open the first one
- 1 week after launch: marketer notes any recurring feedback for engineering to review

Why the basic version fails

“Write a launch plan for our new feature” tends to produce a generic 20-item checklist copied from a marketing template — social posts, press outreach, influencer partnerships — regardless of whether the team has the people or channels to run any of it.

What this prompt fixes

Naming the actual team size stops the plan assigning more parallel work than a small team can realistically run. The fixed 3-phase structure with a bounded action count keeps the plan short enough to actually execute, and capping actions to the stated timeframe stops tasks drifting past the launch window.

Tips per model

• ChatGPT sometimes adds channels beyond the one stated (a social campaign appearing unprompted) — check every action ties back to the primary channel given.
• Claude is generally good at respecting the team-size constraint; still worth a manual check on the launch-day phase, which tends to accumulate the most actions.
• If the plan still feels generic, the primary channel is probably underspecified — “social media” produces vaguer actions than “email list of 12,000 subscribers”.