How to launch a product

I have launched apps well and badly. The difference was almost never the launch day itself.

Decide what the launch is for.

Users, feedback, credibility or a number to point at later. Pick one. A launch aimed at all four hits none.
Have something people can use in ten seconds.

No signup wall, no onboarding tour, no waitlist. Attention on launch day evaporates and does not come back.
Write the one sentence first.

If you cannot say what it is in one line, the launch will not fix that. Test the sentence on someone before you build the page.
Line up the first ten before you post.

Ten people who have agreed to look on the day. Silence in the first hour is what kills a launch, and it is preventable.
Pick one channel and commit.

Product Hunt, a subreddit, LinkedIn, a newsletter. Spreading across four means arriving late and thin in all of them.
Post when your people are awake.

Obvious and routinely ignored. Check where your audience is before you pick a time.
Be present all day.

Answer every comment within minutes. Engagement early decides how much reach the rest of the day gets.
Say what it does not do.

Naming the limits builds more trust than any feature list. It also filters out the people who would have left a bad review.
Have the next thing ready.

A launch is only a start if there is a follow-up. Shipping again within a week keeps the people you just got.
Expect less of a reaction than you hoped for.

Almost every launch is. The ones that look explosive usually had a year of quiet work behind them that you did not see.

Decide what the launch is for.