The Product Launch Checklist: 40 Steps Before, During and After Launch Day

This product launch checklist has 40 steps, split into four stretches: four weeks out, launch week, launch day, and the two weeks after. Print it, copy it into Notion, or just work down the page.

I run DivvLaunches, a daily launch board where 103 products have launched so far. So I see the same launches go right and wrong every week, from the moderation side. Every step below is either something I've watched happen on real launches or a rule I checked on the platform's own help pages this week. If you want the bigger plan behind it, the four-week order of directories, maker platforms and the big stage, read our guide on how to launch a product. This post is the tick-box version.

The whole checklist on one page. The orange steps are the six I'd do if you only have one evening.

Four weeks out: the steps that take time (1 to 12)

Most launches I see go wrong here, not on launch day. Some platforms make you wait weeks for a date or a review, so start the slow stuff first.

1. Make it something a stranger can try in two minutes. Open your product in an incognito window. If there's a waitlist, a demo call or a card form before anyone sees it work, fix that first. Hacker News is strict about this: its Show HN guidelines say a Show HN has to be something people can actually try, not a landing page.

2. Join the Uneed free line now. Uneed's free line assigns your date for you, at least 50 days out, according to its How It Works page. The same page says a free launch needs an upvote score of 10 on launch day to stay published, and 20 to keep a dofollow link. Fast-track is $14.99 for a date about two weeks out, and $39.99 lets you pick the day.

3. Submit to the slow directories first. On our directory list, BetaList and There's An AI For That both show 1 to 2 weeks of review. Sonic Run shows about 30 days. Send those today so they go live around launch, not a month after.

4. Set up your Peerlist profile. Launches open every Monday and run for the week, and you need a verified personal profile, not a company page. One thing most checklists skip: Peerlist's Launchpad FAQ says only the top 5 projects of the week get a backlink. Go for the community, not the link.

5. Tidy your Product Hunt profile. You launch from a personal account, so add a real photo, a bio and your X handle. Don't make Product Hunt your first launch if you have no audience yet. Save it for week three.

6. Set up analytics and one UTM link per platform. Something like yoursite.com/?utm_source=peerlist. Without this, your recap post will say "it went okay" instead of naming which platform sent signups.

7. Write a tagline under 10 words. Say what it is and who it's for. This is the step I'd spend the most time on, because it's where I see the most mistakes on our own board.

Tagline length for every launch on DivvLaunches from 1 to 10 Nov 2026, shown by length rather than by name.

Our tagline field stops at 120 characters. I checked the 20 launches from 1 to 10 November: 6 of them landed at 119 or 120 characters, and 4 of those were cut off mid-word on the live card. A tagline that stops mid-word reads like a typo. Good ones are plain, and well under the cap. 3D House Planner says "Draw a 2D floor plan, see it live in 3D and render it with AI, free in your browser". Safe Outreach says "Check if LinkedIn detects your Chrome extension". You know what both do before you click.

8. Write a 2 to 3 sentence description. Who it's for, what it does, and one number: a price, a count, a time saved. Not "revolutionary". Our checker wants at least 60 characters to pass and 120 for full marks.

9. Make a square logo that reads at 48 pixels. Thin text turns into a smudge on a launch card. Test it by shrinking it on your screen.

10. Take 1 to 3 screenshots. In our study of 48 real launches, listings with 1 screenshot and 3 screenshots did the same. Don't delay launch to make ten. A demo video is nice to have, not a blocker.

11. Make a 1200 x 630 share image. It's what shows on X, LinkedIn and Slack when someone pastes your link. The free OG Image Generator makes one in your browser, and the Link Preview Checker shows how it looks on each app.

12. Fix your homepage title, meta description and favicon. Directories pull these automatically. Check the snippet with Google Search Preview and make icons with the Favicon Generator.

Launch week: line everything up (13 to 22)

13. Run your listing through a checker. Our Launch Readiness Checker runs the same code we use to approve launches: 70 out of 100, with the badge, website, logo, tagline and description checks all passing. It works for any platform, and nothing you type leaves your browser.

An example listing (Skyradar is the checker's own placeholder name). It scores 77, but a 36-character description fails a required check, so it wouldn't be approved yet.

14. Book your DivvLaunches date early. There are 10 free launch spots a day. A free launch needs our badge on your site, and you can add it up to 72 hours after booking. First Class is $9.99 once and skips the badge. Prices are on the pricing page.

15. Space your launch dates a few days apart. Don't put DivvLaunches, Peerlist, Product Hunt and Show HN on the same afternoon. Each one is a new reason to post, and each one gets your full attention for a day.

Lead times and link rules as each platform states them, checked 10 Nov 2026. Sources: [Uneed](https://www.uneed.best/how-it-works), [Peerlist](https://help.peerlist.io/individual/launchpad/frequently-asked-questions-about-spotlight-by-peerlist), [Product Hunt](https://help.producthunt.com/en/articles/484923-how-do-things-end-up-on-the-homepage), Product Hunt's [Launch FAQ](https://help.producthunt.com/en/articles/17734646-8-launch-faq-and-myths), [Show HN](https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html), our [directory list](https://www.divvlaunches.com/directories) and [pricing](https://www.divvlaunches.com/pricing).

16. Write down three places you'll share it, by name. Not "social media". "My X account, r/SideProject, and the founder Slack I'm in." In our study, the launches that did best were the ones where the founder brought people with them.

17. Draft your launch posts now. One short story of why you built it, one screenshot, one link. Posts written in a rush on launch day always come out worse.

18. Write your first comment. Why you built it, who it's for, and one thing that was hard. People read the maker's story before they try anything, so this is your pitch.

19. Make a short list of people to tell yourself. Friends who would actually use it, past users, people who replied to your build posts. Ask for feedback, not votes. On Hacker News, asking for upvotes is against the rules.

20. Test your site on a phone. We once found the Website button on our own homepage listings hidden on phones, and it had been that way since our first launch day. Every launch lost its clicks from phone visitors on the homepage until we fixed it. Ten minutes on your phone can save your launch from the same thing.

21. Sign up for your own product as a stranger. Use a fresh email. Does the welcome email arrive? Does the first screen make sense without you explaining it?

22. Clear launch day and the day after. Both. The second day matters more than people think (step 32).

Launch day: show up and reply (23 to 31)

23. Be online when the window opens. Product Hunt days start at 12:01 AM Pacific, which is 1:31 PM IST while the US is on standard time. Peerlist opens on Monday. On DivvLaunches, voting closes at midnight IST.

24. Open your live listing and look at it like a stranger. Is the tagline cut off? Is the logo sharp? Does the Website button go to the right page, with your UTM tag on it?

The live podium on our [winners page](https://www.divvlaunches.com/winners), 10 Nov 2026. Look at how each card shows the tagline: this is what people see before they click.

25. Check the link type yourself. Right-click the link to your site, choose Inspect, and read the rel attribute. To be clear about our own: the website link on a free DivvLaunches listing is nofollow, and on First Class it's marked sponsored. Both still send visitors. Our post on dofollow vs nofollow shows what we found when we checked 39 of our own directory listings.

26. Post your drafts, in order. Your own accounts first, then the communities you named in step 16. Follow each community's self-promo rules.

27. Reply to every comment. The critical ones too, and those most of all. A calm reply to a tough question does more for you than ten "congrats!" comments.

28. Thank people by name. On the launch thread and on X. It's polite, and it gives them a reason to share it.

29. Don't buy votes or join upvote groups. Platforms notice, and the votes don't come from people who'll use your product anyway.

30. Write down every question people ask. Those questions are your FAQ, your next landing page fix, and your next tagline.

31. Screenshot your result. If you make the top 3 on DivvLaunches, you're frozen as Gold, Silver or Bronze on the winners page, which is a page you can link to for good.

After launch: where most of the value is (32 to 40)

32. Share again the next day. In our 48-launch study, the day after launch brought more clicks than launch day itself. Part of that is time zones: our day ends at midnight IST, which is still afternoon in New York. Post a thank-you, share what people said, and drop the link again.

33. Add your listings to your site. A "Featured on" row in your footer. TryBadgey, which launched here on 3 November, is built for exactly this.

34. Track every listing in one sheet. Columns: platform, live URL, date, link type, visitors. Check Uneed the day after: per its rules, a free launch with a score of 20 or more keeps a dofollow link, 10 to 19 stays up with a nofollow link, and under 10 goes back to your dashboard.

35. Keep sharing through your Peerlist week. The ranking runs all week, and Peerlist's FAQ says the first two days are shown in random order. Your score at the end of the week decides the top 5, not your Monday.

36. Keep submitting directories, 8 to 10 a week. Pick the ones that fit your category from our directory list.

37. Fix your listing copy with what you learned. If three people asked "is this for teams?", that answer goes in your description.

38. Write the recap post. Which platform sent signups, what flopped, what you'd do again. Honest recaps get shared far more than launch announcements.

39. Reply to late comments a week later. Listings keep getting found after launch week, and a reply on day 9 still counts.

40. Plan your next reason to post. Your next stage from the list of 25 places to launch, or a relaunch when you ship something big. A launch is a month, not a day.

The short product launch checklist (one evening)

Forty steps is a lot. If you're launching tomorrow and have one evening, do these six: make it tryable (1), fix the tagline (7), run the checker (13), name your three places (16), clear the day after (22), and share again on day two (32). Everything else makes a launch better. Those six decide if anyone shows up.

The free Launch Kit has a tracker for 25 platforms if you want this in a sheet. And if you want to see what a launch week looks like on our board, the Nov 2 to 7 roundup has 15 of them.

When your list is ticked, book your launch on DivvLaunches.

FAQ

What should a product launch checklist include?

The steps that take time (platform waitlists, slow directory reviews), your listing copy and images, a plan for where you'll share it, launch-day replies, and a second round of sharing the day after.

How far ahead should I start?

About four weeks, mainly because some platforms have long queues. Uneed's free line alone assigns dates at least 50 days out, so join it even earlier if you want it.

Do launch platforms give dofollow backlinks?

Some do, some don't, and some only do under conditions. Peerlist only links its weekly top 5, Uneed's free launches need a score of 20, and DivvLaunches listings are nofollow (free) or sponsored (First Class). Always check the rel attribute yourself.