Chapter 4 of 12

Launch Day Mechanics: Command and Control

Managing the "War Room," real-time dashboards, and crisis communication protocols.

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What You'll Learn By the end of this chapter, you'll establish a "War Room" (virtual or physical), define the T-Minus Countdown Checklist, and master the art of Crisis Communication.

The War Room: Command & Control

On Launch Day, you are not a startup; you are a military operation. You need a centralized command center.

Roles

  • Commander (COO/CEO): Makes the final call on stressful decisions.
  • Ops Lead (CTO): Monitors the dashboard.
  • Comms Lead (Marketing): Contextualizes issues for the public.
  • Scribe: Records every event for the retro.

Protocol

Single Channel: One Slack channel (#launch-war-room). No side DMs.

Hourly SitRep: Commander posts a status update every hour (Green/Yellow/Red).

The T-Minus Countdown

Do not rely on memory. You need a minute-by-minute runbook.

Time Action Owner
T-60m Final Status Check. "Go" confirmed. Commander
T-30m Production Database backup snapshot taken. DevOps
T-15m Support team logs in. Dashboard screens up. Head of CS
T-0 DNS Switch / Feature Flag TOGGLED ON. Eng Lead
T+5m Smoke Test (Login -> Checkout -> Value). QA
T+15m Marketing Email Send / Social Blast. Marketing

Real-Time Dashboarding: The Command Center

Visibility is the antidote to chaos. A composite dashboard should be visible to all War Room participants, aggregating data from APM, Product Analytics, and Support systems.

Metric Source Alert Threshold Action if Breached
Traffic Volume GA4 / Amplitude >2x expected Scale infrastructure
Error Rate Datadog / Sentry >1% HTTP 500 Investigate + possible rollback
P95 Latency New Relic / Datadog >3 seconds DB investigation
Sign-up Velocity Product Analytics Drop >50% Check funnel breaks
Ticket Inflow Zendesk / Intercom >10/minute Escalate to engineering
Social Sentiment Twitter API / Mention Negative spike Comms response

Dashboard Display Rules

  • Use a shared screen or TV visible to the entire War Room
  • Refresh rate should be <60 seconds for critical metrics
  • Color-code thresholds: Green (normal), Yellow (warning), Red (critical)
  • Include a "Burn Rate" indicator showing error budget consumption

Incident Severity Levels

Pre-define severity levels so the team knows how to respond without debate:

SEV-1 (Critical)

Definition: System down or data loss.
Response: All Hands. Marketing pauses campaigns. Immediate War Room escalation.

SEV-2 (Major)

Definition: Core feature broken, workaround available.
Response: Dev team prioritized. Marketing continues with caution.

SEV-3 (Minor)

Definition: Visual bug or edge case.
Response: Fix scheduled for next patch. No immediate action.

Crisis Communication: The "Vacuum" Principle

Silence Kills

In a crisis (e.g., site goes down), silence creates a vacuum that users fill with rumors. Talk fast. "We are aware of the issue and investigating" is better than silence.

"When you stay silent, you create a vacuum. That space will get filled—fast—with rumors, speculation, and flat-out lies." Update every 30 minutes, even if the update is "No change."

Response Timeline
  • 0-15 min: Acknowledge on Status Page + Social
  • 30 min: First update with investigation status
  • Every 30-60 min: Progress updates until resolved
  • Resolution: Full update with next steps
  • 24-48 hours: Post-incident report published
Communication Channels
  • Status Page: Atlassian Statuspage (external host!)
  • Twitter/X: Immediate acknowledgment
  • In-App Banner: For active users
  • Email: For extended outages (>1 hour)
  • Internal: All-company Slack announcement
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Launch Checklist

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Works Cited & Recommended Reading
Lean Startup Methodology
Launch Readiness & Strategy
  • 3. "Goals, Readiness and Constraints: The Three Dimensions of a Product Launch." Pragmatic Institute
  • 4. "I Launched a SaaS and Failed - Here's What I Learned." Reddit
  • 5. "SaaS Product Development Checklist: From Idea to Launch." Dev.Pro
  • 6. "10 Biggest SaaS Challenges: How to Protect Your Business." Userpilot
Metrics & KPIs
  • 7. "The Essential Guide to Product Launch Metrics." Gainsight
  • 8. "Product launch plan template for SaaS and B2B marketing teams." Understory Agency
  • 9. "SaaS Metrics Dashboard Examples and When to Use Them." UXCam
  • 10. "B2B SaaS Product Launch Checklist 2025: No-Fluff & AI-Ready." GTM Buddy
  • 11. "The Pre-Launch Metrics Imperative." Venture for All
  • 12. "Average Resolution Time | KPI example." Geckoboard
  • 13. "Burn rate is a better error rate." Datadog
Stakeholder Alignment
  • 14. "Coordinate product launches with internal stakeholders." Product Marketing Alliance
  • 15. "Comprehensive SaaS Product Readiness Checklist." Default
  • 16. "Launching with stakeholders - Open-source product playbook." Coda
  • 17. "Product launch checklist: How to ensure a successful launch." Atlassian
Launch Checklists & Process
Runbooks & Execution
  • 20. "Runbook Example: A Best Practices Guide." Nobl9
  • 21. "10 Steps for a Successful SaaS Product Launch Day." Scenic West Design
  • 22. "SaaS Outages: When Lightning Strikes, Thunder Rolls." Forrester
  • 23. "Developer-Friendly Runbooks: A Guide." Medium
  • 24. "Your Essential Product Launch Checklist Template." VeryCreatives
  • 25. "87-Action-Item Product Launch Checklist." Ignition
Press Kits & Marketing Assets
  • 26. "How to Build a SaaS Media Kit for Your Brand." Webstacks
  • 27. "Press Kit: What It Is, Templates & 10+ Examples For 2025." Prezly
  • 28. "How I Won #1 Product of The Day on Product Hunt." Microns.io
Messaging Frameworks
  • 29. "Product messaging: Guide to frameworks, strategy, and examples." PMA
  • 30. "Product Messaging Framework: A Guide for Ambitious PMMs." Product School
Runbook Templates & Automation
Dashboards & Real-Time Monitoring
  • 39. "8 SaaS Dashboard Examples to Track Key Metrics." Userpilot
  • 40. "Real-time dashboards: are they worth it?" Tinybird
  • 41. "Incident Management - MTBF, MTTR, MTTA, and MTTF." Atlassian
  • 42. "SaaS Metrics Dashboard: Your Revenue Command Center." Rework
  • 43. "12 product adoption metrics to track for success." Appcues
Crisis Communication
  • 44. "How to Create a Crisis Communication Plan." Everbridge
  • 45. "10 Crisis Communication Templates for Every Agency Owner." CoSchedule
  • 46. "Your Complete Crisis Communication Plan Template." Ready Response
  • 47. "Crisis communications: What it is and examples brands can learn from." Sprout Social
Retrospectives & Learning
  • 48. "What the 'Lean Startup' didn't tell me - 3 iterations in." Reddit
  • 49. "Does Your Product Launch Strategy Include Retrospectives?" UserVoice
  • 50. "Retrospective Templates for Efficient Team Meetings." Miro
  • 51. "50+ Retrospective Questions for your Next Meeting." Parabol
  • 52. "Quick Wins for Product Managers." Medium
  • 53. "Showcase Early Wins for Successful Product Adoption." Profit.co
Observability & Tooling
  • 54. "The Lean Startup Method 101: The Essential Ideas." Lean Startup Co
  • 55. "Grafana: The open and composable observability platform." Grafana Labs
  • 56. "The essential product launch checklist for SaaS companies | 2025." Orb Billing

This playbook synthesizes methodologies from DevOps, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), Incident Command System (ICS), and modern product management practices. References are provided for deeper exploration of each topic.