Launch Gates Toolkit
For a launch that needs a go or no-go bar set in advance.
- Time
- 30-45 minutes per launch gate review.
- Who
- Release owner, engineering lead, product lead, support lead, and incident commander/backstop.
- Decide now
- Make the go or no-go call, and name who owns each deferred risk and the rollback.
- What it gets you
- A launch decision made against numbers set in advance, with one person named to roll it back.
- What you leave with
- Signed go/no-go note linked to gate scorecard and rollback owner.
What to do at each pace
- • Do now in tighter conditions: Make reliability and support readiness hard blockers.
- • Do now in easier conditions: Relax a non-critical gate only when the launch teaches you something you cannot learn another way.
- • Go ahead when: Proceed only when every scorecard gate passes and each remaining risk has a named mitigation.
- • Pause if: Stop the launch when any hard blocker falls below its pass mark.
- • Restart when: Send the rollback messages when early launch signals cross their limits.
By pace: When conditions say slow down, raise the quality bar; when they say speed up, launch sooner to learn faster.
Prep checklist
- • Pre-fill the gate scorecard with current values 24 hours before review.
- • List unresolved launch risks with severity and mitigation owner.
- • Prepare rollback communication drafts for customer-facing and internal channels.
Run sequence
Define gates
Objective: Set measurable go/no-go criteria before final launch week.
Prompts
- • Which reliability, adoption, and support thresholds must be met?
- • Which gate is a hard blocker versus a mitigatable risk?
Deliverable: Launch gate scorecard with pass/fail criteria.
Assess risk
Objective: Capture residual risks with owner, severity, and mitigation plan.
Prompts
- • What could break in first 72 hours and how quickly can we detect it?
- • Which dependencies outside our team threaten launch confidence?
Deliverable: Risk register linked to monitoring and response owners.
Call the launch
Objective: Make an explicit call with fallback communication ready.
Prompts
- • Who gives final launch approval and who can halt if signal degrades?
- • What customer/internal message is pre-approved for rollback?
Deliverable: Signed go/no-go note and rollback communications packet.
Signs it worked
- • Go/no-go is recorded with rationale and ownership in the same meeting.
- • Any deferred risk has a named mitigation owner and review date.
- • Rollback communications can be sent within minutes, not hours.
What's in this toolkit
Common mistakes to avoid
- • Launching on optimism without threshold evidence