Launch withprecision. The Project & Launch Planner
① The Project
What am I delivering, and by when
② Project at a Glance
Start
Deadline
Team size
Status
③ Success looks like
Definition of done
The one thing that must go right
What "good" looks like for this project
What "great" would look like
④ SMART Goal
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Time-bound
⑤ STAR Framework
Situation
Task
Action
Result
⑥ Baseline Metrics — Before We Start
Capture how things are now, before any change — so you can prove the improvement later. Easy to skip, impossible to recreate afterwards.
Metric
Baseline (now)
Target (after)
How measured
⑦ Budget & Capacity
Budget available
Who signs off overspend
Team capacity — real availability
Resource gaps
RACI — Who Does What
For each key area: who's Responsible (does it), Accountable (owns it), Consulted (gives input), Informed (kept in the loop). Clarity here prevents most project friction.
Activity / decision
Responsible
Accountable
Consulted
Informed
Sign-Off Gates
The approvals needed before each phase can proceed — no gate, no go.
Phase / gate
Who must approve
Approved?
Date
Key Milestones
Milestone
Owner
Due
Status
Notes
Critical Path & Dependencies
The chain of must-happen-in-order steps. A slip on the critical path slips the whole project — know which these are.
The critical path — what must happen in sequence
The one slip that delays everything
We depend on…
From whom (team/supplier)
Needed by
Confirmed?
Task List
Task
Priority
Owner
Due
Done?
Agile, simply. Work in short, time-boxed sprints. Keep a prioritised backlog of everything to do, pull the highest-value items into each sprint, and move them across the board as they progress. Review and adjust every sprint.
① Sprint Setup
Sprint #
Start
End
Sprint goal
② Product Backlog — Prioritised
Everything the project might need, in priority order. The top items feed your next sprint.
#
Backlog item / user story
Priority
Estimate (points)
Status
③ Sprint Board
To Do
In Progress
Done
④ Daily Stand-Up Notes
What we did yesterday
What we'll do today
Blockers in our way
Sprint velocity / points done
Change is about people, not just process. A perfect solution fails if the people affected aren't ready, willing, and able. Plan the human side as carefully as the technical.
Who's Affected
Group / team
Internal or external?
How they're affected
Level of change
Onboarding & Upskilling Timeline
Who
What they need to learn
How (method)
By when
Done?
How We'll Make the Change Land
Approach — gamification, training programmes, other?
How we'll embed it so people don't drift back
Detractors — Who's Resisting, and Why
Resistance is information. Understand the why — fear, workload, past experience — and you can bring people round.
Who
Their concern / why
How we'll bring them round
Collaborators, Go-To's & Sounding Boards
My trusted sounding boards
Key collaborators on this project
Cross-functional teams — aware & upskilled?
Knowledge checks & gaps
Stakeholder Map
Stakeholder
Their interest / stake
Influence
Informed?
Customer Experience Impact
Is there a customer impact?
Seamless, or do we tell them?
Communication Plan — Where & How
The right message, to the right people, in the right way. Match the channel to the audience and the size of the change.
Audience
Message
How (face-to-face, guide, Visio, email…)
When
Do we need an end-to-end visual / Visio?
Who do we need to collaborate with on comms?
Ready to go live? This is the pre-launch checklist that catches what's been missed. Work through it honestly — a "no" here is far cheaper than a "no" after go-live.
Process & Documentation
Tools & Systems
Tools needed to deliver successfully
Do we have them? Any gaps?
Data migration & quality
GDPR / data privacy & security signed off
Testing
Test
Who's testing (inc. internal promoters)
Result
Passed?
Rollback & What Might Break
What could break post go-live (systems/process)?
Rollback plan if go-live fails
Escalation Contacts
Area
Contact
Internal / third-party supplier
How to reach (24/7?)
✓ Go-Live Readiness — Final Check
Risks & Dependencies
Risk / Dependency
Likelihood
Impact
Mitigation
Business Continuity
If this change breaks something critical, how does the business keep running?
Critical functions that must keep running
Workaround if the new system/process fails
Who declares an incident, and how
Recovery time we can tolerate
Retrospective
What went well
What didn't
What I learned
What I'd change next time
Project scorecard
On time delivered to schedule
On scope delivered what mattered
Team worked well together
Quality proud of the result
Learning grew from it
Launch isn't the finish line. The weeks after go-live are where value is proven or lost. Monitor, listen, fix fast, and review whether the project actually delivered what it set out to.
① Immediate Health Check — First 48 Hours
Is it working as expected?
Anything broken or urgent?
Who's monitoring, and how
Rollback / contingency plan
Hypercare — The Intensive Support Window
How long is hypercare? (e.g. first 2 weeks)
Who's on hand, and how to reach them
How users get help fast
When & how we exit hypercare to business-as-usual
② Issues & Fixes Log
Issue
Reported by
Severity
Owner
Status
③ Feedback — What People Are Saying
Stakeholder feedback
User / customer feedback
Team feedback
Surprises — good and bad
④ Benefits Review — Did It Deliver?
Come back to this a few weeks on. Measure against the goals you set at the start — the honest test of success.