Product launch Gantt chart template
A small team launching a software product or major feature needs about five weeks of preparation, plus a review the week after. This template covers research and positioning, launch assets and go to market, with a Positioning locked milestone before anyone writes a headline: changing the message later means redoing the landing page, the video and the sales deck.
- Research & positioning
- Market research
- Positioning & messaging
- Pricing strategy
- Positioning locked
- Launch assets
- Landing page
- Demo video
- Sales collateral
- Go to market
- Press & analyst briefings
- Beta customer program
- Launch day runbook
- Launch 🚀
- Post-launch review
This is the actual template. Durations count working days; weekends are skipped. Drag any bar to reshape it once it’s open.
When to use it
- Product, marketing and sales need one launch date and one view of what has to be ready by then.
- You’re a founder running the launch yourself and want the easily forgotten jobs (pricing, press, a runbook) on the chart.
- A beta group is using the product and their bug reports need to land before the public launch.
- Leadership wants to see the plan before committing to a date.
What’s in it
- 01
Research & positioning
Market research, positioning and messaging, then pricing, each overlapping the last. Pricing follows positioning because the price has to make sense next to what you’ve said the product is for. Positioning locked lands around day 15.
- 02
Launch assets
Landing page, demo video and sales collateral, staggered over about two weeks. The landing page starts a few days before positioning locks, so spend those days on layout and build and leave the headline until the messaging is final. The video starts later because script changes after recording are expensive.
- 03
Go to market
A beta with early customers runs for most of the phase so feedback arrives while there’s still time to act on it. Press and analyst briefings happen in the week or so before launch, the runbook gets written in the final days, and Launch lands around day 33, with a review the week after. The runbook says who publishes what and when, who watches support and social, and what gets switched off if something breaks.
Adapting it to your project
Brief press under embargo
Keep launch day clear of long weekends
Set the success number in advance
Save an iteration each time the date moves
Questions
How long does a product launch take to plan?
About five weeks of preparation for a software product or feature launched by a small team, which is what this template assumes. Physical products, regulated products and launches with retail partners often need three to six months or more, mostly for manufacturing, certification and retailer lead times.
What should a product launch timeline include?
Market research, positioning and messaging, pricing, launch assets (landing page, demo, sales material), press briefings, a beta or early-access group, a launch day runbook, launch day itself and a review afterwards. Milestones for locked positioning and launch day give everyone two fixed points to plan around.
Will moving one task push the others back?
No. NeoGantt doesn’t link tasks, so moving positioning won’t move the landing page for you. You drag bars yourself or shift the whole plan at once, which is fine for a launch of a few dozen tasks. If yours has hundreds of interlinked tasks, a tool with dependencies will suit it better.
Related
Start your product launch plan
Open it, drag the bars onto your real dates and rename anything that doesn’t fit. Sign up when you want to keep it.