Step 1: Approve the launch facts into the memory, four weeks out
Everything every role will say about the product comes from the Brand Brain and the approved sources, through the fact gate. So the first step is to write the launch facts, what it is, what it does, specifications, availability, pricing language exactly as approved, what it is not, and put them into the Brand Brain with the launch lead's name and the date as provenance, plus the product documentation as an approved source. Until this is done, every role's draft about the launch will be blocked at the gate, which is the mechanism protecting the launch from four roles inventing four descriptions.
The myth piece on learning your business on its own explains why the facts go in by approval and not by osmosis.
Step 2: Build the knowledge base ahead of the announcement, weeks four to two
The Customer Support FTE answers only what the knowledge base answers, so the launch's articles, how to get it, how it works, what changed, what to do if, must exist before the announcement. Have the support lead brief the FTE to propose articles from the launch facts, approve them in Setup, and hold them unpublished until launch day, then publish through the connection at the announcement. Add launch-specific triggers to the escalate list: pricing questions, migration questions from existing customers, and anything about a pre-order or a refund, each with a receiver.
A launch whose support articles arrive a week after the announcement is a launch the first line cannot answer.
- Articles proposed from the launch facts, approved, held
- Published through the connection at the announcement
- Launch triggers added to the escalate list with receivers
Step 3: Write the campaign brief with caps, three weeks out
The Marketing Strategist FTE runs the launch campaign as a production mission to a brief from the template: objective, audience, channels, budget with caps per channel, dates, success criteria per channel, and the never-do list, which includes any positioning or pricing language not in the approved facts. The content and social roles produce the pieces through their own gates and their own managers; the Performance Ads FTE, if running, launches only on the growth lead's approval inside caps set at the platform. The campaign brief piece and the campaign template in the library give the fields.
Coordination happens in the workspace; the gates do not collapse for a launch.
Step 4: Refresh the protected list and the qualification criteria, two weeks out
A launch produces inbound the SDR FTE will qualify and outbound the reps will want. Refresh the protected account list with the head of sales: existing customers who will hear about the launch from their account owner, not from automated outreach; prospects in live conversations; partners. Update the qualification criteria for launch-specific signals with evidence sources. Confirm that pricing, discounts, and terms remain on the Never list for every draft, and that the launch's pricing language in any outreach comes from the approved facts only. Add the launch to the Brand Brain's voice guidance if the tone differs.
The sixty-day SDR playbook describes the protected list; the launch is when it matters most.
Step 5: Run launch day from the workforce view
On launch day, the launch lead reads the workforce view's combined brief across roles, ordered by what blocks the most: content pieces waiting for the marketing lead, social drafts waiting for the brand manager, support articles published and the first cited replies waiting for the support lead, inbound qualifications routed to reps, the ad launch waiting for the growth lead. Each role's approvals go to its own manager; the launch lead handles escalations marked above a manager's level and watches the waiting counts. Nothing is promoted on launch day, and no remit changes beyond receivers.
The story of a day in the workforce view shows the screen doing this job on an ordinary day; a launch is the same screen, busier.
Step 6: Read the launch week's reasons together, one week after
A week after, gather every role's send-back reasons and escalations from the launch week in one review: facts send-backs mean the launch facts had a gap or an error, and the Brand Brain is corrected with provenance; rules send-backs mean a remit lacked a launch rule; support gaps mean an article was missing, and it is proposed; pricing escalations mean the language was unclear somewhere upstream. Read the campaign's mid-campaign review from the Marketing Strategist FTE against the brief's criteria. This is the launch's honest review, and it is written from the record rather than from impressions.
The Marketing Strategist story shows the review written against the brief.
What does done look like?
Four weeks out, launch facts in the Brand Brain with provenance and the documentation as an approved source; two weeks out, launch articles approved and held, launch triggers on the escalate list with receivers, the campaign brief approved with caps, the protected list and criteria refreshed; launch day, every role's work approved by its own manager from the workforce view with nothing promoted; a week after, a review of every role's send-backs and escalations together with the campaign's review against the brief, and the corrections recorded.
The CMO persona piece describes what the marketing leader keeps through all of it: the positioning and the strategy.