Free Software Product Launch Template
Ship your next product on a plan that already exists. This launch template lays out the full arc, customer discovery, MVP build, closed beta, and GA day, as 12 scheduled tasks with priorities, effort estimates, and two launch milestones. Open it in Onplana and you start from a working plan instead of a blank board.
No credit card. Opens as a real project on the Free plan.
What’s inside
The full launch plan is below, all 12 tasks across Discovery, Build, and Launch, each with its description, effort, and priority. Open the template and every date is scheduled from today, ready to reshape around your release.
12
Scheduled tasks
3
Phases
2
Milestones
~9
Weeks end to end
How to run a launch with this plan
A product launch fails in one of two predictable places: the team commits to a build before the problem is validated, or it ships on GA day with no beta signal to trust. This plan is sequenced to close both gaps. Discovery comes first, four tasks that force a decision on whether the problem is real and what success looks like before a line of production code is written. Only then does Build start, carrying the two CRITICAL engineering tasks, the MVP backend and the MVP frontend, because that is where launch dates actually slip.
The Build phase is deliberately lean: design the core user flows, build the MVP backend and frontend, then a QA pass and bug bash, and nothing more. If you find yourself adding features here, that is scope creep announcing itself, move the extra work into a fast-follow project and protect the date. The closed beta in the Launch phase is your early-warning system, 20 real customers onboarded and giving structured feedback roughly two weeks before general availability, so a broken activation flow surfaces while you can still fix it rather than in the launch-day firehose.
Adapt the arc to your launch type. Shipping a feature into an existing product rather than a net-new app? Compress Discovery to the requirements and metrics tasks and keep Build and Launch intact. Launching to a waitlist? Stretch the closed beta and split it into cohorts. The three-phase structure holds for anything from a solo indie release to a funded team's flagship, what changes is the size of each task, not the shape of the plan.
The plan, phase by phase
Discovery4 tasks
Run customer discovery interviews
Talk to 8-10 target customers to validate the problem space.
Define success metrics & KPIs
North-star metric, activation + retention targets.
Technical spike: feasibility assessment
De-risk the two biggest unknowns before committing to build.
Write product requirements doc
Scope, non-goals, user stories, open questions.
Build4 tasks
Design core user flows
Wireframes for onboarding + primary value-moment screens.
Build MVP backend + data model
API endpoints, schema, auth, minimal deploy pipeline.
Build MVP frontend
Core screens wired to the API. Unit tests on critical paths.
QA pass + bug bash
Cross-browser + mobile, accessibility audit, perf baseline.
Launch4 tasks
Draft launch announcement + press kit
Blog post, email to list, social cards, hero screenshots.
Run closed beta with 20 customers
Invite, onboard, collect structured feedback, triage issues.
Set up analytics + monitoring dashboards
Product analytics, error tracking, uptime alerts.
Execute GA launch day
Flip the feature flag, publish the post, monitor the firehose.
Milestones
Beta release and general availability land on the timeline as diamonds on the Gantt chart, so the two dates the whole plan builds toward stay visible as the work shifts around them.
Beta release
Day 44 of the plan
General availability
Day 58 of the plan
Frequently asked
Can I customize the phases and tasks?
Yes. The template opens as a normal project in Onplana, so everything is editable: rename or recolor the Discovery, Build, and Launch phases, add or delete tasks, change priorities and estimates, and drag dates on the Gantt chart. The template is a starting point, not a locked structure.
Is this software product launch template really free?
Yes. Click "Use this template free", create a free Onplana account (no credit card), and the launch plan opens as a real project with all 12 tasks, three phases, and both milestones already scheduled. The Free plan has no time limit.
How long does the launch plan run?
The template schedules roughly 9 weeks (60 days) from the first discovery interview to GA launch day, with a closed beta milestone around week 7. Dates are set automatically from the day you create the project, and you can stretch or compress the timeline on the Gantt chart to match your release date.
When should I start the plan before my target launch date?
Work backwards from GA day. The plan runs about nine weeks end to end, with the closed beta landing around day 44, so create the project at least two months before your intended launch. If your date is fixed and closer than that, tighten the Discovery tasks or overlap Discovery and Build on the Gantt chart; the beta and GA milestones move with their tasks, so the dates that matter stay honest.
Does this cover a technical launch with an engineering team?
Yes. The Build phase is written for an engineering track: an MVP backend and data model, an MVP frontend wired to the API, and a dedicated QA and bug-bash pass with an accessibility and performance baseline, each marked at the priority it deserves. Assign the two CRITICAL build tasks to your engineers, keep Discovery with product, and run the whole launch in one place with the board view, Gantt timeline, and per-task comments.
Start with the plan already built
Open the Software Product Launch template free and your phases, tasks, and milestones are scheduled before the kickoff meeting. No credit card, no time limit.