1 min lesson
Launch tiers - scale effort to stakes
Connect "A tiered system lets you spend effort where it pays off and ship the rest fast" to the decision you would make.
Step 1 of 3
Launch tiers - scale effort to stakesnot every ship is a moment
Treating every change as a tentpole burns the audience and the team. Treating a major release as a changelog line wastes the moment. A tiered system lets you spend effort where it pays off and ship the rest fast.
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Advanced table
Decide the tier early with product
- Tier
- Tier 1 - major release
- Examples
- A new Agent capability, a model leap, a pricing/packaging shift
- What you produce
- Full narrative: blog, landing page, demo video, founder/X push, DevRel content, enablement
- Effort
- Weeks; cross-functional
- Tier
- Tier 2 - notable feature
- Examples
- A meaningful Tab or ⌘K improvement, a new integration
- What you produce
- Blog or deep changelog, demo clip, one or two channels, light enablement
- Effort
- Days; mostly solo
- Tier
- Tier 3 - incremental
- Examples
- Quality-of-life fixes, small additions
- What you produce
- Changelog entry, maybe a single tweet if it delights
- Effort
- Hours
| Tier | Examples | What you produce | Effort |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 - major release | A new Agent capability, a model leap, a pricing/packaging shift | Full narrative: blog, landing page, demo video, founder/X push, DevRel content, enablement | Weeks; cross-functional |
| Tier 2 - notable feature | A meaningful Tab or ⌘K improvement, a new integration | Blog or deep changelog, demo clip, one or two channels, light enablement | Days; mostly solo |
| Tier 3 - incremental | Quality-of-life fixes, small additions | Changelog entry, maybe a single tweet if it delights | Hours |
Decide the tier early with product. It sets the asset list, the channels and who you need to pull in.
The most expensive launch mistake is writing a beautiful narrative for a feature that hasn't earned one. PMF validation is cheap insurance: sit with three or four real developers using the raw feature, find the moment their face changes and build the story around that. If you can't find the moment, the launch isn't ready and you say so - that pushback is part of the role.
When asked to walk through a launch, don't open with the blog post. Open with validation - how you'd confirm the feature actually lands with developers before you spend a week on assets. Then name the tier, then the sequence. Leading with PMF validation signals you've shipped real launches, not managed them from a slide, which is exactly the builder-PMM the hiring manager is screening for.
QWhat's the first thing you'd do when handed a new feature to launch and why does it come before writing any copy?
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Optional practice