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Run a post-launch retrospective

A week after shipping, while the details are still recoverable.

Longretrospectivelaunchlearning
Help me run a retrospective on this launch.

1. **What we predicted versus what happened**, on scope, timeline and metrics. Quote the original prediction where I gave it.
2. **What went well and why**, specifically enough to repeat deliberately. "Good teamwork" is not a finding.
3. **What went badly**, described as system and process, not as people.
4. **The near misses**: things that worked out but only by luck. These are usually the most valuable items and the ones most often skipped.
5. **What we learned about our users** that we did not know before.
6. **Actions**: at most three, each with an owner and a date. Reject anything phrased as "be more careful" or "communicate better".

Push back if my account of events looks self-serving.

What happened:

Making it yours

  • Paste your own material where the prompt asks for it. Everything above that line is instruction, not content.
  • Delete any rule that does not apply to you. A shorter prompt that fits beats a thorough one that does not.
  • If the answer comes back vague, add a line saying what you do not want. Constraints work better than encouragement.

Launch and comms. Getting a release out and told: launch plans, go / no-go, release notes, deprecations, post-launch retros.

Related prompts

Build a launch planTwo weeks before a release, to find what nobody has picked up yet.Run a go / no-go checklistThe day before launch, when everyone assumes someone else checked.Announce that a feature is going awayRemoving something people use, and the announcement has to do the hard part.Write release notes people will actually readShipping a version and the changelog currently says "various improvements".One-line release noteA change that needs describing to users, not engineers.Release notes from a changelogA pile of merged changes that needs to become an announcement.

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