The Consumer Autopsy
← All case files
Project ManagementBuilt to demonstrateFounder

Launch Critical Path

A launch plan built backwards from the date, not forwards from today

Built as a template · Airtable

Overview

A plan built forwards from today slips, because nothing in it knows when it is late. This is the same plan built backwards from the launch date, with the gates that stop it moving.

Features
  • Phases with go/no-go gates, so it teaches sequencing rather than only listing tasks
  • Every task carries an owner, a dependency and a late-if-not-started-by date that calculates from the date you enter
  • Pre-filled with the tasks people forget — refund policy, payment testing, support cover, affiliate assets, the day-after decision
  • One page on what to cut when you are two weeks out and behind
screenshot · The plan itself. Nobody types a due date — you enter how many days before launch a task sits, and the dates come out of that. Move the launch date and all of them move.

Built to demonstrate. The launch is invented; the structure, the formulas and the automations are the ones I use.

The next case file is yours.

Thirty minutes, no pitch. Tell me what's breaking and I'll tell you which of the three it is.