Soft launch

Why do it

A public launch day brings a burst of strangers who judge the product in seconds. If sign up breaks, the pricing page confuses people or the onboarding stalls, that burst is wasted. A soft launch puts the product in front of friendly users first, so those problems are found by people who will tell you about them.

How to run one

Invite people from your waitlist, your network or a small community. Watch them use it, or at least watch analytics and session recordings. Fix the top problems, write down the questions people ask, and turn those questions into your FAQ and launch copy. Collect a few honest quotes you can use on launch day.

When to stop

When new users can sign up and reach the core value without your help, and the feedback has shifted from "this is broken" to "I wish it also did". Then pick a launch date.

What to fix first

Rank problems by how many people they stop. A broken sign up flow blocks everyone, so it comes first. Confusing onboarding loses most people, so it comes next. A missing feature that two users asked for can wait. Write down every question a soft launch user asks, because each one is a gap in the product or in the copy that a public launch audience would hit too.

Also test the boring parts: password reset, billing, emails landing in spam, the site on a phone, and what happens when the free plan's limit is reached.

Example

A founder shares the beta with 50 people from their waitlist for two weeks, fixes the onboarding, then launches publicly on a launch platform.

Questions people ask

Is a soft launch the same as a beta?

They overlap. A beta is a product stage. A soft launch is a release strategy, often used with a beta.