Instructions
The soft vs hard launch decision feels like it should be simple. It isn't. It's one of the most consequential choices you'll make in this phase — because the wrong one can mean wasting your best window of attention or exposing a product to an audience before it can handle them.
A soft launch is controlled. You choose who gets access, when, and how many. It's low risk, high learning, and it gives you time to fix things before the wider world sees them. The downside is that you don't generate momentum, press, or social proof. A hard launch is a proper public push — press, social, all channels at once. The upside is real market signal and the potential for early virality. The downside is that you can't easily put the toothpaste back in the tube if something breaks or the messag...
