The simple triage system that keeps product launches moving when chaos feels like the new normal

Tuesday morning: Payment processor glitch affecting 15% of checkouts.

Tuesday afternoon: Customer discovers product works as a surprisingly effective dog toy (not the intended use case).

Wednesday morning: Competitor’s fans flooding social media with “snake oil” comments.

Wednesday afternoon: Shipping partner delays all deliveries by 72 hours without warning.

Thursday morning: Junior team member sends panicked Slack message: “ARE WE FAILING?!”

Welcome to product launch time, where everything that can go wrong shows up fashionably late to the same party.

Right now I’m managing multiple launches simultaneously, and the overwhelm can be real (although the above scenarios are mostly fictitious.)

Every day brings creative new ways for things to break, customers to surprise us, and trolls to demonstrate their commitment to being professionally annoying.

But here’s what I’ve learned from dozens of launches: chaos isn’t a sign of failure — it IS a sign of scale.

When you’re getting enough customers to discover edge cases, enough attention to attract trolls, and enough volume to stress-test your systems, you’re actually succeeding.

So, the question isn’t how to prevent problems. They’re inevitable. It’s how to prioritize them without losing your mind.

My triage system for launch chaos:

Code Red: Anything preventing new customers from buying or existing customers from using the product. Payment failures, broken checkout, defective units. Drop everything and fix immediately.

Code Yellow: Issues affecting customer experience but not blocking core functionality. Shipping delays, support ticket backlogs, confusing instructions. Address systematically within 24-48 hours.

Code Green: Trolls, competitive attacks, feature requests, and “wouldn’t it be cool if…” suggestions. Acknowledge, document for later, but don’t let them derail focus.

In I Need That, I discuss how successful scaling requires accepting that rare problems become daily occurrences. The companies that survive are those with systems for managing chaos, not those that avoid it entirely.

The key is communicating this framework to your team before crisis hits.

When someone panics about social media trolls while payment processing is down, you can calmly redirect: “That’s a Code Green. Let’s fix this Code Red first, then circle back.”

Just be sure to note the lower-grade issues so they won’t be forgotten.

Product Payoff: During Slack’s explosive growth phase, they experienced constant system outages as usage exceeded projections. Instead of trying to prevent all problems, they created transparent status pages and proactive communication systems. When issues occurred, customers appreciated the honesty and felt included rather than left in the dark.

This helped turn growing pains into trust-building opportunities.

Your crisis management plan: Before your next launch gets overwhelming, establish clear priority levels with your team. When chaos hits, everyone knows what deserves immediate attention versus what can wait.

Remember: if you’re not dealing with problems, you’re probably not getting enough traction to matter.

What’s the most creative way a customer has misused your product?

Hit that little reply arrow and share your launch chaos survival stories.

Or reach out to my team of product marketing specialists at Graphos Product.