Runs the pre-launch audience build - a 4-8 week teaser arc with one escalating reveal per week, the Product Hunt Coming Soon page as the platform-native pre-commitment surface, the 200-signup channel-strategy fork that picks the launch play (velocity versus feedback) and never blocks the date, a final 7-10 day countdown, and the three-wave launch-day notification plan on explicit T-plus offsets - including a runnable play-fork calculator. Use when someone asks "do we have enough waitlist signups to launch", "plan our teaser campaign before the launch", "should we run a velocity launch or a feedback launch", "how do we warm up an audience before launch day", or a launch is more than two weeks out and no pre-commitment engine exists. Do NOT use for a paid course open-cart sequence - use launch-email-sequence instead - or for always-on nurture automations - use email-drip-builder instead; for the full dated launch calendar, use launch-plan-sequencer.
---
name: waitlist-and-teaser-mechanics
description: Runs the pre-launch audience build - a 4-8 week teaser arc with one escalating reveal per week, the Product Hunt Coming Soon page as the platform-native pre-commitment surface, the 200-signup channel-strategy fork that picks the launch play (velocity versus feedback) and never blocks the date, a final 7-10 day countdown, and the three-wave launch-day notification plan on explicit T-plus offsets - including a runnable play-fork calculator. Use when someone asks "do we have enough waitlist signups to launch", "plan our teaser campaign before the launch", "should we run a velocity launch or a feedback launch", "how do we warm up an audience before launch day", or a launch is more than two weeks out and no pre-commitment engine exists. Do NOT use for a paid course open-cart sequence - use launch-email-sequence instead - or for always-on nurture automations - use email-drip-builder instead; for the full dated launch calendar, use launch-plan-sequencer.
---
# waitlist-and-teaser-mechanics
Every ranked launch surface rewards the first hour, and the first hour is decided weeks earlier. Below roughly 200 pre-committed people, a velocity play fails silently on every channel - but the answer is never to sit on a finished product grinding a waitlist. The winning move is to launch the play the audience you actually have can win. This skill builds the pre-commitment engine and picks that play.
## Operating procedure
Run the steps in order. The play fork is computed first because it calibrates everything downstream - slot, expectations, copy register. The Product Hunt Coming Soon page opens before the teaser arc because followers accumulate for the whole runway. The countdown and the notification waves come last because they consume the audience the arc built.
### Step 1: Gather the pre-launch inputs
Paste the charter block if one exists. If the client has a charter but the foundations pack is not installed, elicit the needed values directly and label them provisional. If no charter exists at all, halt and route to premium-design-foundations - never substitute worked-example values.
Then ask for:
1. **Waitlist size**: confirmed signups today.
2. **PH follower count**: Product Hunt Coming Soon followers, if the page is already open.
3. **Weekly signup growth**: net new signups per week at the present pace.
4. **Runway**: weeks until the desired launch window, plus the launch datetime if one is chosen.
5. **Home channel**: where the audience actually is. Default the founder's strongest existing channel, never a new one - a teaser arc cannot build a channel and an audience at the same time.
6. **Revealable material**: which real screens or clips can be shown. Real screens only; if nothing is revealable yet, the arc start moves, not the honesty bar.