Free Checklist: From Prototype to Production

Don’t Launch Until You’ve Checked These 30 Things

You built a prototype. It works. You’re excited to show the world. But launching a demo to real users is different from showing it to friends.

Real users will:

• Find every edge case you didn’t think of
• Use it on devices and browsers you didn’t test
• Enter data you didn’t expect
• Try to break it (intentionally or not)
• Expect it to work perfectly, every time

This Checklist Is For You If…

✓ You’ve built a prototype with AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, etc.)

✓ You’re about to launch to real users or paying customers

✓ You want to avoid embarrassing crashes and security issues

✓ You’re not sure what “production-ready” actually means

✓ You want a systematic way to evaluate your MVP

What’s In the Checklist

🔒 Security (10 items) Authentication, authorization, input validation, secrets management, HTTPS, and more. The stuff that can destroy your business if you get it wrong.

⚡ Performance (5 items) Database queries, caching, image optimization, lazy loading. Will your app survive when real users hit it?

💥 Error Handling (5 items) Graceful failures, error logging, user feedback, recovery procedures. What happens when things go wrong?

💳 Payments (4 items) (if applicable) Test vs live mode, edge cases, receipts, refund handling. Money things you can’t afford to mess up.

🧪 Testing (3 items) Minimum testing requirements before launch. You don’t need 100% coverage, but you need something.

📊 Monitoring (3 items) How will you know if something breaks? Uptime monitoring, error tracking, basic analytics.

A Reality Check, Not a Guilt Trip

Look, you probably won’t check every box before launch. That’s okay. The goal isn’t perfection—it’s awareness.

This checklist helps you:

• Know what risks you’re taking
• Prioritize what to fix first
• Have a roadmap for post-launch improvements

Some items are “fix immediately.” Others are “fix soon.” A few are “nice to have.” The checklist tells you which is which.

What Happens After You Download

1. You get the checklist immediately via email
2. You audit your prototype
3. You fix the critical items
4. You launch with confidence
5. You use the checklist for ongoing improvement

If you find things you can’t fix yourself, we’re here to help. But there’s no pressure—the checklist is useful on its own.

"This checklist caught 4 critical issues I would have missed. Saved me from a very embarrassing launch."