10 essentials to prepare for launch

Make launch week smoother, smarter, and easier on everyone

You’ve evaluated. You’ve selected. You’ve planned. Now it’s time to bring it all to life and the last thing you want is to hit launch week with unanswered questions or loose ends.

This checklist was built to help your financial institution launch a new digital banking platform with confidence, coordination, and care for both your team and your users. Whether you’re preparing for a retail banking rollout, a business banking launch, or both, this guide brings together the key elements you’ll need to cover so your institution is ready on every front.

What this checklist helps you do

The Go-Live Readiness Checklist empowers your team to:

• Know how to align internal operations with vendor plans
• Prep your users and staff with creating the right training and messaging
• Validate that key systems, integrations, and logins are working
• Address key areas of risk mitigation to avoid launch-day issues
• Deliver a launch experience that reflects the quality of your new platform

With retail banking and business banking platform tips throughout, you will be able to tailor your readiness approach to match your rollout scope and complexity.

What’s inside

This checklist was built so you can make sure no critical piece gets missed before launch. It covers data hygiene to clean up stale logins and entitlements, and operational alignment to make sure your teams are synced with your new vendor’s workflows. You’ll walk through third-party integrations, checking that every connection is properly mapped and timed.

It also covers conversion experience design, so you can create a smooth first login for users, and internal training, so your staff knows exactly how to support them. There’s a section on communications planning to keep everyone informed, from frontline teams to end users.

You’ll also get guidance on user acceptance testing (UAT), how to structure your launch playbook, and how to set up risk mitigation protocols in case things don’t go exactly to plan. And finally, we wrap with a reminder to celebrate the launch and recognize your team’s hard work.

Key areas covered:

• Data hygiene
• Operational alignment
• Third-party integrations
• Conversion experience design
• Internal training
• Communications planning
• User acceptance testing (UAT)
• Launch playbook and pilot testing
• Risk mitigation and escalation planning
• Launch celebration planning

If you’re leading your institution through a digital banking platform implementation, this checklist is for you.

This guide helps you spot gaps before they become friction and lead your institution to a launch that truly feels like a win.

Want more expert guidance?

If you’re preparing for launch, don’t miss our two on-demand webinars featuring implementation experts and financial institution leaders sharing what worked and what they wish they’d done differently. Whether you’re leading a retail or business banking launch, these sessions are packed with practical insights, lessons learned, and actionable strategies to strengthen your rollout.

• Retail Banking Implementation Best Practices & Preparedness
• Business Banking Implementation Best Practices & Preparedness