Ethical launch criteria

Launch criteria typically focus on performance benchmarks, bug counts, and business metrics. Ethical launch criteria add questions about user safety, fairness, and informed consent before releasing features to production. These criteria create a clear standard: some things don't ship until ethical concerns are resolved, regardless of timeline pressure.

Define what must be true before launch beyond technical readiness. Has the feature been tested with diverse users? Are privacy controls functional and understandable? Can users meaningfully consent to data collection? Does the feature create disproportionate harm for any user group? Are support systems ready to handle problems that emerge? Document these criteria explicitly so teams can't rationalize exceptions when deadlines approach.

Ethical launch criteria work best when integrated into existing release processes. Add ethical checkpoints to definition-of-done checklists. Include stakeholders beyond product and engineering in launch decisions: support, legal, and ethics specialists when available. Create a process for escalating concerns when teams disagree about readiness. Build organizational norms where delaying launch for ethical reasons is respected, not penalized. Shipping quickly matters, but shipping responsibly matters more.