You lead the launch of a new product at a company in Lima. You have something good on your hands and the pressure to "go big": launch in every market and channel at once to maximize first-day reach. The opposite extreme tempts too: a slow, cautious drip, market by market, unhurried. But a good launch doesn't fire all at once or drag on forever: it's sequenced. It rolls out in an order that protects the experience, manages supply and demand, and builds momentum. That's how Apple launched the iPhone: controlled, with anticipation, in phases.
The situation
Launching and rolling out a product isn't about maximizing initial availability everywhere: it's about sequencing the rollout so the experience is right, supply and support can handle demand, and each phase builds momentum toward the next. First contact sets the product's reputation; if the launch overwhelms capacity, early word of mouth turns negative right when it matters most. Apple launched the iPhone in a controlled, phased way, building anticipation and protecting the experience; an orderly rollout turns the launch into a growing wave, not a peak that crashes.
Here's the trap, in two directions. Launching everywhere at once maximizes first-day reach, but it overwhelms production and support, and a bad first experience —stockouts, failures, overloaded support— poisons word of mouth while the product is still being defined in the customer's mind. And a slow, overly cautious drip protects the experience but loses the momentum: anticipation fades, press coverage cools, and competitors have time to copy before you reach scale. The defensible move is to sequence the launch: a controlled rollout that nails the experience and builds momentum, neither fired everywhere at once nor dragged out to excess.