Handbook
Sunset plan — [Product Name]
1. Decision summary
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Product | |
| Decision date | YYYY-MM-DD |
| Decision | Sunset / Partial sunset / Feature removal |
| Rationale | |
| Decision makers | |
| Successor product (if any) |
2. Current state
| Dimension | Detail |
|---|---|
| Active users | |
| Revenue (if applicable) | |
| Maintenance cost | |
| Key dependencies | |
| Contractual obligations |
3. Timeline
| Milestone | Date | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Announcement | Notify all stakeholders of sunset decision | |
| Feature freeze | No new features; critical bugs only | |
| Migration support start | Migration tooling and docs available | |
| New sign-ups disabled | No new customers accepted | |
| Support reduction | Move to critical-only support | |
| Read-only access | Users can access data but not create new content | |
| Data export deadline | Last date for customers to export data | |
| Service shutdown | Product fully decommissioned | |
| Data deletion | Customer data deleted per retention policy |
4. Stakeholder communications
| Audience | Channel | Timing | Message | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All customers | Announcement | Sunset notice, timeline, migration path | ||
| Top accounts | Direct call | Announcement | Personalized migration support | |
| Partners | Email + meeting | Announcement | Impact assessment, transition plan | |
| Internal teams | All-hands / Slack | Pre-announcement | Context, rationale, resource reallocation | |
| Public | Blog / changelog | Announcement | Sunset notice, FAQ | |
| Follow-up | 30/60/90 days | Reminder of key dates, migration progress |
5. Migration path
| Scenario | Migration to | Tooling provided | Support level |
|---|---|---|---|
Migration checklist (per customer)
- [ ] Customer notified
- [ ] Data export available
- [ ] Migration path documented
- [ ] Migration tooling tested
- [ ] Customer confirmed migration complete (or waived)
6. Data handling
| Data type | Retention policy | Export format | Deletion date |
|---|---|---|---|
7. Engineering decommission
| Action | Owner | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Disable new sign-ups | ||
| Remove from CI/CD pipeline | ||
| Shut down non-critical services | ||
| Archive source code | ||
| Decommission infrastructure | ||
| Remove monitoring / alerting | ||
| Update internal documentation | ||
| Remove from product catalog / website |
8. Financial impact
| Dimension | Detail |
|---|---|
| Revenue lost | |
| Cost saved (infrastructure) | |
| Cost saved (engineering time) | |
| Migration support cost | |
| Net impact |
9. Post-mortem
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What worked well in this product's lifecycle? | |
| What would we do differently? | |
| What signals did we miss (too early or too late)? | |
| What did we learn about this market/audience? | |
| How can we apply these learnings to current products? |
Last updated: YYYY-MM-DD · Owner: [name/role]