Template
Template — Copy this file into your project and fill in the sections. Do not edit the blueprint original.
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 |
Email |
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 |
Email |
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]