Go-To-Market Risk Register Playbook
Build a go-to-market risk register that spots blockers early, aligns teams, and keeps launch bets on track.
MB
Max Beech
Head of Content
TL;DR
- Launch teams miss targets when risks stay hidden; a go-to-market risk register exposes blockers before revenue slips.
- Blend quantitative signals with qualitative judgment across product, marketing, sales, and success.
- Review weekly, adjust countermeasures, and log outcomes so the register compounds value over time.
Key takeaways
- Catalogue strategic, operational, and compliance risks with clear owners.
- Use agents to ingest telemetry while humans prioritise and mitigate.
- Tie every risk to a measurable trigger so you know when to act.
- Why every launch needs a go-to-market risk register
- Risk register workflow and tooling
- Mini case: Climate tech launch de-risked
- Risks, counterpoints, and next steps
- FAQ
Go-To-Market Risk Register Playbook
Launches fail quietly: a missed integration, an unverified claim, an unclear ICP. The go-to-market risk register gives teams a single view of threats, owners, and mitigation plans. With Athenic’s planning workspace and approvals engine, you can automate collection while keeping leaders accountable.
McKinsey’s 2024 growth benchmark found that companies with formal risk cadences outperform peers by 1.6x on revenue growth (McKinsey, 2024), and Gartner showed marketing budgets shrinking to 7.7% of revenue (Gartner, 2024). Discipline matters.
Why every launch needs a go-to-market risk register
What risks should we capture?
Break risks into strategy (ICP fit, pricing), operations (enablement readiness, capacity), and compliance (claims, data). Pull signals from the community command console and customer support transcript analysis to populate likelihood scores.
How does the register stay current?
Agents monitor telemetry -pipeline coverage, content readiness, ticket spikes -and update the register. Owners review weekly, adjusting score and mitigation. No stale spreadsheets.
| Risk | Trigger | Likelihood | Impact | Owner | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Messaging misalignment | <30% approval of new pitch in enablement sessions | Medium | High | Product marketing | Run positioning lab, refresh toolkit |
| Compliance gap | Security questionnaire unanswered >5 days | Low | High | Security lead | Pre-build evidence pack |
| Capacity shortfall | AE coverage <80% of target ICP accounts | High | Medium | Revenue ops | Spin up outbound sprint |
| Social proof deficit | <5 case studies per segment | Medium | Medium | Customer marketing | Activate customer evidence vault |
Risk register workflow and tooling
- Intake: Capture new risks through a form connected to your Product Brain. Require trigger, impact, and owner.
- Scoring: Agents score likelihood using telemetry (pipeline, enablement, marketing ops). Humans adjust for context.
- Mitigation: Assign countermeasures, deadlines, and resources. Log them in the strategic planning workspace.
- Review: Hold a weekly 30-minute risk meeting. Update status, escalate blockers, and celebrate cleared risks.
- Retrospective: Post-launch, archive resolved risks with outcomes to build institutional memory.
“[PLACEHOLDER quote from a revenue leader on risk visibility.]” - [PLACEHOLDER], CRO
Mini case: Climate tech launch de-risked
Climate SaaS “GreenSpan” prepped a UK launch. Their risk register flagged grid-integration compliance and sales enablement readiness as high risk. By pre-building documentation and running a daily enablement huddle, they reduced support escalations by 40% and hit ARR targets despite regulatory delays.
Risks, counterpoints, and next steps
Won’t a register slow teams down?
It replaces chaotic Slack threads with clear owners. Keep it lightweight -20 minutes weekly -and focus only on material risks.
How do we avoid risk theatre?
Tie each risk to data and a mitigation. If nothing changes after two reviews, kill it. Celebrate cleared risks to keep engagement high.
What about unknown unknowns?
Use community listening and competitive research agents to surface emerging threats. Keep a “watch list” for signals without full data yet.
Summary + next steps
The go-to-market risk register makes launches predictable. Catalogue risks, assign owners, revisit weekly, and learn. Within one launch cycle you will slash surprises and keep teams aligned.
- Now: Draft your risk taxonomy and intake form.
- Next 2 weeks: Populate the register with current launch risks.
- Quarterly: Run retrospectives to improve scoring and mitigation.
CTA for operations leaders: Activate your Product Brain workspace and keep go-to-market risks visible and solvable.
FAQ
How many risks belong in the register?
Focus on the top 10–15 with material impact. Archive resolved items quickly to avoid noise.
Who owns the register?
Revenue operations facilitates, but each risk has a functional owner accountable for mitigation.
How do we quantify impact?
Use revenue exposure, customer count, or compliance severity. Keep scoring consistent so trends are reliable.
Author
Max Beech, Head of Content
Last updated: 8 July 2025 • Expert review: [PLACEHOLDER], GTM Operations Lead