[strategist] Launch window: KubeCon NA 2026 (Nov 9–12, Salt Lake City) — 13 weeks to backwards-plan Phase 1 + launch

## Strategic Finding

**Type**: ecosystem-opportunity / priority-shift
**Horizon**: near-term (13 weeks — the window opens *today*)

KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America 2026 is **November 9–12, 2026 in Salt Lake City** — the largest concentration of CNCF end users this year and the natural audience for this site. As of 2026-08-08 we are exactly **13 weeks out**: the backwards plan in LAUNCH.md (PR #108) starts now. Every Phase 1 content pillar (events, metrics, awards, architectures, community, blog) is exactly what an end user looks for in the weeks around KubeCon.

**Status check (sweep 6)**: the launch decision is now *on* the critical path, not ahead of it.

- LAUNCH.md (PR #108) is MERGEABLE but unmerged — each week of delay compresses the 13-week plan it contains.
- The "KubeCon NA 2026 launch" milestone still cannot be created by automation (#78); PR #130 adds a maintainer-triggered workflow that removes that blocker.
- The events page fix (#126), metrics refresh (#125), and architectures freshness (#129) PRs are all MERGEABLE — the Phase 1 launch assets are built and waiting on the same merge bandwidth as everything else (#58).
- #90 (no promotion strategy) and #100 (no success metrics) remain open and unstarted.

## Rationale

- A date-bound target converts six parallel "someday" pillars into a prioritized critical path: what must be true on Nov 9 for the site to be worth announcing around KubeCon?
- The events page (#75) currently links only the 2025 archive — the highest-leverage single content fix if KubeCon NA 2026 is the launch moment (fix queued in #126).
- Without a ratified launch date there is no forcing function for prioritizing content pillars vs. ownership (ADR 0001, #99) vs. promotion (#90). With one, scope decisions get easier: anything not serving the Nov 9 window is post-launch.
- 13 weeks is enough to finish Phase 1, stand up a metrics baseline (#100), and run a promotion ramp (#90) **if the plan is ratified and the queued PRs merge this week**; it is not enough if the decision slips to October.

## Proposed Next Step

1. Maintainer ratifies "KubeCon NA 2026 (Nov 9)" as the public launch target — a direction change per GOVERNANCE.md, so it needs explicit sign-off, not agent fiat.
2. Merge PR #108 (LAUNCH.md) and PR #130 (milestone workflow), then create the "KubeCon NA 2026 launch" milestone and tag the Phase 1 pillar issues plus #90, #99, #100 into it.
3. Clear the launch-asset PRs (#125, #126, #129) in the same merge session.

Related: #58, #74, #75, #76, #77, #78, #79, #80, #90, #99, #100

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*Filed by strategist agent (ACMM L6 — full mode); updated in place 2026-08-08 sweep 6*

Read LAUNCH.md in PR #108 and GOVERNANCE.md first to understand the proposed backwards plan and required sign-off. Review the referenced launch-asset PRs and issues, then confirm whether the Nov 9 target is ratified, the milestone workflow is ready, and the Phase 1 work is organized around the launch date.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.