Launching on Product Hunt without preparation. Yes or No?
Olena Bomko
106 replies
I think you can launch without preparation if
+ You have a big audience
+ It's a side product/project
+ It's not your first launch (so you know how PH works)
For everything else, you need good preparation.
What do you think?
Replies
Ujang Fahmi@ujang_fahmi
For me, this depends on the purpose of the launch, if it's just to test whether our idea/solution is accepted by the public, this might be okay. But if it's for something more serious, it's best to be prepared.
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Yes, I was ready when I signed up, but then I thought, I should learn PH, and this is what I am doing now: learning how to avoid launch failure.
@azmatmalik same boat as you. And cultivating a community
No.... I have do that once you know and the result just like a nothing. Even it does not appear that i have launch my product.....
side projects, absolutely. But still a little bit of preparation won't hurt ;)
No, I guess you need to build a community, stay engaging and that will be translated to better chance to achieve success
@tornike_tsiramua1 community is key. And it take a genuine effort to build it!
Doesn’t hurt to just launch without preparation. It gives you some insight into how launch day goes, and it can also give you validation for your product if people engage.
I spent about 20 minutes on my launch, and it went great, and I also learned a lot.
@claudiu_cogalniceanu Super true! During real launch day things can get super stressful & just by knowing which button to click helps a lot!
prep for everything including PH let alone any other platform.
Depends on the goal.
I think no.
Bad idea. We one time launched a product so randomly, we collected as many as 28 upvotes!
IMO, pre-launch preparations and networking can take up to 1 month for successful launch
More or less what I will do, reaching out to a few friends and advisors (probably you among those). I just think releasing quick is the fastest way to learn. Kind of a "Do lots of mistakes fast" approach, if that makes sense?
Here's what I kind of like about a launch with little prep - then it truly is about the idea and the product, and not about the networking. Don't get me wrong, I love engaging with this community, but I also don't love the pre-launch flutter of discussions for the sake of network-building.
Which might bite me in the ass because we launch next week and I haven't done that in the way that I have in the past.
@brenna_donoghue agree--if pre-launch prep is bad-faith community engagement hoping for more upvotes.
@zed_tarar That's it. I love the community engagement when it's genuine community engagement. But I know it's a hard balanace to strike.
@brenna_donoghue
You product has so many followers! Can you share with us how to do it?
@zed_tarar @brenna_donoghue From the number of followers your pre-launch has, it seems that you are doing very impressive work!
@stevels and @gingerkidney I think this is the accumulation from having launched twice before and just being active on Product Hunt for a long time. We have found sound great feedback and engagment from this community, so it's where we spend time.
I sometimes wonder how much of a game changers followers are... obviously it is a help since those people are notified of a launch. But I also get the sense (and happy to be challenged on this!) that PH has a lot of churn in active users between launches, so it'll be interesting to see how much additional exposure this brings in.
No. You need to build your audience. Focus on your launch assets and make sure to test your complete flows. :)
I agree. Today is our first launch and we prepared for it.
Totally agree with you, Olena! Preparation is indeed key in most cases to ace Product Hunt. Still, having a large audience and launch experience can't be underrated. Any tips on what should be included in an ideal preparation checklist? 🔍🚀
@builov84 No hacks. Just hard work.
1. Be active on PH (support others, create discussions, comment on others' discussions).
2. Create your Coming Soon page. Share it on PH, Twitter, LinkedIn.
3. Be active on social media. Post about your PH launch.
4. Connect with people from PH on LinkedIn/Twitter.
5. Clean your launch day and the day after that.
6. Check your website and the onboarding process.
7. Check your welcome email sequence.
8. Engage in real-time.
9. Don't panic. Be ready for everything. The PH team didn’t launch my products on time.
10. Make sure you can reach out to people who can support your product throughout the 24-hour launch day.
11. DM people on your launch day with a reminder.
12. Join relevant groups and chats. Support people there.
13. Track your progress with tools like hunted.space or Product Wars 2
14. Prepare social media posts, announcements for communities, emails.
15. If you have a team, assign responsibilities.
16. If you have investors/current customers or work with influencers, send them a reminder before and on your launch day
Agreed. If you're new and have zero audience/connections, it's like crying into a void. No use.
Preparation is essential whether you are launching for the first time or have done it before.
The level of effort required significantly depends on your familiarity with Product Hunt's working strategies and the strength of your profile.
Preparation before launch definitely give you good results as expected.
Yes indeed, preparation plays a key role in a Product Hunt launch.
Product Hunt allows multiple launches hence I would recommend one can launch with minimal preparations too. :)
@rohanrecommends That's what I thought too. Launched App Finder this Monday with minimal preparation. Although it only got day rank 27, it got some nice comments (mostly from existing users that I had notified). Now I'm Maker and have a Product Hub where people can leave reviews. I suppose this will help me with the preparation for the nect launch in some months when I have made some major improvements.
@konrad_sx yes :) each progressive launch gets better. And even sincerely distributing the launch for a day should help make it to Top 5 😊