Are leaderboards useless before product-market fit?

Classic early-stage mistake, sharing it so you can skip it.

We assumed gamification would drive engagement from day one. Badges, progress bars, real-time feedback. We even built a full leaderboard before launch.

Then we stepped back and realized: a leaderboard is a multiplier. It amplifies engagement that already exists.

If the core loop isn't working yet, it just multiplies zero.

So we cut it and put everything into the core experience instead. We might bring it back someday, but only once there's actually something worth ranking.

Curious how others approached this: did gamification ever work for you pre-traction, or is it always a later layer?