What was the most surprising finding after you launched on Product Hunt?
People spend a lot of time preparing for a product launch, but after every campaign, they usually look back and think, "We could have done this better."
Not because they didn't prepare, but because there were things they simply didn't know beforehand.
Common examples are:
– You should have picked a different launch day.
– You didn't get the launch timing right (for example, launching halfway through the day instead of right at the start of a new day).
– And many more.
For me personally, it was relying too much on my follower count. It didn't guarantee visibility, and in hindsight, I would have invested more time in personally reaching out to LinkedIn and Twitter friends to ask for support.
What was the most surprising lesson or realisation from your own launch?
Replies
Really appreciate these threads about launching (and pre-launching) - super helpful for me, who's new here and hasn't launched yet. I do have a date (Sept. 9 - my birthday) and have crafted a solid launch runway. Your suggestion of reaching out to supporters on other platforms (especially LinkedIn) is smart and I've seen a number of people doing that. So naturally, I've added that to my runway too!
A surprising finding for me was that some of the most valuable feedback came from people who never became customers. Their questions exposed gaps in messaging that I had completely missed
Haven't launched yet, getting knowledge
I've heard warming up accounts by having some real conversations with founders, to get to know the product hunt community and how things works here, would be great way to start
Timings and Perfect product is technical, but to understand distribution of particular channgel like Producthunt, this kind of conversations are essential
This post is enlightening in more ways than one... It highlights everyone's uncertainty about the best way to launch their product, the importance of timing for the launch, which seems to be of paramount importance, but above all, it underscores the sheer number of people, myself included, who have developed a product hoping for its success.
As a result, I feel like a mountaineer at the foot of Everest. How many of us will manage to stand out from the crowd?
@franckolv_dev I hear you! I have spent a lot of time trying to work out even where to start, and to be honest I am none the wiser. So I am at the point of chilled, what will be will be.
I think I have done all the essentials correctly, we have selected a Tuesday (most competitive day apparently), me and my colleagues will be around for the launch from 12.01am and if it bums so be it, I still know its an awesome product and bumps in the road happen.
@busmark_w_nika The biggest lesson for me is that Product Hunt is not just launch day, it’s the trust you build before launch day. A strong page helps, but if people don’t already have some context for who you are or why the product matters, the launch has to work much harder. I think the real prep is not only assets and timing, but warm conversations before the spike happens.