Kilo Code
The open-source agentic engineering platform
Start new thread

Reverse-engineering Kilo's recent Product Hunt launch

by•

Last week, launched for the fourth time on Product Hunt, introducing a new VS Code extension. The product ranked #1 Product of the Day and #1 Product of the Week.

I had the opportunity to work on . Here's a breakdown of what we did and how to apply it to your launch.

TL,DR

  • Keep the tagline relatable to your audience

  • Show the product in your image gallery

  • Engage with the community thoughtfully

Reverse-engineering Kilo's recent Product Hunt launch

  1. Straightforward tagline. The 60-character tagline might be the most important part of a launch. It's the first thing you see on the front page. Here, we highlighted the features, not the benefits.

  2. Minimalist visual assets. The image gallery is the first impression of your product. It sets expectations. We highlighted 3 images. No stock images, no marketing fluff. Just product screenshots. Show the product.

  3. Feedback first. Like the tagline and the visual assets, we kept the first comments simple. No looooooong background stories - the objective is to start the conversation. We upvoted and replied to every comment, curious about what the community thinks of the release.

Keeping the momentum

"Momentum is the new metric." - Source:

There's one more thing we experimented with for this launch. Post-launch, the team started running a display ad campaign. The objective is to keep the momentum going.

Stay curious!

How to apply this to your launch

  • Keep the tagline relatable to your audience

  • Show the product in your image gallery

  • Engage with the community thoughtfully

Wrapping up

That's it! hope you find this thread helpful.

What are your key learnings from your previous launches? What worked, what didn't work from your perspective? happy to swap notes.

launched last week on .

574 views

Add a comment

Replies

Best

Nice breakdown,
So investing extra on the slides works!

 thank you! and yes, is a surprisingly visual medium IMHO. show the product!

This is gold, ! Currently preparing my first Product Hunt launch for OneCRM and this breakdown is exactly what I needed.

The "feedback first" approach in comments makes so much sense - starting conversations vs. promotional walls of text. I've noticed the best launches feel like genuine discussions, not sales pitches.

Quick question about the post-launch display ads - was this on PH itself or external platforms? Curious about the momentum strategy since most guides focus only on launch day.

Thanks for sharing! Already following your devtools hunts

"Quick question about the post-launch display ads - was this on PH itself or external platforms?"

Good question! And yes, the ad campaign runs on Product Hunt.

First
Previous
12