How far in advance do you prepare your launch on Product Hunt?

Sometimes I wish I had a clear answer to this question, but... I don't :D

A lot of people ask me in DMs what to do and when the best time to start.

I know people who prepared 6 months in advance and were not featured.

Then I know a guy who set up a page literally 3 hours before and got into the top five promoted products. 😀

Sometimes the power and usefulness of the product outweighs distribution.

However, the combination of both can do a lot.

(For example, a few years ago, we prepared for the launch of a minimalist phone app for about 5 months, including platform observation, but you probably know this story already.) :)

How long before the launch do you prepare, and what does that involve on your part?