I decide what's featured on the leaderboard - AMA w/ Gabe from Product Hunt
Hi everyone, Gabe here! I lead curating Product Hunt's leaderboard.
First thing I will say is that if I could feature every single product that works, I would. I love supporting makers and demoing products. I actually try to test every single thing that gets hunted every day... which is A TON. But I view our job as to surface the most interesting, novel, useful, and innovative products - daily. Now we may not always get it right, the process isn't perfect, but we're trying to do right by the community.
Hopefully, you've noticed that over the past months the quality of the leaderboard has felt really good. (Please share your thoughts!) Some of the things that I've been doing aside from testing and reviewing products is reaching out to makers to help them with their launches, provide feedback on why something may not be featurable, and help makers craft their best launch as possible. Scalable -> no. Huge impact -> I think so. I'm working with the team on how to create a more scalable version of this but for now just know I try to make myself available to you all.
Top mistakes I've seen
Product is waitlisted
People schedule a draft.... (we have a draft function!)
Maker's profile is their product/business and not an actual user account
Tagline does not describe the product ie. "Best way to earn users" vs "Capture user data with a single button in your iOS app"
Too much marketing jargon, not enough product description / story
NO PRODUCT SHOTS/VIDEOS -> just marketing fluff images
Only one image that is a low quality screenshot
Using a paid service for upvotes/hunters -> this will get you unfeatured or severely impact your launch
Some other notes to consider:
We've gotten stricter on keeping true to our Featuring Guidelines.
We highly recommend making a draft and sharing with folks to make sure it passes the "mom test" -> do they get what you're launching?
If you can quickly Google a solution that similar to what you're launching then really make sure your launch stands out. Focus on highlighting what's special about your product vs being too general.
Highly recommend having a loom or some sort of visual that showcases the start process, the end result your product produces, and what's special about your product.
Be honest, authentic, and have fun.
With all that being said, AMA! I'll try to answer as much as I can without getting fired
Replies
HeyForm
I just went through all the comments and replies, and I want to say a big thank you to @gabe for your efforts. You and your team did an outstanding job!
As the co-founder of the largest Chinese indie hacker community (and also an indie hacker myself), I’ve helped many of our members launch their products on Product Hunt. Some had amazing results, others didn’t—but what impressed me most is that, whether featured or not, the community always provides valuable early feedback.
A few questions I have:
1. If a product isn’t featured, what’s the soonest it can be relisted on Product Hunt? The guidelines mention a 180-day waiting period, but I want to confirm that this applies to non-featured products as well.
2. Is there any way to know in advance if a product will be featured? If not, how can makers identify areas for improvement?
3. If a product isn’t featured but still gets solid support from its community and users, can it still be ranked and earn a badge?
4. Product Hunt seems to focus on software—will you consider hardware, especially with the rise of AI-powered hardware, in the future?
Thanks again, and keep up the great work!
PlanEat AI
@gabe @itsluo Good questions. It's a shame they remain unanswered.
Hi Gabe,
Does evaluation for featured product happen before product launch on PH i.e. in launching soon phase?
I am launching soon on PH as a public launch for the first time. So, we will open our product to users just 1 day before launch day i.e. we will point to the production site only 1 day before. Does that prevent us from getting evaluated as featured product?
Product Hunt
@manu_goel2 we aim to review launches at minimum the day before launch, I’ll also review day of launch.
Roads Audio
@gabe Curious if there is a way setup to receive the feedback you're describing on how to improve launch pages? Is there something I can submit to, I would love to get some feedback on how I could have improved my recent launch!
Headliner
Tips are so helpful! I am coming back to PH after a few year hiatus. Super excited for the changes and appreciate the transparency.
Thanks for sharing!
I had a thought i’d like to share with you; I might be misunderstanding this but it feels a bit challenging that getting featured on Product Hunt depends so much on already having a community here. As a newer account it sometimes feels like you are at a disadvantage even if the product is legitimate and the work behind it is real. Do you think there should be a clearer path for new makers to get visibility without already having an audience on Product Hunt?
That sounds awesome—having control over what’s featured on the leaderboard is a powerful position! Looking forward to hearing your insights and what goes into those decisions. If anyone’s looking for something fun and creative to explore in the meantime, check out this cool resource: tocabocaapkmod.com – it's packed with playful content and creative tools. AMA sessions like this are such a great way to learn directly from the people behind the scenes!
My platform is built, working as designed, and currently live with some early users. My current struggle is with outreach. I’m a solo bootstrap developer, despite many years as a product strategist for large corporations. So, this part is new to me. I'm ready to begin a launch on PH, but don't want to just barrel in without first understanding community expectations.
My platform is in / adjacent to a crowded space so I’ve been very focused on messaging. I’ve thought a great deal about your point about standing out when similar solutions exist on Google before deciding to build the platform at all. It solves a different problem than the ones currently being solved for a similar ICP. It’s a problem I’m not sure people realize yet they need to solve. They do, they will, but I think I might be early.
Given your view across successful launches: Is it better to launch now with what I have, or should I spend time engaging more in discussions and building presence first, even though the product is ready to go? I genuinely enjoy these discussions, but I’m also excited to start having conversations more specifically about what I have built. Thank you.
Warmup Inbox
Do you have a quota limit per day?
Do you have specific rules about relaunch? Is the 6-month relaunch window still valid?
MultiDrive
Thank you for this topic! I saw people here say that you should be “live” earlier to have the mom test. Does that mean creating a draft where everything is prepared for launch day — and that already counts as being live?