Successfully Launch on Product Hunt🚀

Today, I want to share some quotes & advice from a recent X/Twitter space I hosted with Ånand and Arindam. The title was "How to Successfully Launch on Product Hunt 🚀".

If you're interested in listening to the space while you read this post, you can check it out here.

This topic is really relevant to us since we're actually getting ready for the Pieces' launch on Wednesday!

That said, let's see what we learned during this space.

What is Product Hunt?

What exactly is Product Hunt? Here's the gist, according to Graham:

"It's a place to discover new tech. That's basically it. It's a place where people can hunt for and show you things that they discovered and think are cool. Then people can vote on things that they like, leave comments, etc. It's a discovery tool above all else" - Graham

In essence, it's a discovery tool where the community votes on and comments on tech products they find interesting.

Now that we know what Product Hunt is, let's get to the actual advice shared.

The Importance of Strategy

One of the main themes during this space was Strategy and Preparation, whether it was preparing weeks before your launch, or even the day of, it seems like it's really important to have a plan.

One thing that really resonated with me is what Dan said about preparation (paraphrased):

If you're planning to use Product Hunt for your launch, you need a solid marketing strategy, a launch plan, a pre-launch, and a consistent strategy throughout the launch.

So we need to prepare, but how?

First Steps

First things first, you need to set up a Product Hunt page. This step is pretty self-explanatory, but good graphics and descriptions can really make or break whether the product is successful. During this space we talked about having a concise intro that lets people know what the product is and what it can do.

To learn more about setting up your page, check out Product Hunt's official guide.

Specifically, Shivay mentioned having a high-quality demo, graphics, and description on the PH page. To learn how this might look, it's a good idea to check out some successful PH pages for inspiration.

After talking about setting up PH pages, we talked about making lists/plans. It's probably a good idea to list out your goals, and the areas that need to be focused on during the pre-launch and launch.

Pre-Launch

Community Focus

A recurring theme among our speakers was the importance of community. Build for the community, ask for feedback, and engage with others. Here's a paraphrase from Shivay:

Build for the community. Ask for feedback in developer & Product Hunt communities.

However, Shivay did mention that you need to be careful. If you're too aggressive in promoting your launch (or even asking for feedback too frequently), sometimes it can be flagged as spam or even be seen as asking for upvotes directly (that is not allowed).

Rule of thumb: Generally it seems safe to genuinely ask for feedback and like Francesco said, post things like "go and check it out and give us some love".

To reiterate:

"Don't ask for upvotes. You will be banned." - Graham

On the other hand, one thing you can do is:

"You can add influencers as makers or hunters for your Product Hunt launch if they have used or contributed to your product. This can significantly boost engagement on social media." - Ånand

By collaborating with "influencers" active in relevant communities who already use your product, you can connect with new audiences and integrate them into your existing community.

Making Connections

Arindam asked an important question about the role of connections in a successful launch.

Shivay responded, mentioning the tightly-knit nature of Product Hunt communities:

You help others and they also tend to reciprocate, so later on they may help you. For example, if you give feedback on someone else's product, they may do the same for you when you need feedback down the road. (paraphrased)

However, make sure to keep this in mind when trying to make new connections:

“Don't start spamming people in their DMs if you don't know them (about your product hunt launch)” - Francesco

It would be better to build a community first, as Alohe mentions:

"Building an audience first, before launching is the main thing for me." - Alohe

And speaking of audience, one thing that Hairun shared that he regrets, is not utilizing the audience he gained from product hunt, and directing them to his Twitter profile.

Genuine Engagement

Shivay also advised against blind upvoting. Only genuinely upvote products you believe in. It's about authenticity. (Also, pretty sure if you upvote a BUNCH of launches it might be flagged as spam)

Launch Day

When to Launch

Mr. Drew's question about the timing of a launch led to Shivay's advice (paraphrased):

If your app is stable enough, launching early, even in beta stages, can work in your favor. Pieces, for instance, had a successful beta launch.

The One-Day Party

Francesco summed up the Product Hunt experience with a memorable quote:

"Product Hunt is like a one-day party." - Francesco

Launch day is really exciting, but if you're the host of this "party" it can be really stressful if you don't do the prep work. Graham, summed it up pretty well when he said this:

"On the day is horrendous. Even with an amazing team behind you, it's a lot of work. But before the (launch) day is even more important." - Graham

Preparation, he says, is 80% of the battle, especially for smaller companies.

Launch Day Schedule

Francesco emphasized the need for a launch day schedule:

Create a list schedule for the day of the launch. Plan every detail, from influencer posts to Twitter spaces and newsletters. (paraphrased)

He also mentioned that it's a good idea to host a Twitter space on launch day. It can be a pretty casual space, but having the link to the launch in the jumbotron can really help.

And when creating this schedule, keep what Zeng said in mind:

The first 4 hours after launching are critical for gaining momentum and getting a boost from the algorithm. (paraphrased)

Post-Launch

Launching Multiple Times

Here's a paraphrase from Francesco that's worth noting:

You can launch on Product Hunt more than once, provided you've made substantial changes to your product. It's about bringing something new to the table each time.

The Power of a Great Product

Now that we've covered strategy, pre-launch, and launch day, there is still one VERY important factor.

Is your product awesome??

Zeng, having launched multiple times on Product Hunt, reminded us that a great product can be successful on Product Hunt, regardless of the size of your account (or the size of other socials).

Speaking of awesome products... 👀

Pieces Launch

As we wrapped up the space, Shivay gave us a sneak peek at what we're launching at Pieces:

"What is being launched is Pieces Copilot+ powered by Live-Context feature."

The goal is to aid in context switching, providing awareness across your browser and IDE. For example, during the space I mentioned how Live Context could be useful when learning React:

Imagine you're a Scrimba student learning React and you just learned about useState. You open VSCode to apply this knowledge. You could ask Pieces Copilot+:

"What was I learning about in my React course, and how can I apply it to my project?"

Pieces would then suggest how to implement useState in your project, leveraging Live Context to know what you were learning in the browser.

This is just one example of how you could use it to help learn new things.

If that sounds interesting to you, definitely check out Pieces on Product Hunt this Wednesday. Your support and feedback mean the world to us.

If you're curious about Pieces or want to connect, feel free to reach out on Twitter @getpieces or you can connect with me personally @elliezub.

I really hope you enjoyed this summary of the space. If you listened to the space & have any favorite quotes, feel free to share them in the comments below! (and if I misquoted anyone, feel free to let me know!)

See you next time,

Ellie