A case study on Waydev’s Product Hunt Launch 🚀 with Ship 🚢

An outsider’s perspective on how to do Product Launches, choices to make and lessons learned:

• What ProductHunt is and what it can do for you
• Goals you should aim for
• Preparing for the launch
• Things to do on the big day
• Tips and insights

WHAT WAYDEV DOES — Software Development Metrics for non-techies

Looks at source control statistics and condenses them into an easy-to follow number that can tell you, at a glance, if the project is on track

This is a case study for a product with a very specific audience. For a broader audience, scale up the numbers

Nobody will find your product unless you get featured

GETTING FEATURED — What it means?

OBJECTIVES — Defining a successful launch

Making the top 10 is useful — You can make the top 10 in any category and, ideally, also globally. This will help generate traction and, later on, be useful in attracting investors

It’s not just about time — You of course also need views and upvotes, and as many new users as your system can handle. Which sometimes happens to be less than expected, for some reason

Being in the top 10 gives you an additional week of visibility

LAUNCHING ON PH — If you remember a single slide, this one should be it

THE UPCOMING PAGE WITH SHIP — Creating it and how it helps

CREATE UPCOMING PAGE WITH SHIP — Features you might need

USING THE UPCOMING PAGE — Getting a good start

Now it makes sense to Build an MVP

MANAGE THE MVP — Getting the most out of what you built

PREPARING THE LAUNCH

SET THE DATE — Give yourself enough time, but also push yourself

MATERIALS YOU NEED — Good writing increases your chances for success

MESSAGE UPCOMING SUBSCRIBERS with Ship — Remind them that the thing they’re interested in is about to launch

THE LAUNCH DAY STAYING ON TOP OF THE ISSUES

IDEALLY IT’S A TUESDAY — A tradeoff between potential reach and competition

HAVE A FIRST COMMENT READY — Prepare a response

BE ACTIVE IN THE COMMENTS — Keep your users informed and tackle difficult questions

BE READY TO TACKLE ISSUES — Keep your application running

PROVIDE TECH SUPPORT — Be ready to answer questions and fix problems in real-time

MISCELLANEOUS — TIPS THINGS WE’VE LEARNED AND FIND USEFUL

This case study was possible with the support of Johnny Modest company & Nick Abouzeid from Product Hunt who provided us early access to Ship.