Would you share product updates on Product Hunt between launches?
Jamie Sprowl
38 replies
Hey Makers! Jamie from the Product Hunt team here. Launches are a way to share big milestones for your team over the course of many months of work, but there are so many smaller updates in between that might be interesting to share and connect with the community.
We’re exploring some new ways to make posting product updates more frequent, and we're curious to hear from you on what would help you most.
Makers, if you had a way to post incremental product updates (written, video, or some other way), would you do it?
Product enthusiasts, would you find these updates an interesting way to follow along with your favorite makers so they don’t become long lost friends you haven’t heard from in 6 months?
Fill out the poll and comment below with your thoughts. 👇
Replies
flo merian@fmerian
it’d make so much sense
edit: *thinking out loud* Product Hubs could highlight Discussions started by makers, e.g. AMA sessions, and team stacks, too @jamie_sprowl
Share
Just a weekly feature update with photos/walkthrough video or stats update will be great.
I'm doing it mainly on my Twitter and Substack channel but sometimes I'd like to show people activity on my product page as well (to let them know that the product ain't dead :D)
huntFilter
As a creeper, would love to see updates makers are working on or even be able to provide feedback/help test.
Think there’s a cool opportunity within Product Hunt to help make makers first fans into power testers & help define user profiles.
Command AI
huntFilter
@cristinaibunea, great question! I think at a minimum, using the recently introduced Product Pages as a place also to share a product's changelog, roadmap, or upcoming features would be fun as a user and encourage early support. Within those Changelogs could be product demos. I would almost imagine this as a feed-esk-type format.
The way I think this could evolve is into the Maker having 3 levels of community-esk features they can create within Product Hunt.
- Level 1, a simple ChangeLog
- Level 2, Community Gatherings & Early Demos (like a group call with fans)
- Level 3, Honorary Q&Ars/Alpha testers. (users who get to test upcoming features, help Maker work through bugs, etc.)
Aside from the product, challenges markers are facing is an awesome idea! It could be cool to create a "Need Help" or "Facing Challenge" category in Discussions that a product (product page) could be tagged so users know what the Maker is working on. This info can also be displayed in a Maker's profile in a "Challenges I'm facing" section that allow others to help out!
I know I wrote a lot and probably didn't capture it super well, but happy to hop on a call to share more if needed!
Productlane
Would love it!
Actively
Just make Twitter thanks
ClassPoint
All for keeping the information in the same places - would love to see updates form the products I am following. Maybe I stopped using it after a while but with a new update, I could get pulled back in.
Product Hunt
@sara_wanasek Curious what format you think would be most compelling to get updates in? Obviously a lot of people use threads on Twitter, and I've been seeing more and more video animations. Any method stand out to you as particularly engaging?
ClassPoint
@jamie_sprowl If I am following the product, any kind of post would be great! Videos are always great but not easy to make so people might be less inclined to post them
Definitely. Actually, coming from Indie Hackers I was a bit disappointed not to be able to post updates on the product. Looking forward to it! 🤓
Booomerang
Yes, this sounds like a great idea!
Gamma
Personally, I'd love to see what makers are building. There are products out there that help makers build in public, but I'd be interested in getting my updates directly from PH since I'm on here so often anyways.
Product Hunt
@naomichao Appreciate you jumping in on the discussion! Would any format be particularly exciting for you to get product updates through?
Gamma
@jamie_sprowl I mean...I'm a sucker for short update videos. It's just more personal than text. But I get that text is probably easier to incorporate, especially if you do it as like a separate vertical of discussions or something. Blog updates with lots of pictures could work too.
Product Hunt
@naomichao I am right there with ya! Love video updates as well and think stories are a cool way of doing this.
Gamma
@sxyalicer0se That's a really good point I hadn't thought of! I'll make sure any video I submit has captions for sure 🙃
3Common
i’d personally love a central product page that i can send to customers/investors that acts as my “release notes” and “founder updates”.
i would think this could easily be a micro-product within the product hunt ecosystem
Hey.bio
Absolutely, I think 6 months may be a long time when everyone is cut off from all the changes and cycle a product may have gone through. Small but big update to features could really help the product teams build on the feedback loop.
I think this is a great idea. We just launched otrpass.com yesterday, and it went really well but I was just today wondering how best to keep users aware of major updates.
Product Hunt
@bill_hoppin1 that's great feedback, thank you! For now, the best way is to come back and launch again when you have a major update but hopefully we will work out a solution soon for smaller incremental updates in between launches.
FlashApply
Launching soon!
Certainly. While sharing incremental updates and gathering as much feedback as possible can be immensely beneficial, I personally prefer a longer interval between updates.
Updates means a version bump, would be great to have a single centralized profile for each product including its all updates that can act like a change-log for product too.
Several products exist that assist creators with building in public, but as a frequent visitor to Product Hunt, I would prefer to receive updates directly from this platform itself.