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What needs to be perfect with your product before launch?
I've just made the most difficult decision to put off my product launch until after a week later because I thought we are not ready.
A few shake-ups here and there. But this, in my opinion, while it is a setback, I see it instead as an opportunity to re-evaluate what we currently have. And make sure we get it right with our launch.
We're working on making our product worthy of this community. And we are working hard at it.
What is a non-negotiable for product launches in your opinion?
Let's hear your thoughts.
UPDATE: We finally fixed the issue we had and resolved to go live this Saturday. :)
I can't thank you all enough for all your amazing answers. We'll keep working hard on our product even post-launch. But of course, those early feedbacks will be vital to our growth.☺️
We are going live on PH on Saturday. Please find us here: https://www.producthunt.com/prod...
Thanks for your support.
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Krishna Kumar
IMHO, nothing will ever be perfect. You can strive towards perfection, but rarely do you achieve it. Therefore, it is ok to launch an "imperfect" product as long as it works and then keep making improvements, particularly if they are based on user feedback
just my two bits
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@kkumarkg awesome. Thank you for your take on this. Truly, as long as the product works, that is what matters. Incremental progress can always be made afterwards.
A non-negotiable for product launches in my opinion is ensuring that the core functionality and user experience are flawless. It's crucial to thoroughly test the product, gather user feedback, and iterate until it provides a seamless and satisfying experience for your target audience.
@joe_gonzalez_23
Thoughtful response, Joe. Personally, user experience matters a lot. And it is something I look out for, too. Making things to complicated with your product usage is already one more additional problem than the world needs. Because you may have the solution, but when it's not a pleasurable experience navigating your product, that's not great at all.
Thanks for sharing this, Joe.
@joe_gonzalez_23 Totally agree about the core functionality.
It makes a lot of sense… if feedback about your product is what you’re looking for, you first have to make aure it works well
@joe_gonzalez_23 I definitely agree! Get the UX flawless at least and then iterate and improve as you getting in more feedback.
This is a really hard Q, personally, I think if something is perfect, you launched to late
@paul_pamfil, wow!
This got me thinking a lot.😅
But I understand your point. This is why MVPs exist, isn't it?
There's always room for incremental progress. :)
The product must undergo rigorous testing to ensure functionality, usability, and reliability, meeting all the set specifications. Additionally, we need to confirm that our customer service and support systems are fully operational and prepared to resolve any user concerns post-launch.
@anderson88_s
Amazing!
Functionality.
Usability.
Reliability.
Very crucial areas, Sharon. This keeps getting insightful. Thanks for your feedback.
@emmanuelnwosu since you guys are just about to launch, how are you guys testing your product?
@tal_buchshreiber1
Thanks for your question, Tal. We did a small-hosted beta testing with a few podcasters we enjoyed listening to. And we gathered their responses and performed a sentimental analysis. They were mostly responsive and this spurred us on to continue doing what we're doing.
Tomorrow, we'll be going live on Product Hunt. Please support us.🥺
@emmanuelnwosu thank you for the detailed answer!
Good luck with your launch! You’ve got my support
If you know it’s buggy, delay it.
If it doesn’t convey your message, delay it.
If it doesn’t have distribution in place, delay it.
If it is incomplete, just ship the thing!
@luiseduardodev
Okay, it's not buggy.🧐
It conveys our message just great.☺️
There's a distribution strategy in place.🚀
Is it incomplete? Quite, yeah. We've been bootstrapping with limited resources, but we are real proud of how far we've come with this. And can't wait to show it to the world.
I'd take your advice, Luis! 😀
Hey, definitely understand where you're coming from. Good for you for making the best decision for your product/company.
I agree with many others here that certainly not everything needs to be perfect for launch, but I do think that the 'aha' moment in your product should be evident. Like, that particular flow should be optimised to the best extent possible. If the user is able to recognise core value in your product they will overlook other flaws; if they cannot find the value, the launch is not going to be effective.
@charmandro
I agree, Charlotte. While marketing is important, the value seen in a product will always sell itself. Your strategy only amplifies it, in my opinion. Just as the microphone amplifies the voice of a beautiful songstress, who'd still have people listen to her if she sang without a mic.
This is another important thing to keep an eye out for, and constantly evaluate to see how well your product, your message, and how its value's stock is performing.
I don't think one can ever make anything perfect. Waiting to be perfect to launch is almost like shooting self in the foot.
When we launched https://kloudmate.com, we just launched a basic MVP to see if there were any takers (validation) before building further.
@pranabgohain
Amazing! Core functionality truly matters.
Kloudmate looks really good. You must've come a long way with this for sure.
That's laudable, Pranab. Let's continue to ship more valuable products into the world.🌟
@emmanuelnwosu Thanks for saying that! Launching OpenTelemetry integration in less than 3 weeks. Lezzgo! ✊🏼
I think it's hard to ever feel 'ready' when it's your product. I think as long as the product you're launching has some value to someone, then it's a successful launch! Don't forget that you can always launch again and again. Thinking of it as one 'big-bang' release that you have to absolutely get right will just mean you keep putting it off.
It guess it totally depends on the kind of product... a simple app, then sure... rough and ready is perfect for PH like: https://www.producthunt.com/prod...
We're launching a much bigger concept tomorrow, we did launch with alpha users and early adopters but only with word of mouth and not over a big platform like PH. We're actually launching for the 1st time on PH tomorrow if you would like to follow along and see how it goes: https://www.producthunt.com/prod...
@john_carmichael
This looks good, John. I understand it's your first iteration. But the concept is already as valuable as it should be.
Wishing you good luck on your launch tomorrow.
I've followed already and will be on the test wagon to leave you some claps tomorrow.
@emmanuelnwosu amazing thank you! we've actually done a few iterations with alpha users and early business accounts. However, this is the 1st time "out in the open" so to speak :)
@emmanuelnwosu you can see the previous launch of mine last month on this discussion https://www.producthunt.com/disc...
As long as users can use the core purpose of the product e.g. a stock screener should allow me to define basic conditions that filter stocks accordingly. Other than that core purpose, everything else is fluid. Additional features, UI, UX don't need to be perfect.
There's a real mental challenge of releasing a product into the public if it's not perfect. This is difficult to get over, but can hold us back from getting solid user insights early on. Treating it as a science experiment really helps where you expect failure from the beginning. All of this helping evolve your product into an ideal solution for your users
@hamza_q4
Really thoughtful response, Hamza. Thank you.
I got over this "must-be-perfect" mentality and finished listed on PH. We are launching in two days: https://www.producthunt.com/prod...
And for sure, I'll appreciate your support. :)
If you mean sale pitch I strongly believe that having a social proof after each feature of your product is very important
@uthman_abdulrahim
Yeah, I agree, Uthman. This weighs in on how much popularity you garner with the users, isn't it?
This is why it is important to LISTEN to what the market needs.
I actually think the purpose of the launch is to make the product even better. More people will get to use your product = more feedbacks coming your way. But just make sure the product is bug free and has a good UI.
Good luck with your future launch! For me non-negotial for product launch is underdelivering - by that I mean not including the crucial features that users would need to fully experience the solution. Even during MVP advanced features can be built on over time as updates but key features that bring value should be included from the start
The balance between nothing and everything. Nothing should be perfect, but we want everything to be perfect.
This thread has become a great resource for me. Thank you, @emmanuelnwosu. I'm also dealing with similar questions.
I've been working on building jeezai.com (AI Internship Platform) and budbuddyai.com (World's first AI Budtender), but I'm not quite sure when to launch...
@youraimarketer
Hey, Muratcan, I hope you found valuable answers on this thread. I know I did.
From your description of these products, they sure look like valuable products. If it's ready, ship it! I 100% agree.
We learned it the hard way, still learning, with a startup you can't wait til it's perfect to launch. Then you'll just be dragging out and keep fixing bugs forever, when what you should be doing is getting the product out there to get feedback. I would say just have the basic functionalities of what you're building to work (because you need to see what you're solving/assuming is a problem is something that needs to be solved).
@shaaay This screams PMF.
Sometimes, we end up "solving problems" that don't even exist. And we'd never know this unless we get the opinion of the customer (s) from early stage.
This helps a lot for redirection. It's also why I always argue for lean startups whenever the Lean Startup Vs Deliberate Startup debate is brought up.