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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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Steven Diffey
The list of things that you want to learn
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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! ✊🏼
First of all, the product must fulfill its stated functionality. These are non-negotiable. Next, it would be good to consider the user experience. It would not be beneficial if users drop your product because they cannot handle the interface. Good luck with the launch!
To take a swing at the hard question, I think that your value proposition — as it is understood today — should be near perfectly communicated. I think this allows for maximum learning with regard to product and market!
That’s a really hard question to answer because it depends on your startup situation and what are your goals for the launch (get leads, testers, attract investors).
However, based on my experience of launching multiple projects, I can confidently say that the most important thing is the product itself. Meaning that it should possess the following qualities:
1. Be 'almost' bug-free
2. Have a well-designed user onboarding process
3. Have an intuitive and user-friendly interface
Everything else comes later.
Hope it helps!
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
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. :)
I believe having major bugs resolved before launch is crucial because this will leave an impression on the product and other factors (like the retention, and adoption). I don't believe there's ever a finished or perfect product.
also, congrats on the launch! that's an interesting product :)
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...
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
@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.
The balance between nothing and everything. Nothing should be perfect, but we want everything to be perfect.
As others have pointed out, perfect is the enemy of good. Speed and validation is the name of the game before you cross the chasm. I’ve seen countless founders just get stuck at perfect and never launch.
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.
Your feeling about the timing. If you believe its ready to launch, then go for it
@ekrcet
Yesss!
We are ready! Loose ends are all tied up and we've been listed: https://www.producthunt.com/prod...
☺️
What's most important to us is that our product is valuable to someone. I'm so excited for Saturday!😁
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.
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.
