Product Hunt Launch Checklist

Use this checklist to do prepare for a stellar Product Hunt launch!

Introduction:

Enter basic details

Pre-launch preparation:

Prepare launch page deliverables

Determine your Maker(s)

Create the Product Hunt listing

Determine the best time to launch

Schedule launch

Launch day:

Share across social channels

Make a comment on the Product Hunt page

Send out an email

Post-launch:

Consider refreshing old content

Related checklists:

Sources:

Introduction:

This checklist is designed to guide you through a successful Product Hunt launch, from planning and preparation to execution and post-launch tips.

At Process Street, we've launched dozens of Product Hunt offerings, with multiple top 4 spots and Hunts from top names like Hiten Shah and Jack Smith, and offerings ranging from eBooks to SaaS products to business podcasts.

This guide builds on everything we've learned as well as top industry expertise to deliver a checklist that is sure to help you hit the ball out of the park on launch day.

Enter basic details

Fill in some basic data about the Product Hunt launch and your team.

Start by detailing the offering you'll be launching on Product Hunt:

Product name

Who will be involved in the launch?

Maker

Maker #2

You can add more Makers by editing the template for this checklist.

Hunter

TIP: Hunt your own product! It doesn't matter who hunts your product - this used to matter a lot more, but Product Hunt doesn't send email notifications to the Hunter's followers anymore!

Launch date

Pre-launch preparation:

Prepare launch page deliverables

Make sure you've prepared all of your deliverables ahead of launch day.

Here are the elements you'll want to prepare before you can make your Product Hunt listing live, in the form of a handy sub-checklist:

1

Main URL linking to your product or landing page.
2

Title - keep it simple; just the name of the product.
3

Tagline - what's the value, and who's it for? <60 characters, don't go in-depth - focus on the value, avoid catchy slogans - be direct.
4

Thumbnail - describes the product visually - could be in-app screenshots, or an image that best represents the product.
5

Gallery - one of the first things people will see after clicking - minimum 2x images, ORDER IS IMPORTANT. Videos will always show up first. Have at least one image/.gif that's tweetable (rectangular 2:1 ratio) - 635x380, under 3mb.
6

Topics - 3 or 4; basically tags.
7

Makers - add personal accounts of everyone that worked on the product - followers of each maker get notifications on launch day so adding all your teammates helps discovery.
8

Maker comments - brief intro to the team and the problem you're solving. 3-4 sentences to unpack value proposition, use cases, who it's for, why you're building it - tell a story that compels people to care.
9

Social links - Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Medium, AngelList, etc. Good idea to add open job listings on AngelList here as well.

Determine your Maker(s)

Decide who will be the Maker (or Makers) for this launch.

Create the Product Hunt listing

You're now ready to create the listing.

So go ahead and create a new listing; however, you will need to consider the best time to launch before you make the listing live.

Determine the best time to launch

When is the best time to launch on Product Hunt? There is a lot of conflicting information.

While there is no universally accepted "best time" to launch on Product Hunt (because it's a global platform), as a general rule the best advice seems to be launch sooner rather than later.

In any case, you may have a good reason for scheduling the post for a date in the future (to prepare promotional channels, organize deliverables, or even finish building the product).

Determine whether you will be launching ASAP or scheduling the post for a later date using the dropdown field below:

Launch now, or schedule for a later date?

Schedule launch

Determine the ideal date and time for your launch and record it in the date field below.

Launch date

Additional notes (timezone considerations, etc.)

Launch day:

Make a comment on the Product Hunt page

Have your Maker(s) leave a comment on the Product Hunt launch page to unpack your goals for this product:

What problem are you trying to solve?
What compelled you to build this product?
Why should people care?

You can use the form fields below to draft your comment.

What problem are you trying to solve?

What compelled you to build this product?

Why should people care?

Send out an email

Now is a great time to send out an email to your mailing list to let them know about your new ProductHunt listing. This will help drive upvotes and increase your chances of landing that fabled top #4 position.

Post-launch:

Consider refreshing old content

If you run a blog or any kind of content marketing engine, your Product Hunt launch presents a great opportunity to refresh some old content.

Consider how you can spend some time updating and refreshing old content to contextualize your new Product Hunt launch page.

Not only will this help drive traffic to the Product Hunt page, but you may also benefit from an SEO boost (Google likes it when you update old content to stay relevant)