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## **The Playbook: If I Could Do This Again** Still as a small team. Still with limited time. Here’s how I’d approach it differently. ### **01 - 1 month out: Build your accounts and your network** Register Product Hunt accounts for founders and key team members. Start commenting on newly launched products and makers almost always reply to comments, and this is the most reliable way to build karma steadily. On LinkedIn, start adding connections now, because the weekly cap will catch you if you leave it too late. The principle: if you want to leverage a community, you have to be part of it first. Karma isn’t gamed, it’s earned by showing up consistently before you need anything. ### **02 - 2 weeks out: Find and warm up your supporters** Start reaching out on Twitter/X and LinkedIn. The “Coming Soon” page used to be a great way to find upcoming makers to connect with - PH has changed how that works, so adjust accordingly. The best targets now: - Commenters on competing or similar products - likely your actual target users - Makers of recently launched products - they’re probably still active in the community - Members of PH support communities on LinkedIn, X, WhatsApp, Telegram, WeChat and more. Build the relationship first. Don’t open with “please vote for me.” ### **03 - 1–2 weeks out: Lock in your hunter, finalize your listing, decide your launch day** **On picking a launch day:** [Lenny’s newsletter](https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-successfully-launch-on-product) has a great breakdown of the tradeoffs. The short version: weekends give you the best shot at a top ranking; weekdays give you more traffic. Pick based on your actual goal. Also, if you know other teams in your network who are planning to launch, try to coordinate. Launching the same day as a friend’s product splits your community’s attention. **On hunters:** Look for hunters with a genuine track record of top launches. Some charge $200–500; many will help for free if your product interests them. Give them real time to review your listing and leave a meaningful comment. That comment matters, especially from someone with credibility in your category. Finalize your listing early. Don’t be making changes last minute. ### **04 - Launch day: Four milestones to hit** **Milestone 1: Get featured.** If you’re not featured, your product won’t show up under the Launches section. This is your first goal of the day - everything else depends on it. **Milestone 2: The first 4 hours.** Launch at 12:01am PT. Rankings are hidden for the first four hours, but you can actually check your standing early: go to your product page’s Awards section and see whether you have a Top 3 or Top 5 badge showing - this appears before the public leaderboard does. (This may be a bug PH will eventually fix, but use it while it lasts.) Your goal for these four hours is to be #1 when the rankings go public. Momentum compounds once visible. Send outreach in waves roughly every 30 minutes, staggered by time zone. Avoid clustering votes as that’s what triggers the spam filter. Keep in mind: your US communities are mostly asleep for these first hours, so your early push will come from other time zones. **Milestone 3: Mid-day logistics.** Assign 2–3 team members to respond to comments in 2-hour shifts. This is a marathon, not a sprint. [Lenny’s launch-day war plan template](https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-successfully-launch-on-product) is a good reference for structuring the day. **Milestone 4: The final 2 hours.** Don’t let up. We moved from top 3 to top 2 in the last stretch because we segmented our outreach and messaged people we hadn’t reached yet. Save some contacts for the end. ### **05 - After launch: Follow through and filter noise** Thank everyone who supported you - personally, where you can. You’ll receive a wave of inbound from agencies, growth marketers, and influencers. Most of it is noise. The ones worth your time are the founders and users who left genuine comments or real feedback during the day. We’re still figuring out the post-launch phase ourselves, so more on this later.