The 5 mistakes of our first PH launch and useful lessons for the further one

Hi, the community of current and future makers! I'm Sasha, co-founder of Skipp. What did go wrong with our original launch? https://www.producthunt.com/products/skipp and what did we learn from it to keep it from happening again? We launched our primary product on Product Hunt in June, and while we received over 600 upvotes, several useful comments, and new customers, it is hard to say that it had a fantastic debut, and here's why: 😅 **We did not have a clear goal.** We did not know where we were headed with this launch or how PH works in terms of accomplishing product achievements of the day/week, drawing new users, creating brand recognition, and so on. In the end, we simply created the launch page and released it without much preparation. We believed if a goal was set, such as being the product of the day, we would devise a strategy to accomplish it. 😵 **Our product was similar to others.** During the time of our release, with a range of two-three weeks, there were three product launches with similar positioning. As a result of similar products' availability at the moment, the interest in the product fades away relatively quickly. So at this time, we are developing a fundamentally new product solution for the remote talent recruiting market, and we are certain that it will be more successful than earlier attempts. 😔 **We did not engage with the community.** After our first launch, we get connected with people in the PH community to have a look at their product and show support. We were extremely optimistic about helping others since we realized how challenging it can be. On PH, you will find an incredible community with high-caliber specialists, who may help you to endorse your idea and give you really constructive feedback for improvement. 😵‍💫 **We did not assign responsibilities to the team members to boost efficiency.** After reflection, we can honestly say that we did not put enough time into planning the launch. We think we could have done a better job if we had been paying more attention to interaction, social media management, external messaging, and tracking the number of upvotes throughout the day. The PH launch is about teamwork and efficiency, and we understand it. It was not flawless at first, but we decided to make it right. 😱 **We did not use any marketing tools for promotion.** A product launch is the planned process of bringing a product to market and announcing it to the world. It involves many different steps, from developing the right messaging and materials to empowering marketing staff and maintaining momentum by using marketing tools, such as email marketing, SMM, content marketing, etc. There appears to be a large portion of the audience that may be interested in your product and want to support its launch but are unaware of it. So it is your responsibility to develop a marketing strategy to figure out who these folks are and how to reach them. We are convinced that making mistakes can be a valuable learning opportunity and hope this information was useful for you. For now, we are preparing a launch of our bumble-style mobile application (already in the App store) to match with the best remote tech talents. I'd be really excited if you share with me thoughts or tips about your launches! Cheers!