When is the right time to launch?
When is the right time to launch?
As I posted a several months ago, I started working on a project late last year. I found alternatives (one of them has even been posted here, on IndieHackers), but I decided that I should still build it the way I see. I've spent some months prototyping and building. I created an internal roadmap, which I followed. At some point I realized that I keep thinking of more and more features and improvements, and if I keep chasing all of them - I will never launch (I've been through that before haha).
So my questions to you, hackers, is - how do you identify the right time (phase of your product) to launch? When is it not too early? I'm fearful of launching my product which will lack functionality compared to competitors, but at the same time I don't want to be building it continuously without putting it in front of audience and without getting real feedback.
No one's stopping you from launching and relaunching a thousand times a day. If you see each version as a product of their own, then 'launch' as fast as you can and as often as you can. In the beginning stages, the most important thing is getting your product into people's awareness. The present flaws don't matter because you'll address them and 'launch' again.
Soft launch it ASAP.
Get some beta members, or cut-rate members on-board -- and keep working while you're testing.
The feedback and experience you get from live users is really immeasurable.
I'm in the middle of running a beta right now on wordmetrics.com (Thank you fellow Indiehackers that are giving me great feedback every day!) and I'm continuing to develop the site at the same time. The difference is that I feel like my development is much more effective and much 'smarter' than it was when I was cranking away on my own.
I think doing a beta is a great idea. Would you mind sharing some insights into how did your beta launch go? Was it a closed by invite only? How did you reach out to your potential beta-test users?
Mine's kind of a rolling-launch.. and it's still ongoing. I'm nowhere near finished, and there are still some features that don't work at all. Still, the important parts are all very functional.
I started with 3 friends signing up just to make sure my registration worked. I think they used the site for about 3 minutes and never came back. But even that helped work out a couple issues.
Then I posted once to Indiehackers inviting people to join the free beta. 7 people signed up. Of those only 4 actually used the application and gave me feedback. 3 were clearly just checking it out.
Then, because my target market is bloggers and writers, I pinged about 25-30 writers and bloggers (maybe more) using everything from contact forms to social media. Another 4 signed up for the free beta. That was kind of harder / less successful than I thought actually...
Then, over the course of the next two weeks I probably got another 5 or 6 people to sign up by directly asking them if they'd be a beta participant.
Directly asking people if they would like to be a part of the beta is the way to go. I think people like to be asked, and told that you want to hear their opinion.
Thanks a lot for sharing this!
Today :)
That's too aggressive haha! Still sorting out the designs, but I think I'll just dump a bunch of things from the roadmap for now, and launch once the designs are ready.
Sounds like NOW! ;-) Ask yourself what you want to learn from your potential customers as a next step and if you have build enough to do so. If the answer is yes, get it out there. Remember you can do "beta" or so.
Yeah, sounds like a beta is a way to go. Will just finish some last bits and will start inviting people.