Months ago, I participated in a Hashnode hackathon where I had to build a project powered by MindsDB. I ended up submitting a project named "Hey!". It's an open-source CLI tool that allows users to interact with ChatGPT through their terminals and CMDs.

Here is the article showcasing Hey:

I Was the Only User of My Product 😞

At first, I was the only user. Despite sharing it on every social media platform, I felt disappointed when nobody noticed it. No one seemed to care about what I was doing, and my repo had only 8 stars (mine included).

Fortunately, I had a network of smart, awesome people. Since Hey was a hackathon idea, I felt hesitant about sharing posts about it after the event ended. I made something for the hackathon, and it did its job. Everyone who participated in the hackathon seemed to enjoy it at the time. But do I really want to keep maintaining the project? Is my network going to keep ignoring it? Does anybody else want to hear about Hey?

I Gave It a Shot 🎯

Hey was presented very well. In fact, I believe the intro video about Hey was one of the key reasons for its success during the hackathon. I couldn't let that masterpiece fade away. I had to show it off once again!

Here is the intro:

After the hackathon ended, I was maintaining only a few repositories. So, I decided to work on multiple projects. I planned to add some cool features to Hey and improve it a bit thinking that might attract some attention.

The very first version of Hey was difficult to set up. As a user, I would never install it!

If you wanted to use Hey, you had to go through several steps, like creating an account on MindsDB, copying and pasting some SQL queries, setting up the LLM model, and installing Hey. Developers might be okay with this, but what about anyone else?

The first step was to improve the accessibility. I developed Hey top to bottom in 4 days. I assumed it would be a one-time development process, so I built it just to work.

Fortunately, its codebase wasn't too large to refactor. I managed to redesign it using a completely different approach for connecting to the LLM. The project saw massive performance improvements in different aspects.

• Accessibility: Now, all you need to run it is a token!

• Performance: The new redesign resulted in much faster response time.

• Design: The new codebase design allowed me to focus more on the UI and UX.

What To Do Next 🤔

I had posted about the initial version of Hey with my network before, but it didn't get much attention as I said. Maybe it was because it was an app created for a hackathon, or perhaps they found it a bit hard to use. Either way, it didn't seem promising to me.

I had to try something new, something fair with a decent chance of engagement. I was familiar with Product Hunt. I knew people used it to share their startup ideas or demonstrate an MVP. I didn't realize that open-source projects were also part of that community.

So I went for it!

I Had Almost No Strategy 🤯

At first, I didn't know much about the Product Hunt platform. I assumed it was mainly about the number of followers and the network you had, which would help you get more attention and engagement. As a newcomer, I thought my project wouldn't stand a chance of being noticed by others so I didn't take it seriously and didn’t put %100 of myself into it. Soon I realized that it made my first mistake.

I was still a bit upset about the lack of engagement Hey received on other social platforms before, so I didn't plan any specific strategy for this one and just went through it.

I looked at some of the top-voted products of the day to see how they were designed. Meanwhile, I wondered, what if my project could make it up there?

I also read a few articles about best practices for launching on Product Hunt to at least have an idea of what I was doing. Noticed these key points.

• Choose a simple precise slogan for your product.

• Use a graphic designing tool to create a few templates for its homepage.

• Your product's logo and slogan matter the most.

• Keep your product's description short, simple, and informative.

So I followed almost everything I learned from those resources, but I still had some ignorance!

I launched it, posted about it on LinkedIn and Twitter, and then went to bed.

This is pretty much the strategy that I followed. It took me about three hours to launch. Looking back, I realize I could have done way better with more planning. Some entrepreneurs wait to launch at specific times, even if their product has been ready for months, intentionally missing out on potential income their product could have made.

I'm not an entrepreneur, and this article isn't the best place to learn about entrepreneurship. I'm just sharing my experience with one (seemingly) successful launch on Product Hunt. 😅

Product Hunt Is a Fair Deal 🤌

I woke up the next day and turned off the airplane mode of my phone. Immediately, I was flooded with dozens of notifications on LinkedIn and X. So many email notifications from Product Hunt. I had over 30 new messages in my inbox. At first, I thought these were bots crawling Product Hunt to message creators and advertise their work. This seemed reasonable to me, so I didn't take it seriously.

At first, I didn't expect any difference between launching on Product Hunt and sharing a post about the product on social media. That's why I was surprised when I opened my browser to Google something and suddenly saw my project listed as the 3rd product of the day with 110 upvotes!!

I was really surprised. I had put only three hours for this launch and didn't even put in much effort, but it still did great. I shared this image everywhere and tagged all my friends to support and check it out. I even reshared the intro video to get more engagement. Now, I was seeing it work! 🥳

Luckily, with the help of my network, I even managed to reach 1st place for a couple of hours but eventually secured the 2nd spot, earning the title "The 2nd Product of the Day". This was more than enough for me, especially since I had only one follower when I launched.

I was amazed at how (fairly) competitive Product Hunt is. Everyone has an equal chance to showcase their products. (Let's ignore those who pay for subscriptions)

With a bit of hard work, you can succeed. Just like how I did it with only 1 follower and almost no engagement at the time on the platform. Of course, you’re idea and implementation matter. 🙃

Getting Upvotes and Attentions ⬆️

Your product's logo, name, and slogan are the first things users will notice, so you should put serious effort into them. Use your design skills to convince them to click on it. If you're not skilled enough in those areas, let others do them for you. Ask your friends. Luckily, I had a bit of knowledge.

When a user opens your product page, the first thing that he/she notices is the images and media you've attached. My YouTube video did a good job there. It was less than two minutes long and effectively conveyed the message to the users. So, upload a video if you can. (It doesn't need to be recorded with the best high-tech microphone and laptop)

If you can't upload a video, design eye-catching images to convey your message. Don't overload them with information. They should be bite-sized but informative, using just a bold keyword or two. Use graphical elements to highlight and demonstrate the strengths of your product.

The next thing that catches their attention is the description of your product. This is your most valuable shot right there as users will decide here whether to upvote and comment or close the tab and never return!

Always start strong in the first paragraph. Grab their attention and convince them to keep reading. Most people get bored while reading, so I kept it shot, very simple, and informative. If your product has a longer description, make sure to begin with your best sentences. It's markdown-supported, so remember to use bullet points and emojis.

One thing that I didn’t know about at the time was that whenever someone launches on Product Hunt, he also writes the first comment on the product and talks about the idea and puts more information there. I’d highly recommend that if your product description is too long.

What Then 🔮

Well, I don't know what to do then as for me, it's the first time I'm experiencing "my then". I've got so many comments on my launch. So many feature requests.

The only expectation I have is to see fewer engagements in my future launches. Usually, the first launch makes the biggest impact unless you take a major step forward and offer something truly impressive, like how OpenAI introduced GPT-4o. Therefore, I need to attract more people from other fields while also working on cool features for the next launch.

Here I've listed the steps that I'd take for now.

• Expand the project to cover more areas and engage people from both tech and non-tech fields.

• Work on the new feature requests.

• Demonstrate other aspects of my project by creating more content.

• Ease the accessibility.

These steps seem to be positively effective. They might be the worst decisions to make right now, I don't know. But I'm not experienced and I don't have time to study "Things to do after a successful launch on Product Hunt". Most importantly, I wouldn't blame myself if I fail because it's my first time and I'm seeking experience.

I can learn from failure, not success. Success only makes me temporarily happy, but failure teaches me the path to lasting happiness.

The Last Word ✍️

Always take your shot. If it doesn't work, try again. Fortunately, you have an unlimited supply of arrows. One day, you'll see it hit.

Thank you for reading this article. I've included links to my product here. Please take a look and share your thoughts.

• Hey! on Product Hunt: https://www.producthunt.com/products/hey-30620d3c-3330-4c6a-86cd-8cf9930a2490/launches

• Hey! on GitHub: https://github.com/lnxpy/hey