Ask HN: How important is launch day for an MVP? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How important is launch day for an MVP?

3 pointsccallebs5 comments

I'm close to finishing the MVP to a side project I've been idly working on over the past 9 months. I would put it down for a few months, come back and implement some features. Rinse and repeat. As 2016 is quickly coming to a close and one of my goals was to launch a product this year, I've been spending more evenings on it lately.

Originally I thought it would be an interesting, simple take on bloated test plan software. Now that I've completed it, I feel like it's too simple. As in I'm almost embarrassed to ask people to pay for it because the limited amount of current features.

I do have plans to expand upon it and add more integrations and features. But I also don't want this to exist in purgatory for longer than necessary. I want real people using it to guide future product development. "Launch fast" was the battle cry from the beginning.

My questions are: Is this normal worrying? For those of you that have launched a side project in the past, have you encountered the same reservations and fears? How important is the initial launch?

You want a good launch day but it is the beginning of a long story.

Lately my best money makers have been in the aws marketplace and I find my amis frequently get little or no revenue on launch day and I could get depressed about that but maybe 2 weeks or a month later I get some steady users and the month after that I get a decent check.

Think Aida or attention, interest, desire, action. It is unusual for people to buy the first time they hear about something, also trying anything new that takes any learning or thinking means you have to clear some time.

I had never heard that acronym before but that makes complete sense. I suppose that you _do_ want the best launch you can muster, but it isn't make or break.

Startups in 13 Sentences by Paul Graham:

"2. Launch fast.

The reason to launch fast is not so much that it's critical to get your product to market early, but that you haven't really started working on it till you've launched. Launching teaches you what you should have been building. Till you know that you're wasting your time. So the main value of whatever you launch with is as a pretext for engaging users."

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12289071

My own personal perspective having launched several times: if you don't feel bad about something, you took too long to launch.

Launching teaches you what you should have been building. This biggest issue with not launching is the presumption that you know what you should be working on.

I strongly recommend you read Lean Startup . . . don't skim it. Read it.

I think every product owner has anxieties about what features will/will not be deemed worthwhile. This is why the "BETA" tag is so ubiquitous. The only way to really know is to have the crowds decide, so just go for it!

Edit: "launching" multiple times is totally a thing, too, so don't fear getting the product/market fit wrong the first time.

This is the kind of feedback I hoped I would get. And you're right, I can launch new versions of the product as time goes on. I've been working in a black box so far and need to get customer feedback.

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