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Product Hunt Launch Checklist

The minute-by-minute checklist for PH launch day — submit, maker comment, first-hour engagement, mid-day push, and end-of-day follow-up.

Why

Product Hunt is a 24-hour sprint where every hour's action compounds: the first hour sets the ranking trajectory, hours 2-8 determine whether you reach the top 5, and the final 4 hours decide Product of the Day. A checklist ensures no high-leverage action is missed because the maker was busy replying to one comment. It sequences the actions that the PH algorithm rewards (early upvotes, maker comment within 5 minutes, rapid comment replies) and assigns each to a team member so the maker can focus on engagement while others handle social cross-posting and bug monitoring. Without a checklist, the maker spends the first hour fumbling with the listing instead of engaging, and the launch never recovers the lost ranking momentum.

When

On PH launch day, starting at 12:01am PST (submit time) through 11:59pm PST (voting close). The checklist is a 24-hour runbook.

How

1. 12:01am PST: submit the listing (or confirm hunter submitted); verify title, tagline, gallery, demo GIF all render correctly
2. 12:05am: post the maker comment (the pre-written 500-word story); this must be within 5 minutes or the algorithm penalizes
3. 12:10am: notify pre-briefed network (Slack #ph-launch) — "we're live, upvote and comment now"; 20 early upvotes in the first 30 min is the target
4. 12:30am: cross-post to Twitter ("We just launched on Product Hunt! [link]") and LinkedIn; pin the tweet
5. 6:00am PST: check ranking; if top 10, continue push; if below 20, post a HN Show HN to supplement reach
6. 8:00am-12:00pm: peak engagement window — maker replies to every comment within 15 min, engineer monitors for bug reports, support monitors inbox
7. 12:00pm: mid-day check — ranking, upvote velocity, comment sentiment; if velocity is dropping, post a new comment with a feature highlight
8. 3:00pm: second cross-post (Reddit r/webdev, dev.to cross-post) to capture the afternoon audience
9. 6:00pm-10:00pm: final push — remind friendly users who haven't upvoted, post a "last 2 hours" update comment
10. 11:59pm: voting closes; screenshot final rank and upvote count for the launch report

Example

# PH Launch Checklist — ez4code v2.0
Date: 2026-10-06  Hunter: @johndoe

## Roles
Maker: @founder (comment engagement)
Social: @marketing (cross-post)  Monitor: @sre (bugs)

## Timeline (PST)
12:01am  Submitted ✓ (hunter @johndoe)
12:05am  Maker comment posted ✓
12:10am  #ph-launch notified → 18 upvotes in 30 min
12:30am  Twitter + LinkedIn cross-posted
06:00am  Rank #8, 142 upvotes → continue push
08:00am  Rank #4, 287 upvotes → peak engagement
10:30am  Rank #2, 412 upvotes → on track for Product of Day
12:00pm  Mid-day: 489 upvotes, 67 comments, all replied
03:00pm  Reddit + dev.to cross-posted
06:00pm  "Last 2 hours" comment → final push
11:59pm  CLOSED: 623 upvotes, Rank #2 (Product of the Day runner-up)

## Launch report
623 upvotes · 89 comments · 3,127 signups · Rank #2

Common Problems

  • ⚠Posting the maker comment 30 minutes after submit — PH's algorithm weights maker engagement in the first 5 minutes as a quality signal; a late maker comment drops you from the 'launching now' feed.
  • ⚠Replying to comments with 'thanks!' — every comment is a chance to add information that other voters read; a substantive reply ('great question — here's how we handle X') both engages the commenter and sells lurkers.
  • ⚠No mid-day cross-post because 'PH is enough' — PH captures the early-adopter crowd; Reddit, HN, and dev.to capture different audiences and compound your reach by 2-3x with one additional post each.
  • ⚠The maker doing bug monitoring instead of commenting — a maker who replies to 60 comments builds advocacy; a maker who watches Sentry while comments go unanswered builds resentment; delegate monitoring.

Best Practices

  • ✓Draft the first 5 maker comment replies in advance for the most common questions (pricing, integrations, roadmap, 'how is this different from X') — this lets you reply in 2 minutes instead of 10, keeping up with the comment velocity.
  • ✓Use a PH tracking tool (like Product Hunt's own analytics or phlaunchtracker) to monitor upvote velocity every 30 minutes — if velocity drops by > 50% between checks, trigger a push action (new comment, cross-post, network reminder).
  • ✓Assign a dedicated 'comment replier' (not the maker) for the 6am-8am PST window when the maker may be asleep in another timezone — a missed 2-hour comment window in the morning can drop you from top 5.
  • ✓End the day with a 'thank you' comment that summarizes the launch stats and teases the roadmap — this closes the loop with voters and gives them a reason to follow your next launch.