Product Hunt gave us validation, not users.

Insights by a remote team two weeks into a new product.

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Update: since being featured on Product Hunt early July, we’ve added a 3 highly requested features: A new Evernote inspired UI, seamless Twitter integration and a link shortener: snp.sh, which people are probably going to pronounce “shnipsh”.

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We had always found the screen-shotting tool awkward to use, especially when working with social media. Have a think about how you would compose a tweet with a screenshot; we counted and it’s 13 steps (on windows). Our goal was to streamline that process to as little steps as possible; we managed to get it down to 3 steps! We decided to be boring and name it after what it does: snip and share.

In terms of traffic and user base, Product Hunt was nothing to scream about. It’s not surprising, we were posted on the weekend, on Independence day, and we had levels’ new product , Taylor, to contend with. The odds were stacked against us!

So, if Product Hunt didn’t give us loads of users, what did it give us?

1. Team Chemistry

When you only have a hunch of problem-solution fit, and little validation of whether people react well to your product, team morale is low. Everything is held up by beliefs, hypotheses and hope. With a remote team there is this multiplier effect that amplifies everything.

The day we were posted on Product Hunt, first of all came fever-inducing excitement. It’s something that truly transcends geography. When the whole team is on the same hockey growth curve of enthusiasm, you can do great things. So make sure you whip up a plan that seems a bit beyond what you think you can achieve, because you will definitely achieve it during the Product Hunt buzz.

Alex Schultz’s lecture on growth mentions how important it is to have a company north star, something for the whole team to work towards. As an early company, everything is so unsure that there are hundreds of stars. Our feature gave us clarity on what was next, an intense period of precise alignment. It was a glimpse into the power of having fantastic team chemistry.

2. Validation

Conversations with hunters were priceless. There’s nothing more enlightening than interacting with users, and without a user base this was the closest we could get. We learnt how our tool fitted nto people’s lives:

or equally how it didn’t:

Mostly importantly, the questions — they kept us on our toes. They were foreboding, alluding to future milestones we had never thought of. People ask about release dates which gives you deadlines; they ask about features that determines your product backlogs, and they ask about competitors which forces you to think about positioning. Being asked how you were different from company x is a great opportunity to persuade a user; it was nice to get some early practise in. All in all, the collective wisdom of Product Hunt is seriously unbeatable.

A few top tips for early products:

• Asking for upvotes is against the rules and you’re only lying to yourself — validation is what you’re looking for, not a larger virtual number
• Take questions as an opportunity to persuade and excel
• Read into suggestions and understand the implications behind them
• Use Product Hunt as a north star, a chance to get the whole team in perfect sync

A final thank you to our hunter, Eddie Pratt, creator of the awesome Product Snacks.

Thanks for reading my first blog post, if it evoked any reaction, I would love to get your thoughts on Twitter: @petejayhuang.