Launch Your First Product Publicly
8 weeks · 5 milestones
Ship your product to strangers — people who find it without being personally invited — define a specific success metric before building, and publish a public retrospective with real numbers.
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Define what 'launched' means before building
2–3 days. The document should take no longer than a day to write. If it takes longer, you are solving uncertainty about the product by writing more — stop and ship instead. The date you write on the document is the date you will launch.
Write a one-page launch definition document before writing a single line of code. It must state: the one metric that will tell you the launch succeeded or failed, the minimum viable product (what is in v1.0 and what is explicitly NOT in v1.0), the three channels you will use to reach strangers (not friends), and the date you will ship regardless of how the product feels. Commit this document to a GitHub repository before any code exists in that repository.
Proof required
Share your GitHub repository. The first commit must be the launch definition document — verified by commit history. The repository must contain no product code at the time of this milestone submission. Write 150 words on why you chose this specific success metric and what you would do differently if you hit it vs missed it.
What gets checked
- Launch definition document is the first commit — verified by git log; if product code exists in the same commit, the document was written after the build started
- Success metric is a single number with a specific threshold ('10 paying customers in 30 days') not a vague goal ('get traction' or 'see if people like it')
- Three channels are named specifically — not 'social media' but 'post in r/SideProject, submit to Product Hunt, cold email 20 people in [specific community]'
Build the minimum that does the one thing
Get strangers to use it without your help
Measure whether it is working
Document the launch and publish it publicly
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