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Ask HN: Should I launch or polish my product more?

10 points by Presnus ↗ HN
I'm currently developing an online service. By the end of the month I'll have a very basic product. I want to give the customers a choice between multiple pricing plans. The pricing plans will be based on volumes (traffic) and additional features.

By the end of the month the service will not have all features available that I want to include in the paying plans.

The questions is: Should I first launch with the free plan, or launch everything together? I can already make a difference in volumes but not with features (since these are not developed yet).

If I launch everything together should I ask a lower price and when adding new features changes the plans and pricing? Or should I already ask my price (based on a full service with everything developed) and add the new features later? or just launch the free plan first?

What should I do?

15 comments

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anandkulkarni
Release it as fast as you can!

From "What Startups are Really Like" (http://www.paulgraham.com/really.html):

Lots of founders mentioned how important it was to launch with the simplest possible thing. By this point everyone knows you should release fast and iterate. It's practically a mantra at YC. But even so a lot of people seem to have been burned by not doing it:

Build the absolute smallest thing that can be considered a complete application and ship it.

Why?

Product development is a conversation with the user that doesn't really start till you launch. Before you launch, you're like a police artist before he's shown the first version of his sketch to the witness.

It's so important to launch fast that it may be better to think of your initial version not as a product, but as a trick for getting users to start talking to you.

andremedeiros
Two tips:

1) I use this as a rule of thumb; only launch when it feels like it's version 3.0, not version 1.0. This keeps you on your toes and provides a much better product from the beginning. Remember first impressions are everything, and if customers come and see a smal set of features, they most likely won't come back.

2) Never ever change prices. Unless you're making the product cheaper. If I were to sign up for a service that increased its prices, I would just try and find alternatives. As a customer, it feels like I'm being cheated. Instead, label it as an early bird offer. 30% off in the first 3 months kind of thing. Comes off a lot better.

Presnus
Thanks for the tip. The early bird offer sounds really good!
adam-_-
What's the point in launching polished features that nobody wants? Much better to release unpolished/limited features to a set of users and solicit feedback on what they're really after.

Then you can release more polished/complete features and market more widely and solicit more feedback and rinse and repeat to profitability (admittedly I say this as someone that has not done this yet but plans/hopes on it).

andremedeiros
I honestly wish you good luck.

I've had too many occasions where, when evaluating a service that didn't quite do it for me.

You can't expect customers to register and pay you money for a service when a) it doesn't do everything they need, and b) there is no certainty that it will ever do everything they need.

Grhmpft... software is hard. Let's go shopping!

AznHisoka
There's a middle path. Release it even when it's not done, but don't go full throttle on marketing.
Presnus
I'm also a bit scared that when I launch the problems / features aren't developed in time. Since I'm the only one creating this product. Also when launched you should keep an eye on marketing / feedback what takes more time.

I'm planning on using uservoice so that users can add their wishes and complaints and work on the things that get most votes.

Probably I'll start working full-time on the product when I see that there is a lot of interest. But this probably isn't in the beginning.

guilloche
Maybe you can release it free as beta and later you can charge customers after lauching.
tnorthcutt
Launch.

Charge money. No, more than that.

Go read everything patio11 has written about pricing. Especially his latest about how to set your tiers.

hansy
"If you're not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late."

- Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn

helen842000
Why not have several mini-launches?

Launch the free, get feedback and iterate. You could post the price list but make the higher tiers unavailable at the moment. You could offer a wait list or make it invite only after they have tried a free account.

Then when you launch the higher tiers you have a list to contact. Get their feedback and continue to improve.

I think it gives people confidence that you are actively improving the service if they can see a feature set list that will be in the forthcoming paid version.

If it's not costly, don't restrict people on volume on the free plan just yet.

You then get data on the natural usage levels your service gets.This might help you to refine your volume cut offs in future.