What most devs forget when launching (and regret later)

Source: Dev.to

Most developers spend weeks or months building something, then rush through the launch in a single afternoon. They tweet about it, post on a few forums, and then wonder why nobody shows up. The product is solid, but everything around it is an afterthought.

I’ve done this myself. I’ve also watched dozens of other developers make the same mistakes. Here’s what gets forgotten most often.

A way for users to tell you what’s broken

You launch. Something breaks. A user hits the bug, gets frustrated, and leaves. You have no idea this happened because there’s no error tracking, no feedback widget, nothing. You might find out weeks later when someone finally emails you.

• Set up error monitoring before you launch. Sentry takes maybe 20 minutes to integrate and will save you from silent failures.
• Error tracking only catches crashes. It doesn’t catch confusing UI, missing features, or workflows that just don’t make sense to real people.
• Provide a way for users to actually tell you what’s wrong or what they wish existed. I built my own tool for it called UserJot, but even a simple feedback form is better than nothing. The point is giving users a voice that isn’t your personal email inbox.

Analytics that answer real questions

Everyone sets up Google Analytics and thinks they’re done. Then they realize GA tells you almost nothing useful about a web app. You know people visited, but you don’t know what they did.

• Use a product‑focused analytics tool such as PostHog, Mixpanel, or Amplitude.
• Track the specific actions that matter for your product: Did they complete onboarding? Did they create their first project? Did they invite a teammate?
• These metrics tell you if your product is working, not just pageviews.

Skipping this leads to decisions based on gut feeling and a handful of anecdotal emails—hardly a strategy.

A landing page that actually explains the product

Developers love building features. They hate writing copy. The result is often a vague landing page like “the modern platform for teams” with a screenshot that doesn’t explain anything.

Your landing page needs to answer one question in about five seconds: What does this thing do and why would I want it? A confused visitor won’t dig through your docs; they’ll just leave.

• Write a headline that a stranger could understand.
• Show the product in action, not just abstract UI mockups.
• Include at least one testimonial, even if it’s from a beta user.
• Make the signup button obvious.

It’s easy to skip when you’re excited to ship, but it’s essential.

A way to contact users after they sign up

Many developers treat email like spam and either don’t collect it or never send anything. When you ship a major update or fix a critical bug, you have no way to tell your users.

• At minimum, have transactional emails working (password resets, account confirmations, etc.).
• Also set up a channel for announcements: a changelog, a newsletter, or both.

Developers who do this well keep users around because they see the product improving. Those who skip it end up with users who forget about the product and never return.

A plan for what happens after launch day

Launch day is a spike. You might get on Hacker News or Product Hunt and see traffic explode for 24 hours, then it drops back to zero.

• Build a post‑launch plan: schedule content, stay active in relevant communities, maintain a list of people to reach out to.
• Treat launch as the beginning of marketing, not the end.

If your entire strategy is “launch and hope it goes viral,” you’ll be disappointed. Viral moments are rare; consistent effort over months is what actually works for most products.

The pattern I see over and over

The developers who struggle aren’t building bad products—they’re building good products and treating everything else as optional: marketing, feedback collection, analytics, user communication. Then they wonder why nobody is signing up.

• The product is maybe 30 % of the work. The other 70 % is everything around it: positioning, distribution, user communication, feedback loops, iteration based on real data.
• Skip that and you’re building in a vacuum.

If any of this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Most developers learn this the hard way. The good news is that none of it is particularly difficult to fix—it just requires doing it before you launch instead of promising yourself you’ll add it later.

You won’t add it later. Add it now.