Makers by Product Hunt - A place for Makers to share, connect, and reach their goals

We've teased this project a few times in public so it's especially refreshing to finally share what we've been building. Makers first started as a project to rethink Product Hunt profiles, but we knew a simple redesign wouldn't be exciting or particularly useful. After speaking with several people and observing patterns within the community, we sought to build a place where makers can share their goals and help one another. I wrote more about our customer development and design process here, which started as a Dropbox Paper "MVP" over a weekend. Over the past months, we've been expanding the feature set alongside a few hundred beta testers. Now everyone can signup and we'll be adding new people from the waitlist every day. Feedback/questions/ideas!? Share below. 😊

When I joined the Product Hunt team last October my goal was to bring as many new makers into the community as possible. Speaking to makers from all backgrounds I was surprised to hear many tell me that they love PH but didn't feel ready to launch. What I love about Makers is that no matter where you are in the Maker journey there is something for you here. From advice and support to accountability, I've gained so much from sharing my goals with others and have enjoyed watching others progress, too. Excited to see what the future holds 💫

I started with Maker Goals in April and I have completed more than 75 goals by May. Some goals were more challenging than the other. The most helpful aspect of Maker Goals is that all the goals or tasks you have are public, meaning that other Makers can see what you have to do and when your deadline is. This is helpful because this makes you accountable for the things you do. I would encourage any maker to join Maker goals not just for building towards your goals, but I've noticed that the community aspect creates synergy to keep us going.

I feel that in the initial days of PH (2014 for me 😻 I don't even remember who invited me) community things were AMAZING because I could remember a lot of the usernames, faces, all by heart: A lot of the people posting and commenting were the same people over and over. Truly interested in dissecting and providing feedback on products. It made it feel really like a home for a maker. Fastforward to 2018 and PH is a successful and huge boat of people who wanna launch their thing 🚢, whether it's a startup, a project, an indiegogo etc. Lots of excitment, lots of new stuff to click and watch, but different... When I browse PH nowadays I can't really feel that same way as the early days, in the same way when you listen to a track on soundcloud (or some other platform) and fall in love with it. Then, fate or luck, the artist becomes huge and changes style and you say to yourself: "OMG look what happened...it's like a different artist now". Less of that "hey we're all friends and happy campers" feeling. But then, Makers was created and I could finally find a place where I could feel again that sense of community, with makers helping makers, hackers hacking, hustlers hustlin' etc etc. - Endorsements/cheers are great to see who gets excited for what you're working on - The inline chat makes it simple to get feedback/comments - Active makers makes it super obvious to see who is working hard to help and a great way to find instant-support from peers who are active. 🙏🏻 Extremely lucky to have been in the private beta, I only see bright things in the community's future now that everyone has access to this tool!

I was glad to part of the beta and I can say that Makers will be super useful 👌 I have one question, Is there any plan to add an API to controls goals? That would be super helpful

As I spend a lot of time here anyway, it’s a great natural progression, to track my tasks here too, and see what everyone else is working on.

Awesome work by Ryan and the whole PH team! As a beta user, I can attest to the helpful and inspiring community they have created 😊

My invite for Maker Goals came at a great time. I was planning on launching my first app and things had to be done. Next to releasing my first app, I was learning how to code, replying to recruiters, updating the website for my app, and preparing for GDPR. Maker Goals is a great platform to reach your goals and to help others along the way.

Pros:

Platform is built to motivate you, community is active and helpful

Cons:

None yet. I have sprinted through a lot of my goals

That illustration is 👌

Yay, congrats! 🎉Happy to be one of the lucky ones to join the beta a few months ago! 🤩