Hacking Hype (Internal and External)
Manufacture momentum by forcing visibility moments and tying launches to emotion.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 90%
A playbook for generating momentum around a product on two fronts: internal hype (getting the company banging the table for it) and external hype (getting users emotionally invested). The core mechanism is to engineer visibility moments in large forums — even before the product is ready — because hype can only be built for something you genuinely believe in, and the only way to create it is to get people to see and feel what you see.
Origin
Mihika Kapoor's approach at Figma, drawing on Figma's forums (Maker Week, sales kickoff, Config) and the design-Twitter community relationship.
Core principles
- 01You cannot create hype for something you do not believe in
- 02The only way to create hype is to get people to see what you see
- 03The idea owner must keep a constant pulse on how everyone feels about the product
- 04Different products merit different levels and brands of hype
- 05Hype is tied to emotion — make users feel the thing was built for them
How to run it
- 1
Take ownership of momentum
If you are pushing a zero-to-one idea bottoms-up, the onus is on you to keep it constantly propped up so it makes it out the door — leadership won't amp it for you.
Watch out An idea with no one stoking it dies; a hackathon project with no evangelist goes nowhere.
- 2
Engineer a visibility moment in a big forum
Insert your product into a company-wide forum (sales kickoff, all-hands, hackathon demo day) — even a scrappy demo of a barely-built, buggy product — especially forums where priorities for the year are declared.
Pro tip A demo people weren't expecting drives outsized hype and helps them see the future you see.
Watch out Pushing visibility beyond what the product's stage merits risks looking like a distraction — but usually yields product learnings and company-wide excitement instead.
- 3
Drive external hype through emotion
For users, tie milestones to feeling. Match the hype to the product's brand — treat a launch as a gift built for the user, not to advance company goals.
Pro tip Lean into the product's own personality: FigJam hype differs from Figma hype, which differs from Apple's unboxing hype.
- 4
Convert scrappy visibility into learning
Because you pushed the product in front of people early, harvest the signal on how it is trending to inform next steps — the visibility fuels both insight and excitement.
In the wild
For FigJam's one-year anniversary in April 2022, instead of an internal champagne toast, Kapoor worked with marketing and engineering to hide a batch of new features under little birthday presents Easter-egged through the product, sending users on a present hunt all day.
→ Users felt the features were built for them personally, driving emotional external hype tied to FigJam's cheeky brand.
Coming out of winter break, Kapoor insisted the barely-built new product (buggy, ~10 internal users) get a demo inside the CTO and CPO's sales-kickoff keynote where yearly priorities were declared.
→ The unexpected demo generated company-wide hype and produced product insights that informed next steps.
Common mistakes
Waiting until the product is polished to show it
Kapoor deliberately shows barely-built products in big forums; waiting forfeits both the momentum and the early signal that visibility produces.
Applying generic hype to every product
Each product has its own brand of delight; hyping FigJam like Figma, or either like Apple, misfires — the hype must fit the product's personality.
Is it for you?
Best for
A PM or founder shepherding a new product who needs to manufacture internal buy-in and external user excitement.
Not ideal for
A product you don't genuinely believe in — hype cannot be faked and will ring hollow.
From the transcript
“The only way to create hype is to get people to see what you see”
“hype is something that you can't really create hype for something you don't believe in in my opinion”
“there is like internal hype which is how do you get buy-in”
“there's also external hype which is like how do you get your users hyped about your product”
“hype as well is like really tied to emotion”
From the episode
Vision, conviction, and hype: How to build 0 to 1 inside a company
Mihika Kapoor (Product at Figma)