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Use cases

Find your customers in public conversations

Needle searches Reddit, Hacker News, Stack Overflow, GitHub, and more, then ranks every thread by buying intent. Pick the job you need done.

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By job

What teams use Needle for

  • Lead discovery

    Find people asking for a tool like yours, ranked by how ready they sound to buy.

    • One search across Reddit, Hacker News, GitHub, and more
    • Intent and sentiment on every result
    • Open the highest-intent threads first
    Explore Lead discovery

  • Idea validation

    See what people complain about and pay for before you commit engineering time.

    • Trending Problems for rising themes - free to browse
    • Search to test your exact niche
    • Real quotes, not survey guesses
    Explore Idea validation

  • Brand & competitor monitoring

    Track your brand and competitors, then triage mentions by intent instead of volume.

    • Auto Search re-runs your brand on a schedule
    • Digests in Slack, Google Chat, Discord, Teams, and more
    • Does not use your manual search quota
    Explore Brand & competitor monitoring

  • Switching intent

    Catch "alternatives to X" and "moving off Y" threads while buyers are deciding.

    • Search switching patterns across communities
    • Learn the criteria buyers compare on
    • Feed positioning and sales enablement
    Explore Switching intent

  • Content from buyer language

    Write guides and landing pages in the words your buyers already use.

    • Exact phrases, objections, and questions
    • Themes that recur across platforms
    • Topics that are heating up in threads
    Explore Content from buyer language

  • Product feedback

    Find feature gaps, workarounds, and "I wish" moments before they reach your inbox.

    • GitHub issues and Stack Overflow pain
    • Separate one-off bugs from roadmap signal
    • Export results to share with the team
    Explore Product feedback

Under the hood

Four tools behind every use case

Each use case is a different way of combining the same four pieces.

  • Manual Search

    Run any query across the communities on your plan and get results ranked by buying intent.

  • Auto Search

    Re-runs your saved brand keywords on a schedule - as often as hourly on Scale - and sends a digest when there is something new.

  • Trending Problems

    Rising pain themes across communities. Free to browse, no account needed.

  • AI reply drafts

    Two suggested replies per result, written from your brand profile. You edit and post them yourself.

By industry

Built for your market

  • SaaS & startups

    Find early adopters and buyers comparing tools in your category.

    • Spot early adopters in niche communities
    • Hear how buyers compare you with competitors
    • Reply with the context of the original thread
    Explore SaaS & startups

  • Developer tools

    Meet developers on GitHub, Stack Overflow, and Hacker News where they debug.

    • Answer questions your API already solves
    • Spot teams migrating off a competitor
    • Prioritize docs from recurring errors
    Explore Developer tools

  • E-commerce

    Join product recommendation threads and learn from competitor complaints.

    • Find "which should I buy" threads
    • See complaints about price and quality
    • Merchandise against recurring requests
    Explore E-commerce

  • B2B services & consulting

    Find companies asking for expert help before they send an RFP.

    • Spot teams describing the problem you solve
    • Build authority with useful public answers
    • Notice rebrands, restructures, and scaling pain
    Explore B2B services & consulting

  • Marketing & PR agencies

    Find founders asking for SEO, PR, content, and ads help.

    • Catch agency requests while they are fresh
    • Spot teams unhappy with their current agency
    • One brand monitor per client, up to 5
    Explore Marketing & PR agencies

  • Recruitment & hiring

    Spot teams asking for candidate recommendations and adding headcount.

    • Find founders asking for referrals
    • Track teams moving to new stacks
    • Reach the hiring manager directly
    Explore Recruitment & hiring

Use cases × platforms

Every cell links to the best guide, landing page, or doc for that combination. A solid blue dot marks a dedicated platform landing page.

Links to guides and landing pages for each use case on each platform
Use caseRedditHNSOGitHubYouTubeBlueskyLobstersMastodonForumsTumblrX
Lead discoveryLead discovery on Reddit: RedditLead discovery on Hacker News: Hacker NewsLead discovery on Stack Overflow: Stack OverflowLead discovery on GitHub: GitHubLead discovery on YouTube: YouTubeLead discovery on Bluesky: BlueskyLead discovery on Lobsters: LobstersLead discovery on Mastodon: MastodonLead discovery on Forums: ForumsLead discovery on Tumblr: TumblrLead discovery on X: X
Idea validationIdea validation on Reddit: Trending ProblemsIdea validation on Hacker News: Trending ProblemsIdea validation on Stack Overflow: Stack OverflowIdea validation on GitHub: GitHubIdea validation on YouTube: YouTubeIdea validation on Bluesky: BlueskyIdea validation on Lobsters: LobstersIdea validation on Mastodon: MastodonIdea validation on Forums: ForumsIdea validation on Tumblr: TumblrIdea validation on X: X
Brand monitoringBrand monitoring on Reddit: Brand monitoringBrand monitoring on Hacker News: Brand monitoringBrand monitoring on Stack Overflow: Brand monitoringBrand monitoring on GitHub: Brand monitoringBrand monitoring on YouTube: Brand monitoringBrand monitoring on Bluesky: Brand monitoringBrand monitoring on Lobsters: Brand monitoringBrand monitoring on Mastodon: Brand monitoringBrand monitoring on Forums: Brand monitoringBrand monitoring on Tumblr: Brand monitoringBrand monitoring on X: Brand monitoring
Content strategyContent strategy on Reddit: Reddit guideContent strategy on Hacker News: Hacker News guideContent strategy on Stack Overflow: Stack Overflow guideContent strategy on GitHub: GitHub guideContent strategy on YouTube: Content strategyContent strategy on Bluesky: Bluesky guideContent strategy on Lobsters: Content strategyContent strategy on Mastodon: Content strategyContent strategy on Forums: Content strategyContent strategy on Tumblr: Content strategyContent strategy on X: Content strategy
Product feedbackProduct feedback on Reddit: RedditProduct feedback on Hacker News: Hacker NewsProduct feedback on Stack Overflow: Stack OverflowProduct feedback on GitHub: GitHubProduct feedback on YouTube: Product feedbackProduct feedback on Bluesky: BlueskyProduct feedback on Lobsters: Product feedbackProduct feedback on Mastodon: Product feedbackProduct feedback on Forums: Product feedbackProduct feedback on Tumblr: Product feedbackProduct feedback on X: Product feedback
Competitor researchCompetitor research on Reddit: Switching intentCompetitor research on Hacker News: Switching intentCompetitor research on Stack Overflow: Competitor researchCompetitor research on GitHub: Competitor researchCompetitor research on YouTube: Competitor researchCompetitor research on Bluesky: Competitor researchCompetitor research on Lobsters: Competitor researchCompetitor research on Mastodon: Competitor researchCompetitor research on Forums: Competitor researchCompetitor research on Tumblr: Competitor researchCompetitor research on X: Competitor research
  • Platform landing
  • Guide
  • Use-case pillar
  • Platform doc

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One search across the communities your buyers use, ranked by intent.

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