What does it mean to build in public?
I’m sure most of you are aware that sharing your work publicly is a great way to get feedback, learn from others, and make better products.
But what does it mean to build in public?
What does it mean to build in public?
For founders and marketers, building in public is a great way to share your story. You’ve probably heard about this concept before.
While there are many ways to use it, it all comes down to one key idea: share struggles, wins, milestones, questions, and lessons with your audience.
It’s that simple!
Here’s why you should give it a try:
- Validate ideas. When you’re still trying to figure out what to build or how to market an existing offering, sharing your thought process with the world can help you gather feedback and hone in on the right approach.
- Stay top-of-mind. By being open and honest about your journey, you can gain trust and exposure, which means more people know who you are when they need what you offer. (They might even refer you!)
- Get fast feedback. There’s no better way to get quick reactions than to tap into the digital hive mind of your network or community. People love sharing their opinions—and by asking for feedback openly, you’ll have everyone’s full attention.
- Build connections with stakeholders. As your audience learns about who you are and what you’re working on, they might just see themselves
To build in public is to be transparent and honest about the process of building something
Building in public is the practice of being transparent and honest about the process of building something, usually by sharing progress on social media.
It’s both a personal and professional practice.
It can help you connect with others who are trying to do similar things as you, learn faster from those who have done similar things before you, get feedback on your idea or product early and often (which helps you iterate faster), and build an audience ahead of time.
“authenticity” will be the word to follow if you want to build in public. Sharing your failures wins, and doubts will make people trust you.
This helps you connect with others who are also building in their area
One of the biggest benefits of building in public is the community you can build around your work.
When you start to share your progress online, whether it’s on a blog, podcast, or social media, you’ll begin to connect with other people who are doing similar things.
This helps you in many ways. Not only can you learn from other’s mistakes and successes, but it also makes it easier for them to give advice based on what they’ve learned themselves.
You might even make new friends or find mentors!
Plus, when they see that you’re sharing with the world what you’re creating, they’re more likely to do the same—and this creates an avenue for collaboration on future projects.
How to build in public?
Building in public helps you connect with people who can help you learn faster
Building in public is your chance to find people who are smarter than you, get feedback on your ideas, and find collaborators and new opportunities.
All these things can be done through online channels like Twitter, Slack, Facebook Groups, and even YouTube comments.
If you want to build something that’s good for other people (not just yourself), building in public is a powerful tool because it gives you a direct line of contact with the people who will actually use what you make.
Building in public helps you get feedback on your idea and iterate faster
Building in public allows you to get feedback every step of the way, which means you can iterate on your idea faster.
Getting this kind of feedback doesn’t mean waiting until you’ve built a polished product or blog that looks good. The sooner you can get external validation, the better.
Getting this type of feedback is like an early warning system that helps you see if what you’re working on will be worth it for anyone besides yourself (or if it’s even worth doing at all).
In my experience, there are two types of feedback: qualitative and quantitative.
Qualitative is subjective :
it’s when people give their opinion about something and provide reasons why they feel that way.
Quantitative is objective :
it’s when people give facts or counts to support their opinion. It’s important to get both types because they play off each other nicely: qualitative provides context while quantitative gives a clearer picture of how many people feel a certain way and where they might be located geographically, demographically, etc.
Some public builders create intentionally to build an audience, or as part of their marketing strategy
Some public builders create intentionally to build an audience, or as part of their marketing strategy. They’re going to be building in public anyway, but they measure their impact by the number of people watching them do it.
That’s not a bad thing. But it can make you feel like you need a certain number of followers before starting to build in public.
You don’t! Anyone can start documenting what they’re working on, and that effort will pay off even if no one is paying attention at first.
It may sound obvious that the more you share, the more value you’ll get from building in public. But too many people hide behind closed doors until their project is perfect, and then don’t get feedback until after it’s already launched (too late).
Take the opposite approach: share your work before it’s done, and strive for constant improvement based on feedback throughout the process.
Sharing is uncomfortable at first, but with practice, it will become second nature—and it’s an essential skill for any content creator”
Building in public helps you find your first customers.
One of the most effective strategies for finding your first customers is building in public. Companies that build in public are often referred to as “open startups.”
When you build in public, you show people that you’re working on a solution to a problem they have. When people see that, they can get excited and give you feedback on what they want out of your product.
Your goal isn’t to turn all of these people into customers, but just to find a handful of them who are willing to buy your product right now and tell you what they think about it.
Another way to build in public is to contribute to an open-source project by starting a discussion, writing a blog post, or building something new
Another way to build in public is to participate and contribute to an open-source project. Open source is all about collaboration and a great way to get started with building in public.
There are many ways you can start building in public by contributing to open source projects. You can:
- start a discussion on the project’s page or forum
- write a blog post or article related to the project
- build something new within the larger framework of the project
It’s important to share the details of what you’re working on with others
So that they can help keep you accountable, give you feedback, teach you new skills and make sure you don’t waste time reinventing the wheel!
Making progress and sharing it with others is one of the keys to this whole idea. This can be anything from a quick tweet about what you’re working on, to a blog post describing your thought process, or even a product you’ve launched.
We are all motivated by the things we build for ourselves and what we manage to create. By building in public, we are able to connect with others who are also creating interesting projects and products, which leads to more opportunities!
For the creators and their community, it means sharing early and often in order to maximize feedback, keep everyone accountable, and have the opportunity to solicit advice. For the viewer, it means enjoying a more creative piece because of the insight behind it.
Build-in public doesn’t just offer an opportunity for creators to build something great, but also allows others to feel a part of the final result.
So just Start 🚀
