building in public is weird and you should do it anyway
building in public is the most uncomfortable thing you can do as a maker.
you show up with a half-finished thing. you admit you dont know what youre doing. you let strangers watch you stumble.
it feels awful. and it works.
the standard approach
the traditional way goes like this: build in secret for 6 months. launch with a bang. hear crickets. wonder where you went wrong.
the problem isnt the product. its that you spent 6 months building something nobody asked for.
building in public flips the script
instead of building then asking, you ask while building. you post the ugly prototype. you share the pricing dilemma. you ask "which of these two landing pages is less terrible?"
each post is a tiny market research study. people tell you what they want. you adjust. by the time you launch, you already have an audience waiting.
what to share
you dont need to share everything. pick a few things:
- your process (how youre building, not just what)
- your numbers (signups, revenue, failures)
- your questions (the stuff youre stuck on)
- your wins (even the small ones)
the key is consistency over polish. one rough post a day beats one perfect post a month.
the uncomfortable truth
people dont care about your product as much as you think. they care about the story around it. they want to root for someone. they want to see someone try.
when you build in public, you give them that. and when you finally launch, theyre not just customers. theyre fans.
~ enki