Build in Public: What to Share, What to Skip, and How It Brings Users

Building in public means sharing your journey while it happens: what you are making, what you learned, and how it is going. Done well, it lets strangers watch you build something, then want to use it.

Done badly, it is a stream of announcements nobody asked for. Here is how to stay on the right side of that line.

People trust what they have watched happen. When someone has followed your progress for weeks, they already know what your app does, why you built it and that you are serious about it. By the time you launch, they are not strangers anymore.

It also gives you something to post about every week without inventing content. Your real work is the content.

• Lessons: something you learned that would help another builder.
• Decisions: a choice you made and why, like a price or a feature you cut.
• Progress: a before and after of a screen, a feature, or a result.
• Real numbers, when you are comfortable: signups, revenue, or what changed after a fix.
• Setbacks: something that did not work and what you are trying next.
• Questions: asking your audience for input invites them in.

• Vague updates like "working hard today" with nothing to learn from.
• Numbers that are not real, or that you round up to look better.
• Private details about customers, or anything they did not agree to share.
• Security details about how your app works behind the scenes.
• A link to your app in every single post.

Honesty is the whole point. The moment people suspect your numbers are inflated, building in public stops working.

A launch that got zero users, a feature nobody used, a price that was too low: these posts often get more attention than success stories. People relate to struggle. They also learn more from it.

Consistency beats intensity. Posting a few times a week for months does far more than posting daily for a fortnight and then disappearing.

1. 1

   Pick one or two platforms

   X and LinkedIn are common for builders. Choose where your buyers are.

2. 2

   Keep a running note

   Write down lessons, decisions and numbers as they happen. You will never run out of ideas.

3. 3

   Choose a weekly rhythm

   For example, one lesson, one progress update and one question each week.

4. 4

   Reply to everyone

   Conversations in the replies are where followers become fans.

Building in public builds trust, but trust only becomes users if people know where to go. Mention your app gently and occasionally, when a post naturally leads to it.

• Put a short line about your app in your profile.
• Mention it when a post is about a problem it solves.
• Invite your followers to try something new before anyone else.
• Thank and celebrate your early users publicly, with their permission.