Welcome to the #buildinpublic Roadmap! This guide is designed to provide a clear path for those embarking on the journey of creating and sharing their product-building process openly. Whether you're a solo founder, indie maker, or a small team, this roadmap will help you structure your progress and effectively communicate with your audience.
#BuildinPublic is the practice of openly sharing the journey of building a product, business, or project. It involves showing progress, setbacks, learnings, and wins in real-time, inviting others to engage, provide feedback, and follow along. The goal is to build transparency, connect with an audience, and foster community-driven growth.
This section provides a phased approach to building in public, helping you establish a solid foundation, grow an engaged audience, and effectively share your progress. Follow these phases to maximize the benefits of building in public.
- Establish the purpose of building in public:
- To create transparency and trust
- To generate interest and build an early audience
- To stay motivated and accountable
- To create a community-driven product
- Audience Growth: Determine how many followers or subscribers you want within a timeframe.
- Product Milestones: Set specific goals for what you want to build and by when.
- Engagement Metrics: Set goals for engagement like comments, shares, and community feedback.
- Twitter: Great for quick updates, thoughts, polls, and community interaction.
- LinkedIn: Excellent for building relationships and sharing thoughtful reflections.
- Personal Blog or Website: Long-form reflections and progress reports.
- YouTube/Loom: Use for video updates, demos, and behind-the-scenes content.
- Daily Updates: Small wins, tasks completed, hurdles overcome.
- Weekly Recaps: Summarize progress and highlight key moments.
- Monthly Deep Dives: Share growth metrics, reflections, and learnings.
- Introduce your journey: Share why you're building your product and what problem you want to solve.
- Share your story: Talk about what led you to this point, your struggles, and your dreams.
- Respond to Comments: Reply to people who comment on your posts to foster a sense of community.
- Ask Questions: Involve your audience in decisions by seeking their input.
- Amplify Others: Support other builders in public by liking, commenting, or resharing their content.
- Use #buildinpublic to reach a wider audience of creators and get involved in the larger community.
- Leverage niche hashtags relevant to your product (e.g., #saas, #nocode, #indiehacker).
- Connect with other creators: Comment, retweet, and support others in the space.
- Reach out for collaborations: Partner with others for live streams, Twitter Spaces, or co-blogs.
- Develop a schedule: Create a content calendar to post consistently (e.g., daily updates, weekly milestones).
- Balance Sharing and Building: Avoid spending too much time crafting posts at the expense of actual progress.
- Visual Proof: Use screenshots, videos, GIFs, or diagrams to share what you've achieved.
- Share Challenges and Failures: Don't shy away from sharing the lows—your audience will value your authenticity.
- Conduct polls: Get audience input on key product decisions (e.g., feature prioritization, branding).
- Share MVP Versions: Allow your community to test and provide feedback on early iterations.
- Build Challenges: Encourage the community to participate in small building exercises related to your niche.
- Giveaways: Offer early beta access or lifetime deals to reward your followers and create excitement.
- Twitter Spaces/Live Streams: Share real-time progress updates and interact directly with your community.
- AMA (Ask Me Anything): Let your audience ask questions about your journey, the product, or anything else.
- Publicly acknowledge milestones: Whether it's hitting a revenue goal, gaining a specific number of followers, or reaching a development stage—celebrate with your audience.
- Highlight Community Contributions: Show gratitude to your followers who provide helpful feedback or spread the word.
- Audience Growth: Keep track of how your follower count, subscribers, and engagement metrics are growing over time.
- Engagement: Monitor comments, likes, shares, and mentions.
- Product Metrics: Share your journey of user sign-ups, retention, and other important KPIs.
- Write Monthly Reflection Posts: Look back on what worked, what didn’t, and what you learned.
- Identify Trends: Figure out what types of posts and content resonate most with your audience.
- Pivot When Necessary: Building in public doesn't mean sticking to the original plan if it's not working.
- Adapt Content: If your audience reacts more to behind-the-scenes content, do more of that. If they enjoy detailed progress metrics, lean into that.
- Countdown to Launch: Build excitement by posting daily about your launch progress.
- Launch Story: Share the complete story—what motivated you to start, the ups and downs, and the result.
- Launch Platforms: Launch on relevant platforms (e.g., Product Hunt, Hacker News) and share these milestones with your audience.
- Showcase Customer Stories: If users share their experiences, amplify their voices.
- Provide Updates: Regularly update the community on improvements, new features, or significant changes.
- Continue the Journey: Just because you've launched doesn’t mean you stop building in public. Keep showing progress, growth, and even setbacks.
- Early Bird Pricing: Reward your initial supporters with special pricing or bonuses.
- Community Involvement: Create a space for your most engaged followers, such as a Discord group or Slack channel, where they can have direct access to new features, Q&As, or beta versions.
Joining communities is essential for support, inspiration, and learning from like-minded builders. Here are some key communities to help you along your build-in-public journey:
- X #buildinpublic - Engaging with the #buildinpublic hashtag on X (twitter) is a great way to connect with others, get inspired, and support fellow builders. Twitter acts as a real-time community hub where you can find instant feedback and encouragement.
- Product Hunt Discussions - Product Hunt Discussions offers a supportive community and space to connect with other makers working on similar projects, plus structured goals and challenges to help you stay on track.
- Indie Hackers - Indie Hackers is one of the most popular communities for indie creators and entrepreneurs. You can share your progress, learn from others, and find potential collaborators.
- Makerlog - Makerlog is a community where you can log your daily tasks, share updates, and get motivated by seeing what other builders are doing.
- No Code Founders - No Code Founders](https://www.nocodefounders.com/) is ideal for those using no-code tools to build their products. This community shares resources, stories, and tips for building without traditional coding.
- WIP - WIP is a community for makers who like to stay productive and publicly accountable. It's designed to keep you moving forward with small, consistent progress.
- Telegram, Slack and Discord Groups - Look for Telegram, Slack or Discord groups related to your niche, or even create your own for your audience. These groups can be an excellent way to foster a deeper connection and receive real-time feedback on your product.
Building in public is a long-term strategy to cultivate trust, accountability, and a community of engaged supporters. This roadmap offers a structured approach, but your journey will be unique. Adapt these steps to suit your goals and product specifics. The biggest challenge is often consistency, but by leveraging your community, being honest, and celebrating both the successes and failures, you can create something powerful together.
Are you ready to start your #BuildinPublic journey? Share your first post today and invite the world to join you as you build!
This guide is a living document, and your contributions are welcome! If you have suggestions, improvements, or additional resources to share, feel free to contribute by visiting the GitHub repository. Together, we can make building in public even more accessible and supportive for everyone.