YES, YOU CAN TALK ABOUT YOUR APP AGAIN
How to Build in Public Without Becoming Unbearably Annoying
6 minute read
Building in public becomes annoying when ‘public’ is treated as an audience trapped in your progress diary. It becomes useful when each post gives someone a reason to care: a lesson, a decision, a useful demonstration, or an honest question.
The goal is not to narrate every commit. It is to turn what you are already learning into material that helps the people your product is for.
01 /
Make the reader the main character
‘I spent six hours redesigning onboarding’ is a status update. ‘Three places new users got stuck in our onboarding’ gives the reader something they can recognise and use.
You can still tell your story. Just connect the story to a problem, choice, or result that matters beyond you.
02 /
Share decisions, not activity
Activity is rarely interesting on its own. Decisions contain tension: two plausible options, incomplete information, and a trade-off. Explain what you chose, what you gave up, and what would make you change your mind.
- WeakWorked on pricing today.
- StrongerWe removed the free plan because it attracted people with a different problem. Here is what we are testing instead.
03 /
Use evidence whenever you have it
Show the screen, error, sketch, customer question, before-and-after, or small result behind the claim. Evidence makes a modest post credible and keeps a confident post from sounding like invented founder wisdom.
Protect private information and ask permission before sharing anything identifiable. ‘Building in public’ is not permission to build your users in public too.
04 /
Do not manufacture vulnerability
You do not owe the internet a dramatic revenue graph, a breakdown, or a weekly confession. Share what is true and useful. Keep private things private. Honest uncertainty is enough; it does not need a cinematic soundtrack.
05 /
Follow a simple usefulness test
Before publishing, ask whether the post does at least one real job. If it does, post it. If it does not, add the missing detail rather than a longer introduction.
- TeachDoes it explain something specific you learned?
- ShowDoes it make the product or problem easier to understand?
- AskDoes it invite an answer to a focused, genuine question?
- ConnectDoes it help the right person recognise that the product may be for them?
06 /
A repeatable weekly rhythm
If daily improvisation makes you freeze, collect raw material while you work and rotate through a small weekly pattern.
- MondayThe problem you are focused on this week.
- TuesdayA product detail or short demonstration.
- WednesdayA decision and its trade-off.
- ThursdayA user question or useful lesson.
- FridayWhat changed, failed, or surprised you.