If you’re creating things… designs, products, code, ideas, and sharing them online, but it feels like no one’s noticing, I want you to pause and hear this:
You’re building a library, not a billboard.
That thread you wrote, that Loom breakdown, that half-finished side project, these aren’t wasted efforts. They’re shelves on a digital bookshelf that’ll one day matter to the person who finally discovers your work.
Let’s talk about why you should keep going, how to do it well, and how I personally approach building in public.
Why You Should Build in Public (Even If You Don’t Have an Audience)
🚀 Attract Like-Minded People:
When you build in public, you’re giving others a window into your thinking and process. That’s magnetic. It draws collaborators, clients, and friends who resonate with how you think, not just what you do.
Audiences don’t just appear. They gather. Slowly. One post at a time. One perspective at a time.
📚 Document, Don’t Just Promote:
Every project update, bug fix, or lesson learned becomes a resource. People love real. They connect more with a scrappy mid-process log than a polished "just launched!" announcement.
🔁 Get Feedback Earlier:
Waiting until something is perfect before sharing it is a recipe for burnout. Building in public opens up opportunities for early feedback, pivots, and collaboration.
⏳ It Pays Off Long-Term:
Your tweets or LinkedIn posts may not pop off today, but in six months, someone might binge your backlog and hire you because they saw your journey.
How Not to Build in Public ❌
Here are a few things I see often, and try to avoid:
❌ Building “for clout” not clarity:
If you’re only sharing to impress people, your updates will feel hollow. People sense when you’re being performative. Build to learn. Build to teach. Clout comes after clarity.
❌ Oversharing with no direction:
Don’t confuse vulnerability with noise. Not everything has to be posted. Curate what you share: what did you learn, struggle with, or try differently?
❌ Only showing wins:
If all your posts sound like “🚀 just shipped this awesome thing,” people won’t relate. Share the bugs. The pivots. The things that didn’t go as planned. That’s where trust is built.
A Demo: How I Would Build in Public 🧠
Let’s imagine I’m building Pulseboard… a clean, no-BS dashboard that helps creators track their growth across platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube in one view.
Here’s exactly how I’d build it in public:
📌 Day / Post 1: Make People Care About the Problem
“Keeping track of growth across different platforms feels like chasing shadows. Each has its own analytics page, and none of them talk to each other. I’m building a simple dashboard for creators to get clarity.”
The goal here is to resonate. You’re not selling a solution yet, you’re surfacing a shared pain.
✏️ Day / Post 2: Tease the Concept (Rough and Honest)
“Been sketching out an idea for Pulseboard. It connects to your socials and gives a single-glance view of your weekly growth, top posts, and engagement rate. Just a napkin sketch for now, but I’m excited.”
This says: I’m not building in a silo. I want your eyes, feedback, and maybe even your hype.
🧩 Day / Post 3: Share Small Wins That Feel Tangible
“Got OAuth working with Twitter & LinkedIn 🎉. Took me 4 hours and lots of trial-and-error. Still need to clean up the onboarding flow, but the core data is now syncing.”
Every small win is an opportunity to:
Show progress
Share struggle
Earn encouragement
📉 Day / Post 4: Normalize Setbacks Without Complaining
“Spent most of today figuring out rate limits on the LinkedIn API. Kind of wild how limited access is unless you’re in their partner program. Might need a workaround, open to ideas.”
This keeps you real and approachable. People love following builders who don’t pretend it’s easy.
🌱 Day / Post 5: Let the Early Version Be Ugly But Useful
“Pushed the first test version of Pulseboard. No fancy UI, just raw data and a few graphs. If you’re a creator curious about your growth across socials, I’d love to get your eyes on this.”
Launch raw. Invite feedback. Iterate in daylight.
What I Want People to Pick Up From My Process 🤔
I share what’s real, not just what looks good
I move fast, even when things are messy
I’m here to solve real problems, not just build cool features
You can follow the journey, not just the result
Whether Pulseboard takes off or not, I’d leave behind a trail of ideas, learnings, screenshots, and experiments that someone else might use to build their version later. And that’s the beauty of building in public, it creates value whether you go viral or not.
What I Want People to Know About Me When I Build in Public 🙂
This is key. Building in public isn’t just about what you’re doing, it’s about how people perceive you. When I share my process, I want people to see:
✅ I’m resourceful: I make things happen with what I have.
✅ I’m transparent: I don’t wait for perfect; I show the messy middle.
✅ I’m collaborative: I ask questions, respond to feedback, and share lessons.
✅ I’m available: If you like how I work, you can work with me.
Closing Thought 💭
You might feel like no one’s listening right now. That’s fine. Keep posting. Keep building. One day, someone will stumble on your thread, your post, your project, and it’ll be exactly what they needed.
And they’ll say, “I feel like I already know how this person works.”
Because you didn’t just launch.
You built in public.
🥳 If you’ve read this far, you’re exactly the kind of person I create for!
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