Build in Public: A Founder's Guide to Driving Growth and Traffic for Your Product
Building in Public? What’s that?
So what is Build in Public? Building in public means sharing stories about products or services. How they were or are being developed, the issues faced, and such. The aim here is to engage with your target audience and like-minded people. It’s community building by sharing your product's journey. Everyone loves that, don’t they?
Social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram are popular choices for sharing these experiences. Twitter and Instagram are some platforms you can use for this. Founders and developers use these websites to share their experiences and gain followers. While some people have found success on platforms like Reddit and Indiehackers.
If you’re still wondering why should you tell people about your product as you build it. Then this article is for you.
Why is 'Build in Public' Gaining Popularity?
That’s simple. You create excitement by sharing your progress and knowledge with others. By telling them how and what you're making, and the struggles you're facing, and sharing insights, you generate interest. Doing this creates a buzz around your product. This helps in building a network and engagement. This strategy can also attract investors and key hires who know your work and can contribute.
Startups build trust with their community by sharing the ups and downs of their business. As well as sharing what happens behind the scenes. If implemented right, This trust can lead to increased loyalty and support. It lets you create an essential bond with your users and leads to a better user experience.
It doesn't matter if you’re making a video game or software from scratch. Documenting your build process via a blog or other social media is what it means to be “building it in public. Discord, Stardew Valley, and Hollow Knight are successful projects that used this strategy.
So How Do You Build in Public?
What Should You Share and How?
So how do we do it? Well, the idea is to create and share content about the work you’ve done on your project. Document and present it in an engaging way for the audience. Building in public gives your audience an inside look into your product. This lets you capture consumers' attention and create a community of supporters.
You can find an audience on social media platforms. Platforms like Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. You can share posts about development work, the hardships you faced so far how you overcame them. You can share your goals for the future with them and your roadmap as well.
You can make short or long videos about your project on specific topics. You can stream live on platforms like Twitch or YouTube and interact with your audience in real-time.
When you share your progress, you invite your audience to give their thoughts and ideas. You can gather insights and data from those engagements. Use that data to make tweaks and improvements necessary to build something they’ll be willing to pay for.
Being Genuine and Transparent
This approach makes you look trustworthy and genuine. Most businesses hide their practices and important aspects of their brand from customers. This leads to a disconnect between them and their audience.
A successful company balances transparency intellectual security and secrecy. By sharing your victories, defeats, plans, concerns, techniques, and more, you show transparency.
This makes you an open book in the eyes of your audience. Leading to trust in your product and your company. Your audience knows that and will appreciate you more for having the guts to put yourself in front of the world.
When you are open about your actions, it makes people think you care about them. This lets them trust you and when people trust you, they are more likely to buy what you have to offer.
Community Engagement and Collaboration
This strategy has a major benefit: it easily creates collaboration and engagement opportunities. You get to connect with like-minded individuals, potential collaborators, and experts in your field. Collaborating with influencers and experts provides your project with credibility and exposure.
This networking can lead to valuable partnerships, mentorship opportunities, and even investment. This also puts you on their audience's screens. Both parties benefit from this collaboration: you gain new customers and they gain valuable feedback on your product.
It is beneficial to interact with your audience at events and conferences. Your audience gets to ask questions and clear their doubts. They also get to see the product in person and interact with it. Attendees can ask questions, seek clarifications, and interact with your product directly.
This interaction can lead to social media posts and word-of-mouth promotion, expanding your reach. Sharing your progress, insights, and challenges on such platforms can attract people. Like-minded individuals, potential collaborators, and investors, all who benefit you and your product.
Building in public is all about creating relationships with your audience. You can further connect with your audience on social media and forums. In short, Building in public allows collaboration which provides opportunities for credibility, exposure, expertise, and growth.
Examples of Build in Public
In recent years, building in public has become a popular strategy. Several startups have harnessed its power to achieve remarkable growth and community engagement. Here are four success stories that exemplify the effectiveness of this approach:
Buffer, a social media management platform, is one of the pioneers of the "build in public" movement. From the start, Joel Gascoigne and Leo Widrich were open about their journey. They would share monthly revenue numbers, user metrics, and their struggles.
This transparency not only built trust but also attracted a loyal user base. Buffer's blog became a helpful resource for the startup community. They openly shared their challenges and lessons learned. Today, Buffer boasts millions of users and is a testament to how building in public can foster trust and long-term growth.
Gumroad is an e-commerce platform for creators. It’s another standout example of building in public. Sahil Lavingia founded it. He embraced transparency by sharing detailed financial reports and product development updates. He also shared personal struggles through her blog and social media.
This openness resonated with both creators and users. They appreciated the authenticity and commitment to improvement. Gumroad's growth and success weren't just because of the product. It was also the deep connection it built with its community.
Stardew Valley is an indie farming simulation game created by Eric Barone. It’s often used as an example of a successful game that was developed in public view. Barone regularly updated fans on his progress through blog posts and social media. He would share insights about the game's development process, new features, and challenges.
The game had a lot of fans who were excited about its release because of the open development approach. "Stardew Valley" went on to become a massive hit and a beloved title in the indie gaming community.
Team Cherry, the developer behind "Hollow Knight," an acclaimed indie action-adventure game. He maintained a blog and engaged with their audience throughout the game's development. They shared concept art, development updates, and insights into their design decisions.
This transparency built a strong community around the game, and fans eagerly supported the project through its Kickstarter campaign. "Hollow Knight" received critical acclaim and commercial success, illustrating how building in public can create enthusiasm and anticipation for a game.
Is Building in Public Suitable for Your Startup?
While building in public can be a powerful strategy, it's not something that can be used for every project. It might not be suitable for your project depending on what you’re developing. There also might be limits on what you can and can’t share with the public about your project.
You should carefully consider your circumstances and target audience before adopting this approach. In some cases, a hybrid strategy that combines elements of transparency with more traditional marketing methods may be the most effective way to achieve their goals.
The following factors may affect whether you adopt this strategy or not:
Building in public requires a high degree of transparency. You may be working on a project where maintaining secrecy is critical for a competitive edge. In cases like that, openly sharing development details isn’t a very good idea. I’m sure you know why.
The appeal of building in public often depends on your target audience. If your audience values transparency, community involvement, and authenticity, then go with it. If not, then you might just be wasting resources.
In highly competitive markets, sharing too much too soon can expose your ideas to copycats. Startups in such industries may opt for a more guarded approach. Startups with limited resources might find it challenging to maintain this level of transparency.
Conclusion
Building in public is about being honest. It’s showing people who you are, what you’re doing, and how you’re doing it. It’s about welcoming feedback and interacting with people who are interested in what you’re doing!
While building in public has proven to be a game-changer for many, it's important to note that it's not a one-size-fits-all strategy. The decision to go with this approach should align with the unique circumstances, competitive landscape, and audience preferences of your startup.
Some projects may demand secrecy, while others thrive on transparency.
The key point here is that building in public can be a powerful tool for a startup, but it should be wielded correctly. How? By considering the nature of their project, their audience, and their own comfort level. You can harness the benefits of this strategy while maintaining flexibility and adaptability in your journey toward success.
Whether it's through content creation, transparency, collaboration, or networking, building in public offers a valuable path to growth and engagement that many startups can explore and leverage to their advantage.
References:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/building-public-what-does-take-elitedigest/
https://medium.com/swlh/building-in-public-a-guide-for-software-engineers-f3458df96dc4
https://www.paddle.com/blog/build-in-public-boost-your-engagement
