Last week, I set myself a 1-week challenge to build an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) for a product I really wanted. More details on the problem I was solving in last week's post.
šØ Why build in public?
In short, I wanted to:
- Try out the "Show Your Work" mindset by lowering the barrier to sharing online
- Build the habit of posting on Twitter regularly
- Get early user feedback to help guide design
š¤ How did it go?
Looking at my daily updates over the last week, it's been a very interesting week! On top of the usual product development and tweaking, I enjoyed sharing my progress along the way and even getting some engagement in return. A massive thank you to those of you who signed up for the updates on Twitter!! š
The product (Echomail) is now live for public use, even though it's obviously just an early version. You can read more about it here and here if you're interested.
š My takeaways from building in public
Building in public is almost a "hack" because it lets you build engagement, get early feedback, and lower your barrier to using social media productively ā while essentially using content you were going to generate anyway. However, there's another hidden benefit: the connections you make.
At my work, if you were to ask anyone what the best part of the job is, almost invariably the answer would be "the people who work here," (in spite of the various other benefits of the job). Connecting with people who are interested in the same things as you is a great way to build your network, and sharing your work is one way to signal your interests.
If you have things you build / work on on the side, I'd highly recommend trying out this approach. It can be a great way to get feedback, encouragement (and even a sense of accountability!)
If you would like to follow future updates on projects I am working on, do check out my Twitter where I will post more regular updates.
Thanks for reading :)