Building in Public: Why I'm Sharing My Process
Shipping product in the open creates accountability, attracts collaboration, and is more interesting for everyone involved.
There's a version of product work where you disappear for months, polish everything until it's perfect, and resurface with a launch. I've done that. It's fine. But it's lonely, and you end up over-engineering things nobody asked for.
The alternative is building in public — sharing the process as you go: what you're trying, what broke, what surprised you.
Why it works
Accountability without a boss. Stating what you're working on creates a soft commitment. Not a deadline, just a direction. That's usually enough.
Early signal. When you write about a problem, people who have the same problem find you. They tell you things. Sometimes they offer to pay you. This is better than any user interview cold outreach.
The act of writing is thinking. Trying to explain your reasoning to a reader forces you to find the holes. Half my "blog posts" turn into design documents I actually use.
What "in public" means in practice
I'm not posting every commit or writing daily updates. The bar is: if I figured something out, or changed my mind about something, or made a decision I'll have to live with — I write about it.
The posts live here first. That's the canonical. Substack and Medium get the same content with a link back. The index stays mine.
If you're working on something and not sure whether to share it — share it. The version you have right now is already useful to someone.