Build in public (#buildinpublic) refers to an internet movement over the last 10 years in which aspiring entrepreneurs (termed solopreneurs if they're building solo) share the highs and lows of their journey to build a product. Usually technical founders, these founders share their journey contrary to the status quo, in which organisations are built stealthily, with carefully controlled PR-speak and systems designed only to show the positive aspects to the outside world.
I mean, it makes sense. Perception is everything.
But build in public proves that perception really is everything. Because in this social media age, we see consumers being more sceptical of their corporate overlords. Automations being rolled out to replace us, and user privacy being exploited, are just some of the rationale behind this. This isn't new, I guess, more that it gets amplified and dissatisfaction reaches further corners of the world than before.
This leaves people wanting alternatives. Both in terms of the products on the market, but also with regards to the personalities behind them.
E.g.: instead of an analytics tool ran by a faceless entity that may or may not kill it in a year or two, maybe I should use this privacy-first alternative ran by this bloke I follow on Twitter? At least that way, I can reach them more directly for feature requests and share my feedback to help them make the tool better…
This is part of the reason build in public has become successful. The other reason, which I don't want to focus on, tends to be around virality and that great riches await once you monetise your socials. However, I think build in public accomplishes a few goals:
Motivation. You want to push others to create innovative tools and displace/shock incumbents
Feedback. This is probably most important. Your posts generate a storyboard of your journey to build and maintain a product, and people want to engage in that journey. Effectively open sourcing your thought process around building a business and having people contribute to that
Trust. As aforementioned, you are a human! You are like myself and my friends, family, coworkers, and not just a faceless entity that I need to reach over convoluted customer support flows.
(Sometimes) to flex. This is a given. Build in public can attract unfaithful builders that inflate monthly recurring revenue or user growth. I once saw a builder who decorated their landing page with positive star ratings and testimonials, despite admitting they'd just launched and had zero customers. Flexing can be great, though, and is necessary to help out with the first goal of motivation. Sometimes it can go too far, if all you share is MRR…
I'd mention here that because of the nature of build in public being fast-to-build fast-to-kill, build in public products typically don't cross into manufacturing, energy production or anything majorly industrial — they tend to be in software. No hate to anyone building a more carbon-friendly way to produce steel though, of course more power to you.
This brings me to the crux of this post, should corporates be taking note of this relatively small and insignificant threat to their products?
My answer is, it depends.
You could argue that modern tech companies adopt this strategy in a slightly different way. For example, Duolingo uses its “Duo” character in skits and as a voice in its social posts as a way to attach a “face” to the organisation. Another example is Ryanair's savvy and often hilarious social media team, known for roasting unhappy passengers on Twitter.
This doesn't really accomplish the goals of build in public, but it does aim to develop a bit of a compromise by using humour to make the brand more approachable and trustworthy. Again, not a new phenomenon, but how it's pulled off is very much geared towards this generation of sceptics.
That said, many enterprises tend to have a very static approach to feedback generation and getting a feel for whether people authentically enjoy their products. Sometimes joy doesn't reveal itself in the data*.
The reason that build in public is very effective at what it does is because there's an ecosystem of feedback and discussion which regular users feel welcome to participate in. Now i'm not here to suggest a way forward for each company, but rather to take note of the movement and if there's something to adopt from build in public, or, is this something that solopreneurs and small-time builders get to hold on to as a natural advantage?
Appreciate you reading.
* Might be controversial, but seriously, we never have the full picture despite how close we can get with data. You need to actually get on a face-to-face call with users.