Build in public software development is an approach where teams or people create and refine software projects transparently, sharing their progress, decisions, and challenges in real-time with a wider community. This method moves away from traditional closed-door development, inviting external engagement throughout the product lifecycle. It transforms software creation into a shared journey, fostering collaboration and immediate feedback.
The Core Principles of Open Development
At its heart, building in public is about radical transparency in the software development process. This means openly sharing daily progress, architectural decisions, and even code with a broader audience. It actively involves users and aspiring engineers in the development journey, making them part of the process.
A key principle is providing real-time updates. Every action, milestone, and major event is listed as it happens. This commitment extends to archiving knowledge, where learnings, engineering choices, and the rationale behind tradeoffs are documented for future reference. This creates a valuable repository of information, not just for the project team but also for educational purposes. Consistency is also vital; many who build in public maintain a regular development streak, often daily, to demonstrate continuous progress. One project, for instance, proudly maintained a 15-day building streak.
Advantages of an Open Development Model
The build in public approach offers several distinct benefits that contribute to both project success and community growth.
Enhanced Learning and Skill Development This model serves as a powerful educational tool, particularly for aspiring engineers. By observing the entire development process, from initial planning to coding, people can learn how to make architectural decisions and effectively direct AI tools. The archived records of engineering decisions, including the tradeoffs considered and options not chosen, provide invaluable insights into real-world problem-solving. It helps people become better software engineers by showing them the full journey.
Increased Accountability and Motivation Publicly committing to daily building fosters a strong sense of discipline. The expectation of visible progress in every stream or update keeps developers focused and motivated. This external accountability can drive consistency, pushing projects forward even when internal motivation might wane.
Early Feedback and Validation Sharing progress allows for immediate community input. This early and continuous feedback is essential for refining user requirements and ensuring the product truly meets real-world needs. It helps catch potential issues or misalignments before major resources are invested.
Building Trust and Authenticity Transparency builds trust with potential users and stakeholders. When people see the product evolve and understand the thought process behind its creation, it fosters a more authentic connection. This open dialogue can lead to a stronger, more loyal user base.
Strategic Use of AI In this model, AI tools are used to accelerate development rather than replace human thought. The human remains “in the loop,” making critical architectural decisions and guiding AI for faster building. This ensures that intelligence is applied strategically, enhancing productivity while maintaining human control and expertise.
The Build in Public Workflow
The practical application of building in public often follows a structured workflow designed to maximize transparency and efficiency.
Structured Planning Before any coding begins, a thorough planning phase is undertaken. This includes defining the product’s vision and mission, outlining problem statements and goals, identifying target audiences and personas, and detailing user requirement specifications (URS). Acceptance criteria are also established for every major capability. This initial phase produces artifacts similar to those created by professional product teams, laying a solid blueprint for the next 6 months of development.
Phased Development Projects are typically broken down into distinct phases to manage complexity and provide clear milestones. A common progression might include a foundation phase, followed by a core platform phase, an intelligence phase (where AI features are integrated), and finally, a premium features phase. This structured approach helps organize the development journey.
Iterative Progress with Demonstrable Results Development is organized around pull requests (PRs), with the goal of completing one meaningful PR per day or stream. Each PR is designed to result in something visible and demonstrable to the audience. This ensures continuous, tangible progress and keeps the community engaged by showing constant improvement. Every PR aims to complete one logical business capability, avoiding half-finished features.
Complete Documentation A dedicated “docs” folder is created early in the project to house critical documents. These include the project’s vision, URS, and personas. Engineering decisions, including all tradeoffs considered and alternative options, are meticulously recorded. This documentation serves as a living record of the project’s evolution.
Using AI for Efficiency AI tools like ChatGPT are often used for initial planning, including high-level and low-level design, and structuring user requirements. This helps in outlining the project journey and defining the “definition of done.” More advanced AI tools, such as Claude, are then used for the actual coding, with careful management of token usage to optimize resources.
Common Challenges and Considerations
While building in public offers many advantages, it also comes with its own set of challenges that teams must navigate.
Maintaining Audience Engagement A major challenge is keeping the audience engaged, especially during periods of extensive backend or database work that might not offer immediate visual progress. To mitigate this, planning around “one meaningful PR per stream” that yields a visible outcome is essential. This ensures that every update provides a tangible improvement for viewers to see.
Balancing Transparency with Project Focus While openness is a core tenet, it’s important to ensure that every development step contributes meaningfully to the project’s goals. A guiding principle can be that every release should either make the journey easier to follow, increase product value for real users, or reduce the effort required to maintain and extend the platform. If a proposed PR does not satisfy at least one of these criteria, it might be better deferred to a later milestone.
Managing AI Tool Limitations Relying on AI for planning and coding requires careful management of their specific limitations, such as token usage restrictions in some models. Strategic use, like employing one AI for initial planning and another for coding, can help optimize resources and prevent premature exhaustion of abilities.
Commitment to Consistency Building in public often involves a commitment to daily or frequent updates and visible progress. Maintaining this consistency over long periods requires major discipline and dedication from the development team. It demands a sustained effort to share, document, and engage with the community regularly.
