10 Questions to Ask Before Building in Public
Hi, this is Morgan, nice to see you again.
Having already discussed my experience with building in public, I’d now like to discuss my own ideas for how to be ready for building in public and condense them into ten self-asked questions.
If you’re planning to build in public, keep reading to find out if you’re ready to begin your BIP adventure.
Q1: Am I willing to invest a lot of time in social media?
I used to stay inactive on social media because I was hesitant to interact with people or express my opinions to online strangers. To be honest, I don’t use social media a lot since it might lead to information overload.
Yet I have to confess that social media is still the best way to build in public. Even if you don’t want to perform on social media, you have to create a blog, website, or podcast to assist you.
You must initiate conversations about certain topics, provide feedback and comments on other people’s items, or share and discuss the most recent trends. Finding topics and trends also takes time.
Hence, you might need to think about how much time you are ready to spend on social media before building in public. Building in public might not be the best option for you if all you want to do is spend more time mastering technical challenges.
Q2: What’s my primary goal for BIP?
What you’re going to share depends on what your purpose is and who you are.
If you’re a content creator, you may want to generate more followers for your channel, then you should create more high-quality videos and articles to offer value to others.
If you’re aiming at networking, then don’t be afraid to reach out and share your business ideas, growth tricks, or bigger insight into the whole industry, to strengthen bonds.
If you’re going to create a brand with personal influence, then try to grab the hit topic and get engaged with more people, which may drive more traffic to your product, especially when you’re an expert icon in your field.
Set your main goal, then work while aiming at it.
Q3: What are my strengths and weaknesses?
Building in public is similar to creating your own brand. Consider yourself a new product that requires advertising. You should create a list of your own advantages and disadvantages:
What do you excel at?
What are your greatest achievements?
And your worst failure?
Then you’re about to consider how to best use your abilities and ensure that others can depend on you.
Q4: Am I mentally capable of handling critical remarks or harsh criticism?
You will undoubtedly get some negative feedback while presenting your product to the public on the internet since nothing is flawless.
In the past, customers may submit negative reviews or leave bad comments for your customer support, but if you are building in public, you have to deal with such reviews yourself.
Hence, you need to have a solid mind to get through the negative comments that have been conveyed directly to you.
Q5: Am I ready to share my product processes with others?
Building in public means showing people what you’re doing well or wrong, your regular procedure, your daily coding routine, and other things.
It happens frequently in BIP that someone else could steal your concept or procedure. So, you should be aware that revealing the production process might result in future copycats, which you should pay much attention to.
Have you discovered the best method to explain and discuss these procedures with others when you need to? Did you take any precautions to avoid these circumstances?
Q6: Is it okay to share some of my business secrets with others?
Sincerity is essential to BIP. I’ve noticed that many BIP founders share their marketing revenue and user activity data publicly to demonstrate their sincerity and authenticity while discussing their successes with the audience. I also share content like that to show my genuineness.
The question that remains is whether you are willing to divulge these purported business secrets to others. Consider it carefully before you decide to build in public.
Q7: How to deal with unexpected costs?
When building in public, you might need to be active not only on Twitter but also on other social media sites like Facebook, and Instagram, or communities like Product Hunt and Indie Hackers. You could even want to start your own YouTube channel.
There may be some unforeseen fees along the road, such as paying for additional benefits like Twitter blue mark or another VIP account in order to maximize the value of your work by getting it pushed more, or some video creation fees to exhibit your products.
Q8: Am I willing to share my personal life with others?
In order to make your account more reliable and friendly, you have to add some daily life moments in your account, which may bother some of the founders because they’re kind of reserved and don’t know if it’s okay to share life moments with strangers.
Q9: What if I can’t get the expected results?
There may be times when things don’t go as planned, especially when building in public.
You may set a goal to connect with at least 1,000 entrepreneurs, but no one responds; you may have promised to offer dozens of consultant opportunities, but your time is taken up with many meetings…
If building in public does not benefit your business and help to achieve your goals, you could experience depression. So, you must be ready for failure when you try BIP first and maintain a good attitude.
Q10: When to stop BIP?
Knowing when to stop sharing something or adjust it is another essential skill.
Your team will expand. BIP will become difficult when your startup has 20–30 people. You have to balance what to share, and when to share, as well as manage your team at the same time.
Yet, after you reach a certain team or revenue level, there may still be some unpredictability.
Some teammates don’t like sharing their work results on the internet, so it’s tougher to share so-called anytime with your followers as a founder. You have to respect your coworkers and listen to their suggestions.
The mindset hasn’t changed since maintaining the integrity and building trust still dominate everything. As you grow, you should learn to modify the quantity and frequency of sharing.
Final words:
BIP is a long and uneasy process. It may fit a startup, but not suitable for everyone, so before you set your mind to do it, check more BIP stories to decide whether you want to BIP or not. Please feel free to contact me on Twitter if you have any other views about BIP.
