Building in public, sharing your product's progress, challenges, and milestones publicly, is one of the most effective growth strategies for indie hackers and SaaS founders. It builds trust, attracts early users, and creates a community around your product before you even launch.
But it can easily eat your day if you don't have a system.
The 5-minute building-in-public workflow
- Write one update (2 minutes): What you shipped, what you learned, or what you're working on next
- Select platforms (10 seconds): X, Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, LinkedIn. Pick all that apply
- Schedule or publish (30 seconds): Post immediately or schedule for your audience's peak time
- Engage with responses (2 minutes): Reply to comments and questions once they come in
Total: 5 minutes. Shaflex handles the cross-posting automatically.
What to share
Weekly rotation:
| Day | Content Type | Example |
|---|
| Monday | What I'm working on this week | "This week: shipping the new analytics dashboard" |
| Tuesday | Technical decision or learning | "Why we chose X over Y for our auth system" |
| Wednesday | Metrics or milestone | "Hit 100 signups this week. Here's what worked:" |
| Thursday | Behind-the-scenes | Screenshot of your workspace, code, or design |
| Friday | Wins and learnings | "This week's biggest win: [thing]. Biggest learning: [thing]" |
Where to post
X/Twitter: The default platform for building in public. Threads work well for longer updates.
Bluesky: Growing developer community. Less noise than X. Your posts get more organic reach.
Mastodon: Strong open-source and developer community. Especially good for technical products.
LinkedIn: Professional audience. Great for B2B SaaS and career-related building-in-public content.
Threads: Broader audience. Good for reaching people outside the developer bubble.
Tips for consistency
- Batch-create content on Sunday evening for the week ahead
- Schedule posts at consistent times so your audience knows when to expect updates. Our guide on mastering social media scheduling can help
- Use threads for milestone posts or technical deep-dives
- Cross-post everything: your X audience is different from your Bluesky audience
- Don't overthink it: a quick update is better than a polished post you never publish
Tools for building in public
Shaflex is designed for this workflow. Write your update once, select X, Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, and LinkedIn, and hit publish. Character limits are adapted automatically. Thread support lets you go deeper when you have more to share.
Build in public across every platform. Try Shaflex free. Cross-post to X, Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, and LinkedIn in one click.
Frequently asked questions
- What does it mean to build in public?
- Sharing your product's progress, technical decisions, metrics, and lessons publicly as you build, instead of waiting for a polished launch announcement. Founders who build in public attract early users, gather feedback faster, and create a community before launch. The trade-off: you have to be comfortable with imperfect work being visible.
- How much time should building in public take per day?
- 5 minutes if you have a workflow. Write one update (2 min), select platforms and schedule (40 sec), then engage with replies as they come in (2 min). Batch the writing. Most founders draft a week of posts on Sunday evening and schedule them all at once. The daily commitment is engagement, not creation.
- What should I post when building in public?
- Use a weekly rotation. Monday: what I'm working on this week. Tuesday: a technical decision or learning. Wednesday: metrics or a milestone. Thursday: behind-the-scenes (workspace, code, design iteration). Friday: wins and learnings from the week. This gives you variety without inventing fresh ideas every day.
- Which platform is best for building in public?
- Cross-post to multiple, since the audiences barely overlap. X is the default with its fast culture and good thread support. Bluesky has a strong indie hacker and developer community with low noise. Mastodon suits open-source and technical products. LinkedIn reaches B2B SaaS audiences. Threads broadens beyond the developer bubble. Tools like Shaflex publish to all five from one composer.
- Do you need a big audience for building in public to work?
- No. Building in public starts paying off at 0 followers. Your earliest engaged users often follow because of an honest progress update, not a launch tweet. Focus on consistency over reach: posting 5 times per week to 200 followers builds more momentum than 1 post per month to 10,000 followers.
- What's the biggest mistake founders make when building in public?
- Treating it as a content marketing project instead of a transparency habit. Posts get over-polished, milestones get spun, and the rawness that makes building in public work disappears. The other big mistake: posting only to X. Cross-posting to Bluesky and LinkedIn doubles or triples reach with the same writing time.
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