Building my new HubSpot CMS Website Theme in public
I'm breaking ground on the development of a new digital product and have decided to jump on the Build In Public trend for this one.
What does it mean to build in public?
Building in public can be described in many different ways, but I'll explain it as: the process of bringing your audience along for the ride as you strategize, plan, code, test, fail miserably, launch, cry, experience euphoria, question all of your life's decisions, make money, lose money, as you develop a business (in my case a digital product.)
What am I building?
For this project, I will be designing and coding from scratch a website theme which enables HubSpot customers to build their website on HubSpot CMS without a developer.
In addition the the theme development, I'll be building out all the marketing material (landing pages, demo site, etc) and sales systems (drip email campaigns, lead nurturing) so I think it's an awesome project to build in public; hoping this will show other entrepreneurs ALL of the aspects involved in taking a digital product to market!
Benefits of building in public
Documenting the process
Each time I go through any process I learn, improve and become more efficient at that thing. By documenting the process as I build, I hope to create a repeatable system for developing and launching successful digital products in the future.
Generate early interest in the project
Building in public lets you start talking about the project before it launches and can (hopefully) drum up some early interest.
Get valuable market feedback before launch
I've fallen into the trap of coding in a bubble before. What I learned from building my last HubSpot CMS website theme was: your ideas are probably 70% correct...the market holds the answer to that crucial 30% and the only way to extract that valuable info is to show them your product. Building in public lets you do that before you launch so you can implement market feedback well in advance.
Develop my personal brand
Tryna be famous yo - not really but I do see value in more people knowing about me, what I do and how I can hep them.
Improve my communication skills
I'm pretty good at converting my ideas into reality - when it's just me - but if I'm gonna level up I need to improve my ability to transfer my ideas to others in a clear and concise manner. I think building in public will help me practice clearer idea communication.
Practice sharing before it's perfect
The trap map creatives fall into, the killer of so many creative works.
Engage in like-minded communities
I'm excited to share my journey with other builder communities like IndieHackers and the Productize Community.
Greater Accountability
I'm already very discliplined and don't doubt my ability to finish the project. But knowing that my peers are expecting this to be complete by Feb 15th adds a healthy pressure to stay on track.
My approach to building in public
A few ideas I have for sharing my journey are as follows:
- Describe the product, tell the story on my personal blog
- Write 3 progress updates per week on my personal blog (share to Twitter, IH and LinkedIn
- Screenshots of the product as I build
- Loom screen recordings of Work In Progress features
- Asking for feature ideas and feedback in HubSpot-related Facebook groups I'm a part o
- Enjoying the journey
Tools I'm using
HubSpot - I will build and test the theme in my HubSpot CMS account.
SEMRush - for keyword research & SEO planning
ClickUp - for web project management
VSCode - for coding
BrowserStack - for cross-browser testing
Loom - for screen recording my journey
Canny - always wanted to create a public facing roadmap for a project!
