Workshop 05
Ship It: Publish Day
Take a project that is 'almost ready' and actually put it in front of people.
Overview
What you will build
A published project with a domain, decent metadata and a first analytics signal.
Who it is for
Builders with a folder of ninety-percent-done projects and nothing live.
Before you start
- — A project that mostly works
- — A domain, or willingness to buy one
- — Thirty minutes of undisturbed time to publish
What you will walk away with
- Cut scope to the smallest shippable version
- Get titles, descriptions and social previews right
- Know whether anyone showed up
Resources
Open these in a second tab before you begin.
Instructions
Work through these in order. Where there is a prompt, copy it and fill in the parts in angle brackets.
- 01
Cut until it fits today
List every unfinished feature. Move all but one to a 'later' list. Shipping is a subtraction exercise.
- 02
Make the missing parts honest
Half-built features are worse than absent ones. Hide them, or label them clearly.
Hide these unfinished features from the interface entirely: <list>. Do not delete the code — just remove the entry points so nobody can reach a broken screen.
- 03
Fix the first impression
Page title, description and social preview decide whether a shared link gets clicked.
Set proper metadata for every page: a unique title under 60 characters, a description under 160 characters, and matching social preview title and description. Keep the wording specific to each page.
- 04
Publish and connect the domain
Publish, then attach your domain and confirm the live URL loads in a private window on mobile data.
- 05
Add one measurement
One number beats a dashboard you never open. Pick the single action that means success and track only that.
Add lightweight analytics and track exactly one event: <the one action that matters>. Nothing else.
Build-along
The same journey as milestones, so you can stop at any point and pick it up later. Do not move on until the checkpoint is true.
Milestone 1 — Scope cut
One 'now' list and one 'later' list.
Checkpoint — The 'now' list fits in today.
Milestone 2 — No broken doors
Every reachable screen works.
Checkpoint — Clicking anything never lands on a dead end.
Milestone 3 — Live on your domain
Published, with metadata and a real URL.
Checkpoint — A shared link shows a correct preview card.
Milestone 4 — One number
A single tracked event.
Checkpoint — You can see your own first event.
Build Submission
Send the live URL and the one number you chose to track, plus what your 'later' list contains.
Submissions are sent by message — nothing is stored on this site.
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