Monthly Challenge for July, 2022: Let's build in public, starting with Daily Standup!
During this month, let's learn to communicate what we're working on, show our development, and be confident and proud of any progress made.
Theme
Demo in public!
Goals
To end the month with:
- A habit of talking about the things we're working on.
- A plan for continuing progress.
- A demo for the VC community.
Who can participate?
Virtual Coffee's goal is to support all developers, no matter where they are in their coding journey. This challenge is opened to non-coding projects as well. So if you want to talk about the projects you're doing in other areas of your life, we want to hear about it. We encourage all members to participate. This challenge can be done alone or in a group.
Getting Started
- Define and set goals: decide what you want to share, define what is the scope and the result you want to reach at the end of the month.
- Start working: once your demo project is defined you can start considering your demo plans. Share and celebrate your progress!
Making Progess
Share your progress in the #monthly-challenge channel in Slack. We have a slack reminder everyday, but feel free to post when you can. Some of our monthly-challenge team will also be holding video check-ins, so be on the lookout for those announcements!
While no other platform is imposed, it can be a good idea to also share on social media for more reach but only if you are comfortable to do so (Twitter using -or not- the hashtag #buildinpublic, a personal blog, a post on DEV.to, etc.).
Sharing every time some work is added is a good idea, small progress is still progress. You don't need to write a detailed blog post: a 140 characters Tweet can be enough! For example: "Today I added some styling. I used Bootstrap and implemented some cards to display the users in the home page".
Prepare for your demo. Would you prefer to pre-record your demo or share itlive? Pick your demo method and make a commitment for the final week.
What if I need help?
You can ask a question in the #help-and-pairing channel, get support in the #co-working-room channel, or ask at a coffee! You can also take advantage of our coffee table groups like our VC Indie-hackers and our Accountabilibuddies groups. Asking for help is part of the process.
To Complete the Challenge
- Participate in 15 standups;
- Create a plan for progress;
- Demo in public either live or with a recording.
Demo Day
There will be two ways for participants to demo their projects:
- Synchronously - A Zoom meetup will be held for members who wish to demo their project to the VC community. You will need to register by the end of week 3 with the monthly challenge team.
- Asynchronously - You will be able to share your pre-recorded demos on the #monthly-challenge Slack channel, using Loom for example (check this example).
And remember, we're always here to help ❤️
Tips for Demoing
Before you start:
- Test the exact workflow(s) you are planning to demo
- Prepare all the environments you need for the demo
- Close potential distractions such as Slack or email programs
- Test your mic and camera
- Prepare some notes about what you want to say during the demo
- If you are demoing synchronously, make sure you have a good internet connection
- If you are on a larger screen, make sure that code is large enough, and visuals zoomed enough, to be easy to read on smaller screens
- Check out this demo of one of our members preparing for a demo