Build Log / Mar 10–14
Week 1: Launch Panic
LinkedIn launch got polite claps, not customers. Analytics revealed nobody clicks Run. Scrambled to fix activation.
The launch that didn't launch
Posted on LinkedIn. 855 impressions, 25 reactions, 0 DMs, 0 new followers. Product announcements get polite engagement but don't spread. Nobody shares a link to a course — they share opinions and stories. First lesson learned: opinions outperform pitches.
Nobody clicks Run
PostHog showed the hard truth: people read the lessons but don't execute the code. The debugger — the whole interactive selling point — was being ignored. This reframed the entire product. The prose is the main character. The code playground is a bonus. I added auto-run on the first step, TRY ME nudges on sample chips, and dopamine toasts when you complete a lesson.
A/B testing everything
In one day I set up 4 PostHog experiments: 3 headline variants, 3 CTA button texts, social proof vs no social proof, and bottom-of-page urgency messaging. Also added OG meta tags, session replay, mock LLM mode, and decided to skip the homepage entirely — redirect straight to lesson 1. Friend's feedback helped too: hook first, story mode, group 3 concepts at a time.