Buildspace Diary: The Start

I got accepted to Buildspace Season 5 Nights and Weekends.

As you would expect, my project for the season (6 weeks) is the Simpletenders guide, but I’m using Buildspace to get me out of the editing rut and actually ship something.

This year, Buildspace has 60,000 members, and the ethos is to do whatever you want - but do something and ship it out into the world.

Rather than just agreeing to do that and then disappearing off the face of the earth, you make yourself accountable by following tasks they give you, and posting weekly updates.

For week 1, we have to:

• Come up with an idea
• create an idea slide that encapsulates that idea in a single sentence
• Post that idea slide somewhere public
• Give feedback to at least three other Buildspace members
• Write a Week 1 update that proves what you did.

Along the way, you get emails keeping you updated and lectures/labs on Tuesdays and Thursdays each week. They are full of useful content to keep you moving along in whatever you choose to do.

It’s important to note that this isn’t a coding bootcamp. Members of each cohort create art, robots, songs, books, posters, physical goods, agencies, lift others up - they do whatever they want to do.

And Buildspace doesn’t teach - it encourages. I am loving it, and I already have ideas for week 2, when we will build a ‘toy’ version of our product.

Now all I have to do is be brave enough to post my idea slide on LinkedIn and see what happens when my boss sees it! (This is nights and weekends, though - so he can’t complain that I’m doing this during the day…!)