In this article, I want to share with you why I'm building my next free course in the open and how I exactly do that.

What course are we talking about?

I'm slowly working on a new course called "What is the Service Design Process". In this course, I try to explore as many processes or ways of working that can inspire people interested in service design.

What do you mean by "building in the open"?

Instead of writing this course on my own and then publishing it once it's ready, I've decided to publicly share every step on the road. This means that every time I write something or find something for this course, I share it with the broader service design community.

To do this, I basically use three tools and steps.

Tool number one: the notion dashboard

In notion, I've created a kanban board where I have an overview of all the courses. Each part of the course is a little card that I can move. Each kanban board column is a different stage in the creation process. The more a card is on the left side of the kanban, the less I've worked on it. The more a card is on the right side, the more it's at a stage where people can enjoy it in a final form.

Tool number two: podia where the course lives

Podia is the platform I use to run the Swiss Innovation Academy. I have created in my Podia account a new course that is already published and open to everyone so that people can see all my notes and drafts. On the course's landing page, I've added a table of content. In this table of contents, each part with a "Preview" button is at a stage where I feel people already can get some value from the content even if it's not final.

By having my notes already written in Podia, people can see the content already in the location where it will be published in the end.

I tried to make sure that people know that this is a shitty draft with lots of holes, unfinished pieces of content and half baked ideas so that they are not frustrated if they join this work in progress version of the course.

Tool number three: Linkedin where I get feedback and share

The last tool I use to build this course in the open is Linkedin. At the start, every new little progress I make on the course is shared on Linkedin. 
When I find a new Service Design process, I share it. Even if I didn't write anything about it but just found it. When I write a reflection, I share it. Whenever I do something on the course content, I share it.

Why does it make sense to build such courses in the open?

Let's be honest; it's more work to build things in the open as you get more messages and information to sort and have to share every step on the road. But this process also makes a few positive things possible:

1. Get attention: people can discover that there is a course in preparation and if they are interested, can leave their email to get notified of the course launch

2. Help the curious ones: some extremely curious people don't need the course in its final course to already benefit from it. For these people, they can join the shitty draft version and get already the references and notes that will help them learn further

3. Get feedback: members of the service design community often share feedback about what they would add or further resources to go further. This allows me to make the course either better or bigger.

4. Get motivation: when you see that people find what you are building attractive, it's really motivating, and it gives you the energy to continue writing and exploring.

5. Meet new people: because I shared the work I've built in the open, lovely people from the community offered their help! So I'm working in a less lonely way on this course.

As I'm experimenting with this approach of building in the open I'm also trying to do this with my other big project: the service design principles series. Let's see how that goes!

Written on Tuesday 4th of January 2022 by Daniele Catalanotto