Why Community Should Come Before Code

To addDraft written from the site brief. Replace with Uche's own essay before launch.

Code is a commitment. Once you have built something, you want it to be right, and it becomes harder to hear that it isn't.

A community is different. It is a place to learn before you commit.

A community tells you the truth

At Fitness Space, our first users were in WhatsApp groups. They told us — through what they did far more than what they said — what worked and what didn't.

A community is part of the product

Even now that we build software, WhatsApp is still part of how Fitness Space works: onboarding, interaction, accountability and community. We didn't replace the community with an app. We built technology around it.

Earn the right to write code

Start with people. Build the relationship, run the experiment, learn what matters. Then write the code — and write less of it, because you know what it needs to do.