Ship Fast or Ship Never: A Developer's Guide to Getting Code Live

Let me guess - you've got at least one project sitting on your laptop right now that's "almost ready" to ship. Maybe it's that side project you've been tweaking for months, or that portfolio piece that's not quite perfect yet. I get it. I've been there too.

Here's the hard truth: that code isn't helping anyone sitting on your machine. Every day you wait to deploy is a day you could have been learning from real users, improving based on actual feedback, or even making your first dollar from your project. The truth is, perfection is the enemy of progress.

The Real Cost of "Perfect" Code#

But here's the rub - your first users will probably want something completely different. I know this because it's happened to me - I spent weeks building the "perfect" data insight solution, only to find out my early users needed something totally adjacent. All that time was wasted. This was the cost of building that perfect solution:

• No customer willing to pay for it, becuase it was not directly solving their problem
• Unneccessary time spent building it
• Delayed insight into what people really need

But I realised there is an antidote to this problem... Shipping Fast. And I'm not the only one that has realised this. The founding members of the Agile Manifesto struck on this notion decades ago, but Agile has since been hijacked by movements that are fundamentally not Agile (ScaledAgile and SCRUM I'm looking at you two). In some respects, Agile has lots it's way.

But there is a comeback of true agile happening. It's happening in the indie developer community with leaders such as Marc at shipfa.st, and Peter at levels.io. These guys know the true cost of perfection, and have embodied the antidote - and they have the track record to proove it.

Why Fast Shipping Changes Everything#

The magic of shipping fast isn't about rushing - it's about learning quickly. The saying "Less haste more speed" comes to mind. What shipping fast gives you is rapid acquisition of knowledge about your customers need. They will tell you this, if not directly, but how they use your solution (if at all, which is also vital information).

Here's what shipping daily has taught me:

// What shipping fast has taught me:
lessons := ShippingLessons{
    AutomationKey:    "Automate everything unique to your workflow - templates save lives",
    BrandingStrategy: "Create reusable brand components - inject personality instantly",
    DeploymentPipe:   "Build once, deploy anywhere - friction kills momentum",
    MarketingFocus:   "Marketing isn't optional - great code needs visibility",
}

// The real cost of manual work
if !lessons.IsAutomated() {
    time.Sleep(forever) // Don't let this be you
}

Your 11-Minute Deployment Pipeline#

OK so what? If you're at this point, you're on board with the idea that shipping fast really is a life or death situation. What now?

Deploy your Code

But how?

Well, I've got a guide for you. Here is my step by step process for getting code to your customer - fast. And here's the best bit; once you're up and running it should take no more than 11 minutes to get a new feature to your customers. Here's the recipe:

# Your new deployment checklist
├── Stage 1: Local smoke test (2 mins)
│   └── bun run test:quick 
├── Stage 2: CI validation (2 mins)
│   └── GitHub Actions doing the heavy lifting
├── Stage 3: Preview environment (5 mins)
│   └── Vercel/Netlify preview URLs or Firebase development environment
└── Stage 4: Production deploy on merge to main (2 mins)
    └── Via Github actions to your favourite webhosting platform

Total: 11 mins to live code

Tools to Ship Fast Today#

Want to ship fast? Here's my opinionated toolkit that's battle-tested for rapid deployment:

Web Development#

NextJS is your best friend for most web applications. Its massive ecosystem means you're never building from scratch, and the built-in SEO support means your product can actually be found. If you're building a single-page application, SvelteKit is a lighter, faster alternative that just feels delicious to work with. Either one will allow you to ship faster.

Styling#

Tailwind CSS with ShadCN is the approach for the modern web developer. The ShadCN approach of installing code rather than libraries for componetns has changed the web development game. Especially for non-web developers like me, it allows me to focus on my brand at the source of the component rather than going through an abstract API of some wrapped component library.

Marketing That Converts#

Just as important as your tech stack is your marketing pipeline. Hubspot is the go-to choice here – it's a complete solution that grows with you. Start with their free tier to handle your email lists and basic CRM needs, then scale up as you get traction. It integrates seamlessly with most web frameworks (especially NextJS), and you won't need to switch platforms as you grow.

The best part? You can automate your entire marketing funnel from day one:

• Capture leads directly from your web app
• Automate follow-up emails
• Track user engagement
• Manage your sales pipeline
• Schedule social media posts

API Development#

Go is your secret weapon here. It's typed, fast to develop in, and compiles down to a single binary that's cheap to run. No more wrestling with dependency management in production – just deploy and go. The standard library is comprehensive enough that you rarely need external packages. From 1.22.0, the standard library also now supports advanced routing patterns - no more reliance on Gin and GorillaMUX.

Infrastructure That Scales#

Firebase is the unsung hero of fast deployment. Yes, Vercel is great, but Firebase's hosting solution is significantly cheaper at scale while offering the same zero-config deployment benefits. Plus, you get Firebase Auth out of the box – a production-ready authentication system that just works, with a generous free tier of 50,000 monthly active users.

Data and State Management#

Firestore handles your data needs with minimal setup. It's real-time by default, handles offline state, and scales automatically, with backups. No more wrestling with state management libraries or building real-time sync – it's all there, ready to go.

Remember: Perfect code that never ships is worse than imperfect code that users love. Pick your tools, trust them to do their job, and focus on shipping features that matter to your users.

Just Ship It#

So what are you waiting for? Dust off that side project that never made it into production and just SHIP IT!

If you want to start shipping faster today, we've got templates using this exact stack ready to go. Check out our tools to start shipping today.

PS: This article took 20 minutes to write, 11 minutes to deploy, and is already helping developers ship faster. What will you ship in the next 33 minutes? 🚀