Building in Public Without Leaking Client Work

Published 2025-09-08 by Faraz Rahimi

You can write about patterns without naming the warehouse, the SKU, or the spreadsheet tab that would get someone in trouble.

Tags: Career, Writing, Freelance, Ethics, unlisted

I generalize. Photo-to-SKU, not their product photos. Exception queues, not their vendor. If a detail could only belong to one client, it stays off the blog.

I would rather sound slightly abstract than get a lawyer email. Trust is the freelance business model.

Ask when it is close

If I want a screenshot, I ask. If they hesitate, that is a no. Edited UI with fake data is fine.

Public is a filter

Writing in public also keeps me from pretending. If I cannot explain a design without confidential context, maybe the design is too special-cased to be a story yet.

Original post: https://farazrahimi.com/posts/building-in-public-without-leaking-client-work