What 'shipped' means

1. Principle

"Shipped" is not "it runs." It is not "I deployed a preview." It is not "I sent you the URL."

Shipped has one hard test, three boxes:

1. Deployed publicly — reachable from a URL anyone with a browser can open
2. Used by someone who is not you — at least one stranger opened it and did the thing it is for
3. Produced a real outcome — that stranger left with something they came for (a submission, a purchase, a decision)

A project that ticks one or two of these boxes is in progress. The word "shipped" applies only when all three are true.

2. Do (you try)

List every project you have started in the last six months. For each, tick the boxes honestly.

3. Verify (how you know)

Count the rows that tick all three boxes.

That number — not the count of your repos, not the count of your deploys — is your shipped count.

If the number is zero, that is not a failure. It is the reason this course exists. If the number is more than zero, the rest of the course is about making that number repeatable instead of accidental.

4. Reference