What Did My Developer Actually Do This Week?

You just got a GitHub notification.

You opened it. You saw something like "fix: refactor auth module" and "update dependencies" and "wip."

You have no idea what any of that means.

You closed the tab and went back to pretending everything is fine.

But it's not fine, is it? You're paying someone good money to build your product. And you can't tell if they worked 40 hours this week or 4.

I've been there. Most non-technical founders have been there. And I'm going to show you how to get out.

You're Not Crazy for Wanting to Know

Let's get one thing straight. Wanting to know what your developer is doing doesn't make you a micromanager.

It makes you a founder.

You have investors asking questions. You have a runway that's getting shorter. You have customers waiting for features. Of course you want to know what's getting built.

The problem isn't that you're too nosy. The problem is that nobody taught you how to track progress when you can't read code.

Why You Feel Lost Right Now

Here's what's actually happening.

Your developer speaks one language. You speak another.

When they say "I'm refactoring the backend," they know exactly what that means. To you, it sounds like "I'm doing... something... that may or may not matter."

When they say "I fixed that bug," you want to ask: which bug? The one users complained about? The one that's been open for three weeks? But you don't ask because you don't want to sound dumb.

So you nod. You say "great." And you walk away knowing nothing.

This isn't your fault. You weren't supposed to learn to code. You were supposed to build a business. But somewhere along the way, "building a business" started requiring you to understand pull requests.

Nobody told you that part.

What Happens When You Can't See Progress

Let me guess what your week looks like.

Monday: You ask your developer how things are going. They say "good, making progress." You feel okay.

Wednesday: You haven't heard anything. You want to ask for an update but you don't want to be annoying. You wait.

Friday: You finally ask what got done this week. They send you a list of stuff that sounds technical. You pretend to understand. You say thanks.

Weekend: You realize you still don't know if that feature is done. You're stressed. You check GitHub again. It still makes no sense.

Sound familiar?

This cycle is exhausting. And it never gets better on its own.

The Real Cost of Flying Blind

Here's what this actually costs you.

Money. If your developer is stuck on something for three days, you won't know until it's too late. That's three days of pay for zero progress.

Time. You spend hours in meetings asking for updates that you don't fully understand. Your developer spends hours explaining instead of building.

Trust. You start wondering if you hired the right person. They start feeling like you don't trust them. The relationship gets weird.

Opportunities. When an investor asks "what did you ship last month?" you can't give a good answer. That matters.

I watched a founder lose a funding round because he couldn't clearly explain what his team had built. The investor said his "velocity proof was weak." He had been shipping. He just couldn't show it.

Don't let that be you.

What You Actually Need (It's Not What You Think)

You don't need to learn to code.

You don't need daily standup meetings.

You don't need your developer to write you essays every night.

You need one simple thing: a way to understand what changed today in plain English.

That's it.

Not "merge pull request #847." Not "fix: edge case in payment flow."

Something like: "Fixed the bug where users couldn't log in on mobile. Login now works on all devices."

See the difference? One is for developers. One is for you.

The question is: how do you get the second one without making your developer stop coding to write reports?

How to Stay Informed Without Being Annoying

Here's what actually works.

Talk Once a Week, Not Every Day

Daily check-ins kill productivity. Every time you ping your developer, they lose focus. It takes them about 20 minutes to get back into deep work.

Instead, have one call per week. Keep it short. Ask three things:

• What did you finish?

• What are you working on next?

• Is anything slowing you down?

Write down the answers. That's your weekly update. Done.

Ask About Features, Not Code

Stop asking "how's the code coming?" Start asking "can users do [thing] now?"

"Can users sign up with Google now?" "Can users see their order history now?" "Is the checkout bug fixed now?"

These are yes or no questions. You'll get clear answers. No technical translation needed.

Ask for Quick Videos

This one is gold.

When your developer finishes something, ask them to record a 2-minute video showing it working. They just click through the feature while talking.

You'll understand everything instantly. No jargon. No confusion. Just "here's what it does."

And it takes them less time than typing out an explanation.

Get Automatic Translations

Here's the thing. Everything I just said still needs your developer to stop and explain things.

What if you didn't need to ask at all?

What if every time they pushed code, you got a simple message telling you what they built?

Not "commit abc123: refactor auth middleware."

But "Made the login page load faster and fixed a security issue."

That's why we built Shipanel.

Shipanel reads the actual code your developer writes, not just the commit message, and explains what it does in plain English. So even if they write "wip" or "misc fixes," you still get a real explanation of what changed.

Your developer connects their GitHub. They keep working exactly like they always do. Every time they push code, you get a plain English update.

No meetings. No interruptions. No confusion.

You finally know what's happening.

Try it free, it takes 90 seconds to set up →

This Changes Everything

Here's what happens when you can actually see progress.

You stop worrying. That background anxiety? Gone. You know what's getting built because you can see it.

You stop asking annoying questions. Your developer notices. They actually like working with you more.

You make faster decisions. Should you keep building this feature or pivot? When you can see what's done and what's left, the answer is obvious.

You impress investors. "What did you ship?" becomes your favorite question. You have receipts.

And maybe most importantly—you feel like a real founder again. Not someone pretending to understand. Someone who actually knows what's going on.

One Founder's Story

A founder named Sarah told us she almost gave up.

She hired her first developer. Remote. Overseas. Cheaper than local but she had no way to check his work.

Every week felt like a gamble. Is he working? Is he stuck? Is he even real?

She was checking GitHub constantly. She understood nothing. She was stressed every single day.

Then she tried Shipanel.

Two weeks later, she said something I'll never forget: "I finally feel like I know what I'm paying for."

Not because she was tracking his every move. But because she could finally understand his work.

That's what visibility does. It doesn't create control. It creates peace of mind.

Stop Guessing. Start Knowing.

You started this company because you had an idea worth building.

You hired a developer to bring it to life.

You shouldn't need a computer science degree to know if it's actually happening.

So here's my challenge to you.

This week, try one thing from this article. Maybe it's the weekly call structure. Maybe it's asking for demo videos. Maybe it's just changing how you ask questions.

Or maybe you skip all that and just let Shipanel do the translation for you.

Either way, stop guessing. You deserve to know what you're paying for.

Ready to finally understand what your developer ships?

Shipanel turns confusing code updates into simple English—automatically. No spying. No extra work for your developer. Just clarity.

Free to start. Setup takes 90 seconds. No credit card needed.

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