After you've edited one of the files, you need to run 'make clean install' to reinstall speedwm.
Remember that you can change colors through your .Xresources file (see .Xresources and Pywal) meaning you do not need to recompile speedwm.
Another important detail you must keep in mind is that this build comes with a status bar simply named 'status'.
It can be found in the speedwm source code directory. It is just a shell script which adds stuff to your status bar. It will automatically be started when speedwm starts.
You can edit the status bar simply by editing 'status' and running 'make clean install'.
You can also configure it by editing '~/.config/speedwm-de/status/config'.
Please note that most status bars including the built in 'status' depends on xsetroot which must be installed. speedwm-compatcheck is going to tell you about this when compiling.
If you want to change status bar, edit options.h and set 'static char status' to your status bar binary (must be in $PATH).