Define the Problem

Many projects are doomed from the start, because they don't understand the problem they're trying to solve.

Pain Point: 

Work on  Solutions Too Soon

Identify the Right Group of Stakeholders

Projects that don't get the right people in the room often die a slow and very painful death, finding out at the end that they messed up at the beginning.

Who is part of the team?

• Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
• "Stakeholders"
• Product Owner (PO)
• Project Manager / Product Manager (PM)
• Architects
• Devs
• QA
• It's usually easier to be overly broad at this point than try to make up for it later...

Communicate We Must

Take the Time to Plan Right!

Pain Point: Starting Dev  Before Planning is Done

"Iterative Deepening"

1. Problem 

2. Requirements

3. Documentation

4. Wireframes

5. Graphic Design

6. Services APIs

Dream Big

Then Identify MVP/Phase 1

Pain Point: Unrealistic Timeline

Minimal Inputs

Think about the bare minimum you can ask your users to do. There are often some elegant shortcuts.

Minimal Inputs,

Valuable Outputs

• Don't ask much of them
• Give them a lot of value in return
• Don't give them clutter
• Weigh value added vs. complexity

Pain Point: Scope Creep

Avoid Distractions

Stay on Target

Pain Point: Plan Was Wrong

Unit Testing

Feature Testing

Integration Testing

User Acceptance (UAT)

Pain Point: Rework & Fixing

Take it slow...

• "Dog Food"
• Alpha Release
• Beta Release
• Gradual Rollout

Pain Point: Production Issues

Takeaways

• Return on your planning investment: >= 10x
• Communication and Teamwork: Critical
• Getting the plan right: Over 9000
• Sticking to the Plan: Harder than it looks
• Failure in Testing/Launch can ruin you

Thanks for coming!

Feedback welcome:

mac@macnewbold.com