I believe in defining process at the start
of every project, and I’ve found that it
very rarely should be done the same
way twice. I’ve created this page to
showcase a few different processes I’ve
created and implemented at different
organizations. The reason I’m
including them here is to help illustrate
the kind of strategic planning I do at
the start of any given project. Each of
them borrows from a mountain of
sources and inspiration, and I’d be
thrilled if they inspired someone else in
their own planning. I don’t mind if you
borrow any of these illustrations, but I
would appreciate if you give credit to me
for making them and link back here to jacobcotten.com
WHY REINVENT THE WHEEL?
There is a famous war quote that says “no plan survives contact with the enemy”, attributed to the general and tactician Helmuth von Moltke the Elder. This is equally true as relates to Process Planning when creating digital products, much to the chagrin of product managers everywhere. There are two factors working against you:
- Every product is wildly different.
- Making a digital product is a discovery process rather than an exercise in execution.
TAILOR-MADE DESIGN PROCESS
Every industry has its equations. I’m not here to disparage methods like “Agile”, “Kanban”, “Waterfall”, “Rapid”, “Scrum”, and others. What I find is that every product requires unique process planning. When establishing those processes at the begging of a project, it’s necessary to understand the strengths and weaknesses of different strategies and methods and how those are shaped by organizational capabilities, culture, and systems. It’s also important to understand how different steps inform and shape each other as you move through them.
DESIGN THINKING
‘Design thinking’ is a philosophy that allows me to construct a tailor-made design process at the start of every project. To maintain efficiency, I don’t start from scratch but use many of the same pieces through collaborative planning. You can see many of these pieces in the following diagrams. This method allows me to work within an organization’s existing structure while bringing together high level strategic players, like product managers, stakeholders, and executives, alongside specialists specialists from many fields ranging from marketing and data analytics to software engineers and interaction designers.
LEARNING FROM OTHERS
Flexibility has another advantage. It give every team member a voice to contribute. I like to ask the people around me the following questions:
- How have you done something similar in the past?
- What went well?
- What could have gone better?
- How could that improve on or change the plan that we’ve put together as a group?
- How are you learning & growing, and what would you like to try that you’ve never done before?
Collaboration and synergy best happen when the individual pieces have the opportunity to impact the big picture.