posted on Friday, February 22, 2008 12:38 PM by AnjaliSastry

Focus, simplicity, and writing it down: Three sentences, three steps

IN RECENT CONVERSATIONS WITH MY STUDENTS, we talked about the value of the simple exercise of boiling down your project plan into a very short explanation (we aimed for 9 words!). But just explaining what the project sets out to do is not enough: we also need to be able to explain how the project will get there. To that end, I've been asking if you can tell us your story in three sentences:

  • a statement of the problem, opportunity, or need that you are addressing, from the client/host/target’s point of view, together with
  • a pithy description of what you will do and
  • how that will address the situation.

I want to underscore the importance of writing it down and then inviting comments and discussion. There’s no substitute for that work. It can really help you to figure out the key points on which your entire project hinges, and in turn those are the open questions that are most urgent for you to tackle.

The underlying philosophy.  Such an approach is very much akin to treating your project plan as a working hypothesis, which your actions will then test. This is an idea that, of course, borrows from the scientific method. It’s also a cornerstone of many consulting firms’approaches (see, for instance, this blog post by a consultant; an explanation of the McKinsey model (note the nice feedback loop at the top!); here's another post outlining the McKinsey approach presented in the 1998 book).

The practical implications. Once you’ve talked through your-three part project overview, use it as a screen for looking at your action steps. In other words, your first cut (v1.0) of the project description should serve as the basis for your project planning. For each action you’ve listed, make sure you talk through with your team how it will help you shed light on the key issues related to your project descroption v1.0. Note that this description may--actually, it really should--evolve, but that you’ll want to be thoughtful about when you allow such changes to enter, because they will necessarily entail revisiting your project plan. So set aside such “big-picture” discussions for only certain windows, not for every week!

What’s the next key step?

The second topic is related, and that is the question of what’s the most important next step. The previous work allows some focus to emerge. Use that insight to figure out the next critical step in your project. Don’t forget, you do have time at the outset of the project to think things through so that you design your work to be as effective as possible. I urge students to use the resources of their class--and stakeholders, who we’re discussing in class right now--to sort out a feasible project, set up realistic plans, and build the team you need to get things done. At each step of the way, ask yourself this question: what’s the next action? (shades of David Allen’s GTD, for those of you into that sort of thing--more on that later). It’s often pretty obvious what the one most important next step is. But surprisingly often, people don’t actually do the most important next step! The task for you and your team is to set up a personal or team discipline for, first, figuring out the next step; secondly, doing it, and third, figuring out what it means for your next subsequent step. That’s, of course, the model embedded in our course (prepare-act-reflect), and it’s one that I encourage you to use every single week. So, this week's question: what's your next step?

Comments

# re: Focus, simplicity, and writing it down: Three sentences, three steps

Sunday, February 24, 2008 3:33 PM by Drew
In reading the “blog post by a consultant” I really liked his reasoning behind restating the problem statement in order to determine new methods or ways of approaching the problem. By looking at the problem from multiple angles, new information will appear and new solutions to the problem will also become evident. Too often I find that I get stuck looking at a problem from a single angle and don’t have the time or resources or knowledge to do more. By focusing on only the next step, I feel that the size of the problem is more workable and more easily transformed to be seen from another point of view.

# re: Focus, simplicity, and writing it down: Three sentences, three steps

Sunday, February 24, 2008 6:20 PM by LisaS986
I think this post makes a lot of sense. I feel like in most of my group projects, we did not focus on the goals or the next steps, and instead rushed to the end. This meant that each individual was veering off in a slightly different direction. While it wasn't always noticeable at first, it certainly was at the end, when we brought all our work together. I think that focusing on a simple, coherent goal, and constantly figuring out the next big step, makes a lot of sense. While it seems like it would be obvious, I doubt many teams actually do this.