Acorn Heroes

Have a plan.  Refer to it frequently.  Update it as needed.

I don’t know how I managed to get to Rule #8 without mentioning this one before.  If you’re going to spend, say, 1-5 days putting together a prototype, do yourself a favour and sit down with pen and paper and plan out what you want to do.

Writing tasks down and then ticking them off as you go is a powerful motivator.  Keep it simple, a list of 5-10 tasks is fine.  Try to make the tasks well defined and achievable in less than a couple of hours.  Crossing items off a list is good for the soul, so make sure you can do it frequently!

Making a plan is great.  Sticking to it is even better.  But the real key to success is to revisit and refine a plan on a regular basis.  Keep in mind your goal and add, delete or re-prioritise your list of tasks once or twice a day.  And always, ask yourself “What’s the minimal set of things I can do to get the prototype working?”.

Related posts:

1. Rapid Prototyping Rule #2
2. Rapid Prototyping Rule #4
3. Rapid Prototyping Rule #9
4. Rapid Prototyping Rule #6