Rapid Prototyping Rule #8

by George on Oct.14, 2009, under Coding

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?”.

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