Session 11: Launch Plan Goal

Hi there. Welcome to this session of Online Notes – the project where I am creating an online log for Cryptiquest projects. During the last session, I wrapped up the Production Phase (…stage? Should I refer to super-phases as stages? I’ll consider that in the future.) and I’m now moving on to Post-Production. On today’s docket, I’m going to hammer out a launch plan.

As I mentioned last session, this will probably be its own mini-project with a goal, objectives, deliverables – the whole shebang. So let’s get on with that.

So where to start? Instead of going straight for the goal, I’m going to have to back up a bit and define the need. For every project so far, I’ve come with a need already at hand. First there is a need (e.g. I need to eat dinner) then there is an obstacle (e.g. no dinner is prepared) then there there is the solution (e.g. I have to make dinner – or order it – or just go to the cafe where I’ll be writing anyway and just eat whatever is on special). Anyway, it all starts with the need.

So what is the need here? I need to tell people about the website but I also need to tell people about this project once it’s finished (since the project you are reading about right now will be the first completed project on this site [so meta]).

But why? That doesn’t feel like the actual “need”. It’s more like chores than reasons – more like the “solutions” instead of the “needs”.

So, let’s work backward. If those are the solutions, what problem are they solving? People don’t know these things exist. Okay. That’s the problem that requires the solution, so why do they need to know that these things exist?

That’s right but slightly off. It’s not “why do they need to know that these things exist” – no. It’s “Why do I need them to know that these things exist?” Yeah, now we’re getting somewhere.

Okay, so why do I need folks to know that these things exist? Actually, if I look back to the first session of this project, I wrote the following:

Another draw to having these notes online is that it potentially highlights Cryptiquest’s endeavors to an audience. This, coupled with the education benefits to other indie designers, requires that this project finds a way to connect to the community…

Online Notes, Session 01: Goals, Objectives, and Guidelines

That sort of, kind of, maybe explains the need. Here are some more tidbits from the second session regarding the same topic:

The idea here (I think) is that these notes and logs should be available to an online audience for – an opportunity for discussion? I’ve seen communities based on similar ideas (The Angry GM, for example). So that’s kind of what I’m going for, I think? […] Either way, there needs to be some sort of discussion option for the post.

Online Notes, Session 02: Tools for Measuring Objectives

While this alludes to the need, this still just circles around it. What it comes down to is a need to find and connect to an audience. And while that sounds like a typical business need, it’s more than that. What I need is to connect to an audience. Having an audience makes all of this stuff worth while. Without an audience, I might as well just keep this all of these projects in my head.

So, that’s the need: find, connect with, (let’s throw build in there, too) an audience. So if that is the need, what is the problem? The problem is that due to the size of my projects and the small amount of time I have to work on them – content publication is too infrequent. The majority of work is done through notes, one session at a time. The solution, then, is to increase the frequency of publications by utilizing the work I’m doing anyway -the notes, the project planning.

So, that’s the need, problem, and solution of this project. But what is the need, problem, and solution of the launch plan?

For me, this is kind of big. It’s a big strategy move. It’s a new way of doing things. So, I need to announce this new plan. That’s the one thing.

The other thing is that I need to execute the strategy. If the strategy is to use the posts from this site to find, connect with, and build an audience, then I need to use this launch as the spark for that.

Goal: Use the creation of the site (and the content therein) to find, connect with, and build an audience.

That seems stupidly simple for all the work that got me here. I apologize if you read all of that. Hopefully there was something of value there?

So there are two mini-projects here: Site Launch and RetroSpec: Online Notes (the retrospective of the Online Notes project). Each project will have different objectives, audiences, and deliverables so I’ll work on those independently in upcoming sessions.

This might take longer than I originally expected. I tend to shirk this part of the project because it’s not fun for me at all. But it is so important – I mean, this whole million word session was dedicated to how important reaching out to an audience is, right?

So the next session will focus on the Site Launch, starting with the objectives then moving on down the project management chain.