Session 11: Carving Out The Exploration Phase
Hi! Welcome to this session of the “How to Make Guides” project where I’m creating a manual for users to create their own guides. The last session focused on writing instructions for how to host a journaling session. The goal of this session is to split the current Planning Phase into two phases: Exploration and Planning. Here goes.
Current Content
Instead of just copy/pasting the content directly here, I’m going to post an outline. I’m including the current phase two items for further context.
- PHASE 1: PLANNING YOUR GUIDE PROJECT
- Step 1: Identify the needs you are trying to solve.
- Step 2: Describe the ideal situation if obstacles didn’t exist.
- Step 3: Identify your target audience and their needs.
- Step 4: Explore the scope.
- Step 5: Define the project goal.
- Step 6: List out the objectives for this project.
- Step 7: Create a project task list to provide a pathway toward launch.
- PHASE 2: PLANNING YOUR GUIDE
- Step 1. Research Your Topic
- Step 2. Revisit Project Objectives and Scope
- Step 3. Draft Your Outline
- Step 4. Determine Presentation Format
Okay, right away I see some glaring consistency issues that have nothing to do with the goal of this session. Ha. Also I think the distinction between “Planning Your Guide Project” and “Planning Your Guide” should be made starker: “Planning Your Project” and “Planning Your Product”.
With those minor tangents out of the way, the task at hand is to split that first phase into two. The thinking was that steps 1 – 4 were the exploration portion and steps 5 – 7 were the planning portion.
What are the objectives of those phases then? The objective for the planning portion is the same, right? Based on the research conducted in the Exploration Phase, state the goal of the project then punch out the objectives to ensure that goal is successful and plot the tasks required to launch the project.
So then the purpose of the Exploration Phase is to state the need the project is trying to fulfill and explore the solutions and limitations involved with fulfilling that need. In essence, the purpose of this phase is to provide a clearer vision of the outcome.
If that’s the case then why wouldn’t defining the goal be part of this phase? As much as I dislike the imbalance of a 5 step phase and a 2 step phase, it makes a lot of sense to have the goal – or vision statement – culminate the phase that explores the vision, right?
OR – perhaps the exploration phase is just the exploration – the research. The process of inventing a proper project goal and objectives both rely on the research conducted in the exploration phase. That’s a decent argument.
So the exploration phase is essentially research. Analysis comes during planning. That makes sense, I think.
So here’s the new outline (I added all the phase titles for consistency):
- PHASE 1: EXPLORING YOUR VISION
- Step 1: Identify the needs you are trying to solve.
- Step 2: Describe the ideal situation if obstacles didn’t exist.
- Step 3: Identify your target audience and their needs.
- Step 4: Explore the scope.
- PHASE 2: PLANNING YOUR PROJECT
- Step 1: Define the project goal.
- Step 2: List out the objectives for this project.
- Step 3: Create a project task list to provide a pathway toward launch.
- PHASE 3: PLANNING YOUR PRODUCT
- Step 1: Research necessary topics for your product.
- Step 2: Revisit the project objectives and scope.
- Step 3: Draft the outline of your product.
- Step 4: Determine the presentation format for your product.
- PHASE 4: PRODUCING YOUR PRODUCT
- PHASE 5: REFINING YOUR PRODUCT
- PHASE 6: LAUNCHING YOUR PRODUCT
- PHASE 7: CLOSING YOUR PROJECT
Okay. I think this looks pretty decent. Makes sense. The next step is to write the overviews for the new phase and update the overview for the planning phase.
Phase 1: Exploring Your Vision
By the end of this phase, you will have a better understanding of what you are creating, why you are creating it, and the scope of what you are creating.
Phase 2: Planning Your Project
By the end of this phase, you will have a better understanding of what criteria matters for the project and what steps are needed to launch a successful product.
Phase 3: Planning Your Product
By the end of this phase, you will have a better understanding of the content of your product, how that content will be organized, and how that content will be presented.
That looks good to me. Now I’ll make the updates in the project doc.
And that’s now complete.
This was a fairly loose and relaxed session. In the next session, I planned on restructuring the current draft of the guide into a Phase > Milestone > Step structure. BUT I think that the milestones should be only for the project plan. So instead, I’ll look at updating Phase 2: Planning Your Project > Step 3: Create a project task list to provide a pathway toward launch. Who knows? Once I start to work on that I might realize a better approach.
At any rate, see you in the next session!
Action Items
- N/A