From Medium:
Accountants have FIFO (first in first out) and LIFO (last in first out). Product designers have HFEL (hard first easy later) or EFHL (easy first hard later).
No matter the project, there are things you’re more confident about and things you’re less confident about. No brainers, maybe brainers, yes brainers. Assuming you have limited time to complete a project (we spend a maximum of 6 weeks on most projects), you have to decide how to sequence the work. Do you pick off the hard stuff first? Easy stuff first? What to do?
. . . .
Does this feel like a full project? Is it probably going to take all the time we have? Lots of moving parts? Does this work touch a lot of other things, or is it mostly self-contained? Do we feel like we’ve mostly got it down, or are there some material unknowns we haven’t quite nailed down yet?
If it feels big, and full, and challenging with some significant unknowns, we almost always start with the hard stuff first. The worst thing you can do in that situation is kick big challenges down the road because you’ll inevitably run out of time. You’ll either make bad big decisions that way, or you’ll push the schedule out, or you’ll work late or work weekends. All those are big no-no’s for us, so we tackle the hard stuff first.
. . . .
Once we have a sense of where we’re at, we think about what we need, as a team. I don’t mean what does the team need as far as tooling or technology goes, but what do we need emotionally? Do we want to slog along without any short-term visible progress, or can we grab a quick win and start to pick up some momentum? It depends — how did the last project go? Are we coming off a high or a low? If a low, maybe we should find some quicker wins to fuel the spirit. If a win, maybe we’re already feeling good enough about ourselves to go heads down without anything material to show for a few more days. The past plays a surprisingly important role in the present.
Link to the rest at Medium
It may surprise some visitors to TPV, but the process of building a technology product – computer program, web-based software product, etc. – can be a very emotional. In a typically busy tech open system office, it’s not uncommon to hear a big cheer from the programmers when a piece of a new product finally works right. On a bad day, various objects may be heard bouncing off cubicle or office walls.
PG was interested in some potential parallels between the varying writing processes of authors and the product design processes described in the OP.
A professional author is creating a product. While on the surface, it may be a science fiction story or a romance, ultimately, if it is to achieve commercial success, the book needs to be a product that readers will want to buy. The product will be the combination of the story, the cover, the book’s description and the way in which the book is marketed and positioned in the market, etc.
Some authors outline, others write a killer book blurb first, etc.
Many years ago I spent a couple of years as a department manager in a Walmart. This position isn’t as exalted as it sounds, and it doesn’t sound all that exalted. Part of the job was where an store assistant manager (which is a higher position than department manager) would go through the relevant aisles and make a list of stuff for me to do. Then the next day he would go through to assess my work. The list generally included one or two items that would take pretty much the entire day, plus a long list of trivia. It was obvious to me that I should prioritize the big items. I would then get dinged for this. Yes, those two items were completed, but what about this long list of stuff I hadn’t gotten to? Finally, the lone assistant manager whom I respected took me aside and explained the Walmart way: Every item was to be treated as equally important. If I got all the little stuff done and blew off the big item, that meant I got the list almost entirely completed: Yay, me! A large part of why I respected him was that he also acknowledged that this was insane.
In my previous life, among other things, I was a Project Manager. There is no difference between developing and launching a new product or a book. To manage every project, like the latest book I just published “The Devolution of Adam and Eve” I use a spread sheet to keep track of the phases of the project. This is the chain of steps:
Write -> Self-edit -> Professional Edit -> Write blurb -> Design front cover -> Final review of manuscript -> Copyright -> Design eBook -> Publish eBook -> Design paper book -> Publish paper book -> Launch advertisement -> Market -> -> Beg for reviews-> Market -> Beg for reviews-> Market -> Beg for reviews-> Market ->
I left out the pain, agony and ecstasy as part of the process. And yes, I am the chef and the bottle washer too, jack of all trades, except for the professional editing.