Protips & Resources

Assess the Scope

Write every element that needs to be researched, created, or handed off to others. Put these down in a list as tasks, and write any description you can think of that would help you or others understand exactly what needs to be built. Remember, including the WHY will be extremely helpful for collaborators to make informed decisions using their expertise. At this phase its worth it to identify the largest components of a production, or “Tent Poles”. These are the elements that will make a product stand up, not literally but without them it just wouldn’t be the same experience. Its easy to get lost in the weeds, but remember we’re looking at the forest now. Keep your eye sight on big chunks of work or major features.

Next, we’ll work on identifying what the project ultimately needs, and what’s nice to have.

Identify

• Think about What does your product need to launch?
  Identify Critical Components or Features. Without these elements the production will fall flat or fail outright.

• What makes your product fun and stand out?
  These are elements that Enhance the experience and make it memorable. Modifying, implementing or cutting these elements is where most battles between scope and implementation.

• What are you willing to let go of?
  Identify the Features that are “Nice to Have”. These are elements likely will not be implemented, so prep yourself. But you’re already working on your way to an actionable plan!

Estimates

Once you and your team have finished drafting a list of all the elements in a product(ion), many project managers will do something called “T-shirt Sizing”. This is a phase where we identify tasks as Blockers, Large, Medium, or Small in terms of lift. Helping to clarify and flag potential risks, or tasks that need greater detailing. If something is large, it likely can be broken into smaller tasks. For example; If I flagged a task called “R&D” for myself as Large, it means I can probably break that up into smaller chunks to understand instead of being so nebulous. What do I have to research? From where? what goes into said research?

Priority

Now that thats done, we need to prioritize these elements, again its easy to get too granular too quickly, so try and keep your perspective clear and break them down into maybe 3 tiers. Personally, I like using the following:

• 1 - Blockers: These elements are always sorted highest in excel sheets, but ultimately this label means that there are people waiting on this information or components.

• 2 - High: These elements are on the top of my to do list, but aren’t on other peoples radar just yet. Products / Productions need these components answered as soon as possible so we can assess how they integrate with all the other features in a realistic case.

• 3 - Medium: Important but not critical. Something in this priority needs to get done, but doesn’t have many external integration issues or is something you are really comfortable with on execution. For example in gaming I might create a banner for a “Feature Awarded” banner, to help a player understand what they’ve won at the start of a complicated feature. This banner is probably going to be a template for other components in the game like the “Total Win” that occurs at the end of a feature. Our teams have done that integration many times over, so its not crucial at the beginning of a production, but we do need to see that eventually. So it would get a “Medium” priority rating.

• 4 - Low: Not super important or necessary. This label indicates that something not going to impact a production but does need to be included. Sometimes we don’t have the resources we want to implement everything and frequently elements here need to be either rescoped, or shelved into our last tier.

• 5 - Obsolete or Nice To Have: This label means its either a nice to have element, or something we can use a placeholder for and doesn’t require customization. Either way, average user isn’t going to necessarily miss its absence, or it doesn’t enhance the experience in a way that hampers itself. This would be things like common Ui customizations or additional particles to really add the flair and liveliness elements to a production. We have assets we can use, will these elements REALLY need customization? Do we have time? If we do and we really want it, great. If not, its best to focus our efforts on the biggest things.

This may seem like a lot of work, but generally takes a team or yourself maybe a day or two to knock out. At this junction then you have a solid map to create a production! The only thing missing: time estimates.

Estimates

One of the most crucial things is to estimate how long its going to take you to do something. This is less important when its just you, but becomes more and more crucial the longer your production, the bigger your team, or the tighter your timelines. 1 thing is especially important, only estimate tasks for which you are ultimately responsible.

Talk to the team, and choose what level of granularity you need. Months? Weeks? Days? Hours? Minutes? Depends on the nature of your work and the scope of production. A production that will take years doesn’t need to worry about hours or minutes. Management or stakeholders will usually like something outlined in one tier above what you think it is, and people contributing usually want something more granular (but not too granular). So for example, if weeks of effort is important to me, investors will care about Months on our timeline, but individual artists will want to know days something will take.