Now that you’ve seeded your story and fleshed out the ideas in Brainstorming, It’s time to enter the Research phase. The Research phase is meant to add some scope to the story and find its edges. The story can be any size, but it is during the research phase that you can determine the appropriate size for this particular evolution.
A good place to begin the research is… The End, of course, as is a recurring theme in the XYZ system. If the ideas you’ve elaborated on were to come to fruition, what you are trying to establish in the research phase is:
- Understand how other systems are affected by the ideas you’ve elaborated on.
- Determine what resources, materials, parts, and skills etc are needed for the project.
- Checking whether the original goal of the story is still being fulfilled by your solution.
- Further refining the size of the story and deciding limits.
By addressing these aspects, you can ensure that your research is comprehensive and effective in guiding the subsequent phases of your work.
Be a Zer0
Astronaut Chris Hadfield has a mantra: “Be a zero.” This means that if you are on a space station, don’t press the button without knowing the consequences. It’s similar to the Hippocratic Oath’s principle of “first do no harm.”
With that baseline in mind, it’s also the case that you cannot make a cake without breaking some eggs. Between crashing a space station and breaking a egg you should be able to find some wiggle room.
When you make changes, you inevitably interact with an existing system. Part of your research should involve understanding these systems in broad terms, so that your changes do not have a negative impact on them. This point alone will improve your work. Countless times, I have seen projects implemented that ended up negatively affecting another system. With good intentions, one department may change a payment system on a website, only to break an integration with an accounting system or disrupt an unknown part of the customer’s journey.
Without researching and identifying all the effects your work will have on other systems, damage will be done. This applies not just to software systems but also to roads, bike lanes, traffic lights, buildings, drainage, bridges, houses, paths, trees, and grass. Every change has the potential for a negative impact. For example, a pedestrian crossing has a positive impact on people’s safety when crossing the road but has a negative impact on traffic flow.
The challenge you will face here is lack of information about other systems. It may seem overwhelming to have to take this step, but I has been my experience that even the smallest of investigations even by simple observation can reveal huge potential impacts allowing you to include the information in your research and using the information when it comes to prototyping your potential solutions later.
Resources
Resource are simply the effort the story will take, people, skills, money, even temporary interuption of related services is a resource. If it’s something you need in order to implement your solution, it’s a resource.
If you don’t have enough flour you’re not baking your muffins.
Properly resourcing a project may require discussion. Before you bootstrap and plan the cheapest solution, or commit to the most expensive, just allow all possibility at this phase, dont exclude anything. I’ve seen engineers commit to ‘free’ software solutions in the background without as they assumed ‘free’ was a good decision (Hint: it’s not always). Be transparent with your assumptions.
Refine estimates. Now is the time to take some measurements, check the bank account, check availability of materials, time. Make notes of these.
Keep it simple. ~Here’s a sketch from birdbath on the footprint estimates.
simple measurements.
Solution forming
Michelangelo believed that the statue of David was already within the marble, and he simply released it through his sculpting. As he famously said, “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.”
Going through the XYZ System is not about having an idea and running with it. It’s about releasing the idea. From your story, through brainstorming then researching to refine and fit your idea in its place, you’re forming the solution and like Angelo you’ll release your David.
After researching you’re ready to bring aspects of your story into reality. Your first prototype will allow you for the first time to begin to see your idea become a reality.
The next part we’ll move onto is prototyping.
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