Project Litmus Test
These are questions I find make it much easier to explain a project to others if you answer them. If you find you can't answer these questions it's a red flag that something has gone wrong in the planning stages of your project. When someone asks "What's your project?", these are the sorts of things you should have already thought about and have written down in a file somewhere for you to pull up.
The Core Three Questions
- What are you trying to do?
- Why are trying to do it?
- Why do you believe you might succeed?
Defining Success
- How exactly will you or anyone else know that you've succeeded?
- Does your project have a well defined mission statement?
Planning
- Have you followed any sort of standard planning procedure?
- What are you going to do if the core piece of your first idea fails?
- What sort of resources do you need to do this thing, and are they within your capacity as the principals of your project?
Coordination Issues
- Why would someone use your project/product, instead of whatever they do right now?
- How will you make it possible for other people to help you?
- Do you have a well advertised, accessible, actively maintained contact channel(s)? (eg. Email, Phone Number)
- Have you set clear expectations and guidelines on what kind of help you're looking for?
- Is it clear what level of advice and counsel you're open to?
