Corvus Consulting

Sometimes when I take in a new book or a nifty new application, I imagine that “my next project will be perfect now that I’ve read this.” Then I remember that there’s never a magic bullet, and things happen in every project to throw you off. That’s just life.

Though we might fantasize about projects where we can try out every method and produce the perfect set of design specs, some methods and deliverables just don’t fit into some projects. The trick is not to get caught up in shoehorning the process into the project.

Instead, we can think of the constraints, goals and context of each project as giving it a unique shape, and that shape requires a custom fitting of methods and specs. The question then turns from “how do I fit my process in” to “what process is right for this project”. And the answer to that is both in the traditional source material that information architects and designers work with, but it’s also in the people you’re working with.

Getting to know the backgrounds and personalities of the team will tell you the things they need more and less information about to make the right product. A team with a passion for gaming has to know less about making software entertaining than a team more experienced in financials. A team with more experience in financials will be better tuned to the needs of a money management website. We can use that insight to avoid revisiting what’s known, and focus more on discovering what’s unknown and explaining what’s unfamiliar.

There’s no checklist that can answer the question of what methods and deliverables a given project should have until you get in there and talk with the people involved. When you begin to probe in different directions, you’ll get that nod of understanding at different times, and you can use that to inform the choices you make about the process you put into play.