I’d love to be able to provide an alternative model that can work as well, based on Saras Sarasvathy’s work on Effectuation.
In the effectuation model (which came from looking at the process of expert entrepreneuers), you don’t start with a project idea up front. Instead, you start with your resources, and the project evolves based on demand at any given time. I think this model is especially good for independent projects, where much of the goal is to get credibility, resources, and experience.
Instead of starting with the goal, you start with your resources: What are my skills, interests, connections, and resources? What can I do with them?
And then, instead of doing something like Murphyjitsu to check for risks , you might reach out to a few of the people who are in your network, tell them about vague ideas, and chat with them about it. They may help crystalize what the project is, and you can get them onboard to help. Now you’ve effectively derisked by splitting up the work of the MVP among multiple people. If you can’t get anyone to commit, that may be enough validation by itself to not continue.
Then, you may launch your MVP—not to validate doing the full project, but even to figure out what the full project is. By getting feedback on your MVP, seeing what people are excited about, and not, this can help crystallize the project even further.
Once you’ve gotten some momentum, you can write up, rather than a project proposal, a “project summary” showing your momentum so far and using that to get things like funding and clarify to yourself what has happened. Then, you can evaluate next steps.
This is great!
I’d love to be able to provide an alternative model that can work as well, based on Saras Sarasvathy’s work on Effectuation.
In the effectuation model (which came from looking at the process of expert entrepreneuers), you don’t start with a project idea up front. Instead, you start with your resources, and the project evolves based on demand at any given time. I think this model is especially good for independent projects, where much of the goal is to get credibility, resources, and experience.
Instead of starting with the goal, you start with your resources: What are my skills, interests, connections, and resources? What can I do with them?
And then, instead of doing something like Murphyjitsu to check for risks , you might reach out to a few of the people who are in your network, tell them about vague ideas, and chat with them about it. They may help crystalize what the project is, and you can get them onboard to help. Now you’ve effectively derisked by splitting up the work of the MVP among multiple people. If you can’t get anyone to commit, that may be enough validation by itself to not continue.
Then, you may launch your MVP—not to validate doing the full project, but even to figure out what the full project is. By getting feedback on your MVP, seeing what people are excited about, and not, this can help crystallize the project even further.
Once you’ve gotten some momentum, you can write up, rather than a project proposal, a “project summary” showing your momentum so far and using that to get things like funding and clarify to yourself what has happened. Then, you can evaluate next steps.