30 Minute Drills: What are they?

Often times I find myself (as many of us do) "paralyzed" by the myriad of ways in which to solve a particular problem. This is generally because I start thinking of all the ways a given approach could go wrong, and end up focusing on what won't work instead of the MVP-style approach of what will work. In this post, I want to share a method I've been using to help break through these blockers and help myself get to a "version 1" deliverable.

A Question of Time

The main idea here is to restrict our ability to paint magical worlds of perfectionism. To do this, I choose to restrict the time I give myself to develop a "V1" solution approach. As the title suggests, I give myself 30 mintues maximum to come up with a design. While that may sound entirely too limiting, there are some benefits that can really help to push design ideas out of my head:

• Focusing on one key desired outcomes ONLY - helps avoid feature creep.
• Write down every known tradeoff and promptly forget about it - helps to relive the burdon of creating a "less than perfect" creation.
• Keep a minimalist approach - that is, what is the bare minimum thing you could do to achieve the previously stated goals?

That's it - short and sweet (and intentionally so). And while I'm positive this isn't necessarly new to some of you, I have found it tremendously helpful when I'm approaching a solution space for the first time. To that end, I would love to hear what other ways you have to help focus and breakthrough the "Analysis Paralysis" phases - let me know in the comments!