Thinking of a new project, but don’t know how to start. Let’s see if I can help
Hello Everyone
Hope you are doing well and staying safe
Today I would like to talk to you about what you should do if you are thinking of start a new project, but don’t know how to start. With any new project you there comes 3 stages first is the interest stage where you are over come by an interest in your chosen topic or subject this is where you do lots of reading to find out more about the subject or need for your new project and its very exciting to find out all this new information that you may have not known before. The second stage is building the idea into a tangible project answering all the questions people may ask or filling in all the rejections of a said project and the third stage witch is overwhelm of can you do this project and do you have the resources to action this project.
I am going to layout a roadmap for you to build any new project and get past all of these stages. So let’s begin.
When starting any new project you must know the space, topic or subject to at least a foundation level this means finding and reading books, blogs, leaders of similar projects and pretty much finding out how the space your project is in works. This will help you understand the project on a deeper level and be able to have a better idea of what is needed for the project.
I then start with 3 questions to help build a base of the idea.
3 questions to ask when starting any new project:
- How is it for?
- What is it for?
- What change am I seeking to make?
Who is it for?
Who will benefit from this project (and your self dose not count)? Who will get the most benefit out of this project? This helps identify the target markets for your new project and helps to remind you of who you are targeting. Think about who has the problem you’re trying to solve or who has the need for the idea you want to pursue.
What is it for?
What purpose is the idea or project aim to achieve? What’s the ultimate goal you want this project to do for your target and is it a real common need for this purpose to be solved. Dig deep and really think about what the true purpose is of the project.
What change am I seeking to make?
What is it you want to change with this new project are you trying to change how people think about a subject or make it easier for your target to achieve something. Really think about what this project will do for people once it is created will it help them grow, how will it make the lives of your target market better.
Answers theses 3 questions and next you should move on to research.
Research the Market, Need and Problem
You need to find out if the project is viable you should do this by researching the target market, the purpose and the change (see above).
You can research these by doing the below
- Find and read community posts about the space subject or topic your project is in
- Find and post on community sites where you know the target market is on and ask them question related to your project purpose.
- Go to meet up weather that be in person or over a video conference call and ask them question related to your project purpose
- Search for other bits of content that relates to your project
Write down all the questions related to the new project that stake holder or users will have, everything and anything you can think of. This will give you a long list of questions to answer and think through.
Once answered write out your process of things to action and break them down into stages starting with the most important first. This will help you avoid over overwhelm.
Now you have a start of idea where you can make the next steps to making it a reality and you have thought through the idea to make it into a project you can pursue in more detail, knowing that you have thought enough about it to go to the next steps.
That’s all for today until next time this has been Jack Thomson’s
