50 First Tasks: Create task lists your customers will love
Every time my team starts work with a new customer, we must create a task list that aligns with the big-picture business objectives. The customer's idea of actionable and the technical prerequisite to begin can be separate. That's why I believe in "Visible Traction" only task lists - any task that demonstrates visible progress toward the desired outcome. You can learn more about how to move towards demos that deliver visible traction in my article “4 Steps to a Better Demo”.
When creating a task list, the aim is to compile a list of items that will satisfy the "Visible Traction" requirements. There is no need to focus on milestones at this stage of the planning process - instead, it is all about quickly producing a comprehensive list with as much detail as possible. I follow these four straightforward principles to develop a task list in under an hour.
Time Limits are Excellent Guardrails.
Tasks Creation is a Two-Way Street.
There are Only Three Types of Tasks.
The Final Task List
Time Limits are Excellent Guardrails
From my experience, allotting myself one week to complete a task will generally take about eight days. In contrast, giving myself only thirty minutes to finish a job often results in it being done within the hour. This timeframe is what I prefer when it comes to completing tasks; however, if you are a perfectionist or someone who has OCD (like me), then more time isn't going to help. When it comes to time, less tends to be more.
Think of writing down your tasks as a challenge - how many can you manage within 30 minutes? Set the timer, start the stopwatch, and make it a game. Once the clock runs out, it's time to call it quits. Put down the pencil; the test is complete!
Tasks Creation is a Two-Way Street
Working through my task list from the beginning to the end of a project allows me to capture better prototype deliverables and follows a better build process. Working from the end of a project and building towards the project start helps me generate better visible tasks. There are no wrong answers here. The important thing is to find a flow that works for you and trust it to deliver.
There are Only Three Types of Tasks
Tasks you know.
Tasks you don’t know.
Tasks that infer more tasks.
The first type of task is usually comparatively straightforward to complete. If you know, you know. However, many people face difficulties with the remaining two which often require specialist skills and effort from customers. I experienced this problem too until I restructured my approach and started converting those undefined tasks into actionable objectives - and it made a huge difference to my life!
As an example of something that requires several smaller tasks, let's take the case of a customer wanting to build a custom image carousel. Even if you have experience in this, it can often be more complicated than expected. To tackle this, I would break it down into three distinct tasks.
Image carousel administrative interface
Image carousel animation prototypes
Image carousel completion.
Examples like the one above are great to show the three fundamental components that are necessary for any task where the full scope of work might not be clear. These are Administration, Experience and Completion.
The final task type involves a target that implies far more than what is specified in the original request. For example, creating a content taxonomy to organize internal and external content. I included this as most customer deliverables can encompass multiple tasks seen by the customer as one feature. Here's how I would break this type down:
A content taxonomy list for internal content organization.
A content taxonomy list for external content organization.
Taxonomy content administration
Taxonomy presentation
Taxonomy completion
To quickly identify tasks that involve multiple components, look out for words like "both," “and," and "either" This can help you recognize inferred tasks that can be broken down like this.
The Final Task List
Don't think that your task list is concrete. At Vox Audita, we never talk about 'scope creep' because when entering a project, it's important to anticipate alterations and the potential to provide even more than what was initially agreed upon. Your customer should be given task lists that fully meet the "visible traction" criteria; anything they won't get a demo of will be glazed over by all but the most technical. People want to know when they can see a job finished. While there is a lot of additional work to execute the project you have planned, your customers work with you because you make their lives easier. So help them be excited, and I promise if you create a task list that includes elements that provide visible traction, both you and your customers will be grateful.
