New Home Forums Monthly Challenges October 2017 From Doing to Done! Task management for the rest of us.

15 replies, 5 voices Last updated by  Laurie Heer 6 years, 4 months ago
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  • #57864

    Laurie Heer
    Adventurer
    @laurieheer

    I’m so grateful for this entire experience and for the incredible feedback I’ve been receiving. Thank you @bradleytmorris and @andyfreist !

    This validation challenge is a continuation from https://thegreatecourseadventure.com/campfires/topic/laurie-heer-validation-pitch/

    1.  Go to the October Challenge campfire and announce what idea you are going to Validate in a new thread. DONE!
    2. Follow the guided steps in Validation Swamp (community validation, audience validation, at least 1 pre-sale). IN PROGRESS
    3. Update your validation progress log at least once per week, tracking your progress and journey. IN PROGRESS
    4. Make your first pre-sale (hopefully more) by October 31st at midnight (Hawaii time) MILESTONE – Incomplete

     

    #57871

    Mars
    Adventurer
    @Mars

    Excellent! Well done @laurieheer

    #57878

    Laurie Heer
    Adventurer
    @laurieheer

    Where I’m at in Validation Swamp:

    I’ve skipped ahead a bit and am building out the https://doingtodone.com site to support the sales page. I’m using stock art as a start, but am looking into getting help from an artist for original art with the same feel.

    WordPress, Beaver Builder (page builder), Beaver Themer (layouts), Microthemer (CSS editor) set up – DONE!

    Website Analytics in place – DONE

    SSL in place – DONE

    WooCommerce set up – 60%

    Top section done (with the exception of the top menu bar) 80%

    Layout of the rest of the page in place, but styling still needs to be done. 50%

    Content (mostly) written, but hasn’t been added to the page. 50%

    Social sites/pages  (top 3 anyway) have been setup. 50%

    MailChimp, Mandrill, ThriveLeads set up. Button for mailing list works. Opt-in email very basic, but DONE!

     

    Where I’m at with the eCourse(s)

    The plan – 90%

    Free portion of the course will be an explainer video using my learning guide character. NOT STARTED

    Paid course (audience: everyone) will stay simple, but teach things like the prioritized project backlog, sprint timeboxing and the definition of done. Without getting bogged down in the terminology. NOT STARTED

    Additional paid courses (audience: enterprise business) could be created later and be deep dives into project management theory, but firmly based in the real world of getting things done.  NOT STARTED

    Product offerings: Free Starter pack (printable task board, etc), Premium Printables, Premium DIY projects/supplies. Maybe a Kickstarter for building  game boards?? NOT STARTED

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    #57924

    Bradley Morris
    Mountain Guide
    @bradleytmorris

    Everything about this I love @laurieheer…. love the tagline and vibe of this. It’s super duper fun and necessary for all us mountaineers.

    And based on your post, clearly you are an organized individual.

    Curious if you use Trello as well? I’m just getting familiar with it.

    #57927

    Laurie Heer
    Adventurer
    @laurieheer

    Yes @bradleytmorris , I do use Trello – I love free (or almost free) stuff! If you have an Office 365 subscription you can even connect it to a Team Workspace. I’m setting one up today for a new consulting client – Here’s a screenshot of what that looks like.

    The trick with Trello (or any other task board) is to set up for Kanban or for Kanban with Scrum. Without that it’s just a list of tasks 🙂

    What I look for when choosing a task board

    1: Chose names for your columns

    2: Drag and drop to re-order columns, drag to different column

    3: Support for Scrum (Sprints)

    4: Custom fields, time tracking, etc (with free trello you get one Power-up. I choose custom fields! This means I don’t have sprints, but I can always create a column for that, if I want it. Prioritized Backlog – Sprint – In Progress – Done

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    #57948

    DavidJ Jurasek
    Adventurer
    @DavidJ

    @laurieheer

    Welcome to the monthly challenge!

    I love the simplicity and clarity of your work.

    I agree it’s vital and teaching such core skills and strategies we all need.

    Wondering what your game plan is this month to get validation. It seems like you are making great progress on completing your site and on your ecourse.

    The validation piece can also be simple… I am curious how you will be tackling that!

    And wishing you feel supported and able to get to that first sale or pre-sale!

     

    #57964

    Laurie Heer
    Adventurer
    @laurieheer

    Thank you @davidj ! It’s funny…. I teach marketers how to use online advertising platforms, but I’m not really a sales/marketing person so the validation piece is a real challenge for me!

    Initial thoughts:

    Create a cohesive marketing package – site, sales page, social posts, reputation page – and join groups on social networks. Seems awful to just enter a group and then post your offering…. I have quite a large LinkedIn network so might have some traction there. Kickstarter campaign to get funds to create a product/products that could be manufactured and sold?

    I am totally open to ideas!!!

    My challenge: Although I have thousands of past students  I cannot contact them with any training offers of any kind. It’s a violation of my agreements with the training vendors that provide me with clients. Maybe I should be reaching out to my training vendors and seeing if they would like to license my course or list it in their training offerings?

    Some students have connected with me via LinkedIn, but I think that’s my only connection.

    Licensing to schools for use in classrooms? Task boards designed to show what material will be covered prior to an assessment and tracking the teacher’s commitment to preparing the students? Similar personal boards tracking the student’s commitment to learning the material? Might fit in well with any tech course for high school/ technical school / into to computer science.

    Any area that you need support in?

    I’m so grateful for this community!

    #58385

    Bradley Morris
    Mountain Guide
    @bradleytmorris

    How’s progress this week @laurieheer?

    #58405

    Laurie Heer
    Adventurer
    @laurieheer

    The stuff I knew how to do went quickly… slow going for the design stuff! I wasted a ton of time trying to find a theme that was well designed and didn’t interfere with Beaver Builder – and gave up. Having to do more than I wanted from scratch. I finished the top bar, but still have the menu buttons to do. Finished the second section. Haven’t decided how much to charge.

    WooCommerce set up – 70%

    Top section done (with the exception of the top menu bar) DONE!

    Layout of the rest of the page in place, but styling still needs to be done. 60%

    Content (mostly) written, but hasn’t been added to the page. 70%

    Social sites/pages  (top 3 anyway) have been setup. DONE! (the basics, anyway)

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    #58814

    Sara McCann
    Adventurer
    @saramccann

    Ah, I know that feeling only too well. How the stuff you know how to do goes quickly and then the other stuff leaves you stuck. I then also fall into the trap of doing the stuff I know how to do well first and then end up running out of time for the bits that I struggle with. The art of juggling! 😉

    That said, you seem to be progressing along extremely well (those percentages done are high!) and the image you provided there looks extremely professional and clear.  Well done!

    How has your progress been this week?

    #59864

    Laurie Heer
    Adventurer
    @laurieheer

    @bradleytmorris @davidj @saramccan

    This past week I have been working with a graphic artist to take my concepts and create original art/branding. Everything in the screenshots is either straight Beaver Builder or stock art. I’m also trying to get very clear about what my MVP (minimal viable product) is so that I test market in a very clear and engaging way. I I’m continuing down this process the concept is getting much tighter and more refined.

    Issue: I originally pictured kind of a DIY/Arts and Crafts kind of product where I would teach the method of task management using a task board and provide/sell instructions on how to make your own. The feedback I have received so far is that people would rather buy a completed product.

    Questions:

    For projects that cost more that $25 for materials, would you rather make your own or buy one?

    How much space are you willing to allocate to a task board?

    Would you be interested in purchasing task magnets for use on your refrigerator, a magnetic white board, or other metal surface?

    Progress:

    Fictitious Name registered / Business license updated – Done!

    Initial concept/demo – DONE!

    Social sites/Woo Commerce / Payment gateway (sans styling) – Done!

    Domain names doingtodone.com, doing2done.com – Done!

    Concept refinement / branding- 10%

     

    #59875

    Mars
    Adventurer
    @Mars

    Well done @laurieheer

    #59951

    Bradley Morris
    Mountain Guide
    @bradleytmorris

    Hey @laurieheer, I think I need to understand more about what the task management system is. Are you talking about real life task boards with real life magnets that you send me in the mail? Or is this a digital thing?

    Can you describe more about the offering so I can give a better answer 🙂

    You have been GSD’ing. Can’t wait to see what your artist comes up with.

    #60440

    Laurie Heer
    Adventurer
    @laurieheer

    @bradleytmorris Of course you’re confused – I’m feeling a bit undecided! A task board can be digital (the Trello app or similar), or physical (a white board, magnets on a refrigerator, sticky notes on a wall, a page in a journal). There are reasons for the different methods – digital for distributed teams, or a large physical task board place in a public area (information radiator) for community work spaces.

    I’m trying to translate this to personal task management / family task management and want something that will appeal to the younger members as well and just be fun to use. My original idea was to provide DIY instructions or printables that could be delivered digitally. I think it’s fun to make things, but the feedback I’ve received is that many people would find that to be a distraction. They are trying to get something done, not start another project. Another thought would be to sell magnetic shapes (dinosaurs, whales, shooting starts, basic rectangles etc) that tasks could be written on. Then anything metal could be used as a task board (the refrigerator, a magnetic whiteboard, etc.).

    The free course would be focused on managing tasks using a task board.

    #60679

    Bradley Morris
    Mountain Guide
    @bradleytmorris

    The “How to Effectively Task Manage” course using a specific tool like Trello is definitely an interest to me. I’m not so sure about the magnets, print-outs, etc… I bet there are a lot of tools like that that exist right now. You’d almost be better off to partner with one of those companies and create high quality eCourses that teach people to use their products better. Not sure if that’s what you wanna do. The reason I say that is because you’re getting into distribution if you start making magnets, etc… which is a whole other game.

    Am I following the conversation thread correctly with my assumptions?

     

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