The Toolkit / Development / The Foundry
Development · Tool 07 of 16
The Foundry
Build it one chunk at a time.
Build each chunk for real, put it in front of people as soon as it can be touched, and keep, change or drop it on what happens.
The board
Ten sections on one page
Print it, fill it in, and score each section from 1 to 5. Your score is out of 50.
How to use it
The ten sections of the Foundry
What to do in each section, and what a 1, a 3 and a 5 look like. Score yourself honestly; the low scores tell you where to work next.
- 1
What we're building
The whole thing, from the Sketchbook.
Copy what you're building from the Sketchbook, in a line or two.
- 1Started
- Unclear.
- 3Good
- Copied from the Sketchbook.
- 5Excellent
- Copied from the Sketchbook, and everyone building it can say it in their own words.
- 2
The chunks
Every chunk, with its status.
List every chunk and mark it: not started, building, or ready to touch.
- 1Started
- A to-do list.
- 3Good
- Every chunk with a status.
- 5Excellent
- Every chunk with an honest, current status, and its question beside it.
- 3
Building now
The chunk being built, at its smallest.
Name the chunk being built now, and the smallest version that answers its question.
- 1Started
- Several things at once.
- 3Good
- One chunk at a time.
- 5Excellent
- One chunk, cut to the smallest version that still answers its question.
- 4
Who builds
Who does the work, and who decides.
Name who is doing the work, the tools they use, and the one person who decides.
- 1Started
- Nobody named.
- 3Good
- Builders and a decider named.
- 5Excellent
- The builders and their tools named, and one person deciding what's worth making and whether it worked.
- 5
What we're reusing
The existing parts it's built from.
List what each chunk reuses from what you already have.
- 1Started
- Built from scratch.
- 3Good
- The main reused parts.
- 5Excellent
- Every chunk built on what exists wherever it can be, with what was saved.
- 6
Ready to touch
Chunks people can try now.
List the chunks people can actually try now.
- 1Started
- Something half-working, shown to a few.
- 3Good
- At least one chunk.
- 5Excellent
- Every finished chunk in people's hands before the next one depends on it.
- 7
Who touched it
Personas and real people who tried it.
Write who tried each chunk: synthetic personas and real people.
- 1Started
- Only the team.
- 3Good
- Some real people.
- 5Excellent
- Personas and real people from the trend, for every chunk.
- 8
What happened
Each result, against its question.
Write what happened with each chunk, compared with what it had to prove.
- 1Started
- Opinions.
- 3Good
- A result for each chunk.
- 5Excellent
- A result for each chunk measured against its question, with what people did, not just said.
- 9
Decisions
Keep, change or drop, for each chunk.
Decide for each chunk: keep, change or drop. A person decides.
- 1Started
- Everything kept.
- 3Good
- A decision for each chunk.
- 5Excellent
- A decision for each chunk, made by a person on the evidence, with the date.
- 10
What we learned
What goes back to the Sketchbook and the Canvas.
Write what the build taught you, as changes to the Sketchbook and the Canvas.
- 1Started
- A vague impression.
- 3Good
- One or two lessons.
- 5Excellent
- Clear lessons, written as changes to make in the Sketchbook and the Canvas.
How it works
- Made inStep 07 · BuildsBuild it one chunk at a time, and keep, change or drop each one on what happens.
- What it's forBuild each chunk for real, put it in front of people as soon as it can be touched, and keep, change or drop it on what happens.
- It feedsThe LaunchpadGet it ready for lift-off.
