As a designer or devel­oper, you have to have a plan. The plan artic­u­lates both the problem that you are attempting to solve, the solu­tion you have pro­posed, and the method you will use to imple­ment the solu­tion. All projects must start and end with the plan. Begin­ning with a plan is impor­tant so that you have a direc­tion. The plan is your map. Without it, you are much less likely to arrive at your des­ti­na­tion. Ending with the plan is less intu­itive but no less impor­tant. In design, the journey has an influ­ence on the des­ti­na­tion. You need to make sure that you fol­lowed the right process, that your thinking and your actions match the orig­inal plan. If you are working in a team, you have to make sure that you all have fol­lowed the same plan, that all of your work has been done in the ser­vice of a common goal.

Along the way, you have to con­stantly refer back to the plan, to check your map and make sure that you’ve made all the right turns. Con­sulting the plan can help you make the many deci­sions that are crit­ical to the devel­op­ment of a design. It can help you regain per­spec­tive when you have become lost in the details of the project. Reviewing the plan can help you make sure that the plan is still valid. Projects are fluid envi­ron­ments where your knowl­edge evolves. As you learn more about the project, you may deter­mine that the plan needs to be altered.

As I con­tinue in my career, I have a greater respect for the plan­ning phase of a project. In school, there was a sig­nif­i­cant emphasis on project research. This is just one part of the plan­ning phase, but it’s an impor­tant one.