This document outlines advice on how to scope your project in a way that makes it easier to deliver on the (comparatively) tight schedules Launch Pad projects have.

#TODO

Launch Pad Limitations

Note that on paper, it may seem like you have a lot of time since teams get a whole semester to complete their project. However, in between designing your project, learning the prerequisite technologies, adapting to feedback, midterms, breaks, absences, and more, many previous teams actually struggled to complete the projects.

This is why scoping your project appropriately is vital to its success!

Core Feature and the MVP

In many cases, your project should be able to be distilled down to a single core feature. For example:

Anything broader than an idea is likely more of a theme. Narrowing down your core feature should be done before you start any sort of development - see ideation for some tips. Using this core feature, you should then determine:

• 💪 Requirements: Everything you need to achieve to deliver your core feature, and nothing else.
• 🛣 Stretch Goals: A small set of additional things that must be done to deliver on anything you want to achieve that does not fall within your core feature.

We call the core feature and this set of “requirements” the Minimum Viable Product, or MVP.

Ideation

At Launch Pad, ideation will often happen at kickoff events.

To help narrow down a core feature, start with a theme, which could be something like “productivity and tasks scheduling” or “Launch Pad internal tooling”. From here, try to ask questions like the following to drive discussions:

• What pain points do you or certain demographics face regarding this theme?
• What kind of specific functions can address these pain points?
• Are these specific functions broad, like an idea, or can they be narrowed down further to a core feature?

During discussions, keep the following in mind as well:

• Go around the group to engage as many people as possible.