I get overwhelmed all the time especially when I’m given two points and asked to figure out how to get from one to the other without being told any other details.
Don’t get me wrong, I love it, but when building an app it’s easy to get lost and feel overwhelmed and defeated. We face these issues all the time where we just can’t find the beginning of the thread, and here’s how I learned to tackle them over the years:
Whenever I get overwhelmed I’d:
#1 get a pen and paper
Forget about the fancy apps and tech, use pen and paper to give you flexibility and allow you to focus your energy on the task itself.
#2 Write everything I know about the app, software or task in the form of short sentences
I.E. We need to develop a coffee pre-order app for people to order and pay using their phones and skip the queue when arriving at the coffee shop
#3 From what you have written, create goals, milestones and how to achieve them by breaking down the app
I.E. Milestone one is building interface of the app, milestone two is adding in the in-app payment
#4 Repeat the last task and keep breaking it down until you get the point where you can easily explain to someone else how exactly each area of this app would work
I.E. Milestone one consists of ten goals. The first goal is the login screen, where the users can log in using their facebook accounts. The second goal is the “Nearest coffeeshops” screen that would contain a map
#5 You can even draw a small mockup for each page on a piece of paper
I.E.
#6 Put a time estimate against each one, and if you’re dependent on other people to tick off that task (developers, designers..etc.) take an estimate from them as well and add it in there
I.E.
Goal 1– 4 hours design, 2 hours development.
Goal 2– 1-hour design, 5 hours development
#7 Create a roadmap that contains all the tasks and add in delivery dates based on when you’ll start
I.E.
All done. You now have a set of mini tasks, goals and milestones, estimates and a timeline.
