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Problem #31: The Final 10%
107 Plays2 days ago
Tracy and Kristian tackle the daunting problem of getting your project to the finish line. Executing that last 10% is many ways harder than the first 90%, and this is just as true in game production as it is in project management or engineering. After discussing the problem in depth, Tracy and Kristian have some valuable tips you can employ that can help make that final 10% easier.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:04
Speaker
Welcome to the Designing Problems RPG Podcast, where we explore RPG development and all the intentional and unintentional problems we create along the way. I'm Christian Serrano. And I'm Tracy Sizemore. We're your hosts for this test of endurance.
00:00:18
Speaker
And this week, we're going to talk about problem number 31, the final 10%.
Understanding the 90-10 Rule
00:00:43
Speaker
So Tracy, I guess what we're talking about here is kind of getting over the finish line. Yes, getting over the finish line. Right. Like, you know, you you do all this work. you've It's been a long haul.
00:00:57
Speaker
Now you got to park the rig. Right.
00:01:02
Speaker
Yeah. That's one way of putting it. It's it's there's that I don't know if if ah some people have heard of it. Some people have not. But the 9010 rule or the Parado principle or or per Parado principle. I'm not sure how to pronounce it But it's all basically ah reflective of the same thing.
00:01:24
Speaker
And it's not necessarily like the saying goes at 90% of the work takes like 10% of the time. And then the last 10% takes 90% of the time. That's or the effort or whatever. yeah That's not really true.
00:01:39
Speaker
It's more the idea that the first 90% effort. is, you know, it's it's an amount of effort. Right. It's not a small amount of effort. It's a lot of effort.
00:01:51
Speaker
Yeah. But that last 10% is a disproportionately high amount of effort compared to that first 90%. Yeah. Well, usually that that first 90% is over a longer stretch of time. Yes.
00:02:05
Speaker
But that last 10%, it's like crunch time to, you know, get everything lined up and, you know... I guess it could be, but but even then, sometimes it just, that's part of that 10% is it takes a lot more time than you think.
00:02:18
Speaker
True. Yeah. um And it's it's it happens in a lot of things. It happens in creative endeavors, like we're talking about, you know, designing an RPG or designing a setting or whatever.
00:02:30
Speaker
It happens in engineering. It happens in project management. Yeah. Like that last 10%, pushing it over the finish line, dotting all the I's and T's or crossing the T's and finishing that polish yeah to that knife's edge of this is a professional product that I'm charging people for.
00:02:51
Speaker
And weve got we've got all the periods fixed. All the double spaces are out of there. all the All the double words are done. We've got all our logic stuff.
00:03:04
Speaker
worked out in terms of the design stuff. Yeah. We've got, you know, we've, we've fine tuned the presentation in a way that hopefully is what we ah what we intend yeah for the user to experience or whatever.
Challenges in Completing Projects
00:03:22
Speaker
That last 10% is brutal. Making sure your print files are ready for print. They've got the right trim and bleeds and all that. and yeah I mean, i've got I've got a whole list, right? Like the creating UV spot image files for the little spot for the shiny part on the on the cover. You're creating the covers themselves.
00:03:41
Speaker
ordering your ISBN numbers, creating the table of contents, creating your index, creating your yeah your bookmarks, making sure all your bookmarks are similar capitalization and doing all that. and and And, you know, making sure that all the layers are right for your PDF, making sure that your images are CMYK for print and that they don't go outside the...
00:04:05
Speaker
Three millimeters inside the cut line and you've got bleed on all your stuff and you've got GPSR like conformity statements set up on all the products that you're going to print. All this stuff is that last 10%. Yeah.
00:04:21
Speaker
yeah And it just is endless. It is endless. Yeah. Yeah. And it it just, it can really be daunting. See, it's almost like building your website.
00:04:31
Speaker
It is. it is almost like that. Yeah, because you're you know're making sure things are working right. And, you know, like, you know, web design, you're worrying about, like, is it responsive? Is it usable? Is it, you know, are are there any bugs in the scripts or, you know, the CSS itself and so on?
00:04:46
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. You know, but yeah, and in and and similar to what we were talking about last episode with In a website, like, you know, like I have the ability, for example, to do web stuff.
00:04:58
Speaker
You have the ability to do some layout stuff. So you tend to take on that, that burden of doing those things rather than having somebody else do it. Do you feel at times where you maybe wish you didn't do that yourself and that you had somebody who could do that for you?
00:05:18
Speaker
No. No. the only The only thing that I do wish that that i do did that I do think I need some help with is the found the VTT stuff
Learning and Control in Project Completion
00:05:32
Speaker
and the website stuff.
00:05:34
Speaker
and i codeed If I'm really going to do it right. but you know i could i can like We've talked about it in the last episode. I can do it, but Why not um not have somebody else do it? Yeah. why what what What keeps you from saying, know hey, so-and-so, can i you know pay you to to just handle this while we get ready for print?
00:05:58
Speaker
There's a couple of things. One is that I want to be able to know how to do it. And if I feel capable and comfortable and interested, that's the big thing. If I feel interested in learning how to do it, I would rather do it.
00:06:12
Speaker
And even if that takes more time. Now, that may change in the future when time becomes a factor. When, you know, I need to get something out so that I can make some money and have my business be sustainable.
00:06:27
Speaker
Then it becomes more of a, okay, I need to ask somebody else to do this for me. Right. But with this initial product, um I was very adamant that I was going to do almost all the work.
00:06:42
Speaker
And ah because I needed to learn how to do it. And ah I liked learning how to do it. I guess also part of it is this and it's the initial thing.
00:06:56
Speaker
It's the initial setting. It's the source book and the first campaign. It has to be me. Like not just the writing, but everything.
00:07:07
Speaker
So there's an emotional component to it for you. it's It's more the setting the tone component. I see. It's more saying, i have to have my hands in every aspect of this so that it is presented in the way that I intend.
00:07:22
Speaker
That way, we've got a roadmap going forward for when I do hire somebody to continue it. Mm-hmm. It's like Deadlands had to be Shane's when he was initially writing it.
00:07:34
Speaker
And then it could, then it could be Matt Cutter's or whoever else that could expand on it. So I get that. I guess I'm thinking more about like the administrative stuff or like the little things like, yeah, you know, making sure that the files are perfect for the, you know, for the printer.
00:07:51
Speaker
Yeah. those That was just me wanting to learn it so that I, so that I, I knew how to do it. That's fair. Yeah. You know, I like learning stuff too. Yeah.
00:08:03
Speaker
And um it makes me appreciate the job that it takes to do that. So... Talk to me about, you know, you're you're you're going through the long process of the creation and all that stuff and you're getting to that last 10%.
Personal Experiences with the Final 10%
00:08:19
Speaker
What is that experience like for you? Like when you, when you're, when you, do you see it coming or is it more like it hits you all of a sudden? you know, what is what is your experience with it?
00:08:30
Speaker
I think it's easy to forget that that's going to happen. So when you're first starting out on a project, first of all, you may or may not know you you wish to publish it, right? You're just, you're working yeah joy on your project.
00:08:42
Speaker
It was like, yay, I'm to run a game and I'm creating this world and isn't this cool, blah, blah, blah. You're not thinking about publishing or production at that point. You're thinking about what's in the world. Creation. Yeah. Creation.
00:08:54
Speaker
Yes. And, um So you're not thinking about what that last 10% is going to be. doesn't even occur to you, you know, even people who know about it.
00:09:06
Speaker
But I've been through this so many times, not just with Honklyster, but with smaller projects and with projects that I, because I'm a finisher. I, i it's, it's part of my DNA yeah is I'm a finisher.
00:09:18
Speaker
I'm a closer and i believe in finishing what I started. And so I understand the 10% and I understand when I get there, part of it is that I've had blinders on until that point.
00:09:30
Speaker
But when I get there, i know I'm in it but I get so excited. that I just go, go, go, go go go go until I'm done. i just like, there's just a huge list in my head.
00:09:43
Speaker
I've got to, I've got to do this. I've got to make covers. I've got to, you know, check to make sure that all my images are within three millimeters of the cut line. I've got to make sure everybody's got bleed. I've got to make sure that this and this and this is done and this and this. And um in order to get this out there, or I've got to make an image for my, for my backer kit for my next,
00:10:05
Speaker
you know, stretch goal or whatever it's going to be, i just do it. And i don't even think about the effort or time it's requiring of me.
00:10:16
Speaker
I just do it. But at some point, I get so excited that I can't stop doing it. Yeah, right. It's because you're, you're, there's, there's,
00:10:26
Speaker
ah There's a little bit of novelty with it, but it's also, yeah you just get that that' sort of ah satisfaction of doing it yourself. Yeah. that This reminds me of why I wanted to do everything myself. The other reason why. That other reason is The joy of learning the things yeah and and doing the things, some of the stuff is easier than other stuff.
00:10:52
Speaker
Right. So if I can't manage to summon the wills. To work on an adventure, which is a very hard thing to do, by the way. Writing adventures is hard. I don't care who you are.
00:11:06
Speaker
um If I can't do that, then I can do something else that would be easy for me to pay somebody to do. I can create my index. Right. Right. This is fairly easy, mind-numbing work that I can watch a TV show while I'm doing it That is a relief.
00:11:26
Speaker
That is a break from the hard stuff. True. And there's, yeah, there's something to be said. Like if there's, if there is a task that you have to do that is, it just feel, it may not be actually monumental. It might just feel like it's going to be monumental.
00:11:42
Speaker
and Doing something related to it, one gets you away from, from having to do it, but two can then get you in the mood to then do that thing. Yes. Like it's, it's a weird thing that happens psychologically. It's really common among people with ADHD. It's like, okay, if if you're having a hard time with task initiation on that thing, do something related to it that is easier. Yes.
00:12:07
Speaker
And then you end up kind of going into the groove to do that other thing. Yeah, that's that's interesting too. The other thing is at the end of the day, I'm much more prone to be doing something that doesn't require a huge amount of processing power of my brain.
00:12:21
Speaker
yeah Whereas in the morning, I'm much more willing and energetic to do the hard problems. but yeah and And you still feel that forward movement. Yes. Yeah. mom Yeah. Yeah. And so that's partly also why I want to do it myself.
00:12:34
Speaker
It's like sometimes, you know, Daryl talks about this too. It's like, yeah, I'm the i'm ah up here in the level of of decision maker or whatever.
00:12:46
Speaker
and i'm I'm the only one who can do these particular tasks. Like I'm the only one who can write Lost Colony. Right. i'm I'm writing death that, you know, we're taking out death in Lost Colony. Right.
00:12:59
Speaker
He's the only one who can do that. He's not the only one who can sit there and go through and lay out the book or sit there and go in and do the index or whatever. But it's a really nice break from writing Lost Colony.
00:13:13
Speaker
Right. Right. And so sometimes he wants to do that. Yeah. You know?
Effective Project Management Practices
00:13:18
Speaker
Yeah. mean, it's a recharge, right? It is. Yeah, it is. It's a break for your mind and allows you to to do something different and and even fun.
00:13:29
Speaker
Yeah. Like, because this isn't the taxing mental load that my level in the company requires of me. Right. I get to take a little bit of a break and do something easy for little while. Yeah.
00:13:44
Speaker
And still feel like I'm getting you stuff done. Right. You know, although sometimes that's valuable. Sometimes that can be a form of procrastination too. Indeed. So that's like, that's, well, get us into the tips, but, but, but part of the thing is like, if you just do the easy things, your last 10% is going to be much harder for you.
00:14:08
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. So if you manage, if you can manage to prioritize the harder things first, the last that last 10% is going to be easier for you. Right, right.
00:14:21
Speaker
You know, and this is strategies to help you mitigate the the difficulty of that final 10% of getting it over the finish line is starting on the harder stuff first and disciplining yourself to work on that earlier. Yeah.
00:14:37
Speaker
Because if you wait and do the easier stuff first, you're going to have to do the harder stuff eventually anyway. And then it'll end up in that last 10% when you feel like, what happened? all my Now my full-time job is like an 80-hour a week job yeah doing the last 10% and all this stuff is hard.
00:14:55
Speaker
Yeah, right. Yeah. know what I mean? we We talked a little bit about this before recording about, um you know, you think that that This is done enough times in in this industry in particular that it should be like a punch list at this point, right?
00:15:14
Speaker
But there are reasons why it's not. What, ah in your experience, are those reasons or some of those reasons? it's
00:15:23
Speaker
I mean, some some things are like you've got to do an index, right? I mean, somebody's got to do it. yeah know Whether you hire Thomas Shook to do it or you do it yourself, somebody's got to do it. And and I actually considered hiring Thomas Shook to do it.
00:15:37
Speaker
But I was basically like, look, I can do it in two hours and I can watch a TV show while I do it. So why don't I just do it? You know, and, but anyway, so, so like, there's some things, there are some things that can be punch listed.
00:15:55
Speaker
Like we need to do this. We need to do this. Like, you know, and, and certainly Pinnacle has those things. They have a procedure for how PDFs move through the release, like.
00:16:07
Speaker
steps, the steps of release. Like they, they have a whole thing that they go through with. And, and that's obviously one of those lists, but there are some things that are just, they're different for every project that you can't anticipate. Like,
00:16:23
Speaker
You can't anticipate everything that's going to end up in that 10%. Otherwise, it would not be the 90-10 rule. like yeah This seems like a life truth rather than like we're messing up the way we do things.
00:16:38
Speaker
You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. There's ways to mitigate it but it will never be eliminated because that final polish just takes time. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. And some of it is just logic things in your in your writing or, ah you know, little problems that can be solved with the restructuring of a single sentence. But it actually takes you an hour to figure out how to do that.
00:17:05
Speaker
Right. Like I think that it took me an hour and a half. There was somebody had a note about ah the Hon Cluster Adventure book. um And they're saying, well, maybe you might want to mention the foreshadowing to the GM here so that ah we we know what to do. And I'm like, all right.
00:17:24
Speaker
Yes. Good note. I don't know how I'm going to do this because I have i've literally a column on one page to fit all this into.
00:17:38
Speaker
yeah I cannot go past this column. but Otherwise, it screws up my entire layout. I cannot. So i whatever I do, I have to rewrite to make happen, not add to.
00:17:50
Speaker
i mean, add I could if I had to do it, but I was really trying not to. So this small note took an hour and a half. Yeah. Just because of that.
00:18:02
Speaker
Because you to trim it down. That's the final 10%. Not lose context, not lose meaning, not lose... Yeah. But cover what you need to cover so the GM is just that much more clear on what they need to do.
00:18:15
Speaker
Right. So there's there's there's two layers to this last 10%. There's the last 10% of the product itself, but then there's the last 10% you know, prepping it for, for, you know, distribution or whatever production production. Yeah. Dealing. Yeah. Dealing with all those little right.
00:18:35
Speaker
Final things that you just don't think of like ISBN numbers or, yeah or SKUs like, okay, so I need to have a company identifier, like for this product, not the ISBN, but something like, the you know, right my internal,
00:18:54
Speaker
serial number for this particular product. yeah And it turns out there's, ah there's ah I think, a BoardGameGeek thing, and this is what I did. You go to this BoardGameGeek thing that has a database that gives you three-letter codes based on your on your company name.
00:19:15
Speaker
Oh, nice. So you can reserve these three-letter codes so that all gaming products have different, that first three letters is different based on the company. it's Interesting. Okay. So I go, oh that's just another obstacle. It's part of the 10%. I go there, i pay my $20 for whatever it is, 10 years.
00:19:33
Speaker
I reserve ESG, Eat Soul Games. Nobody had taken it. I'm like, great, awesome. So my now my SKUs will start with ESG and have the number system after that. And it's just something I have to do.
00:19:46
Speaker
i would have never thought of that. Yeah. Just another thing I have to do. And that's part of the 10%. You don't think of it. You just don't think of these things. And there's going to be hundreds of those things that you don't think of that you have to do.
00:19:58
Speaker
And some of these things are are things that you might not even think of until it's too late. And you're like, oh crap. Yeah. yeah know Yeah. Yeah. Like if you you, know, I don't know, an example would be not knowing about the GPSR laws in EU and sending your product without it. Oh, right.
00:20:16
Speaker
And maybe you'd get away with it. But if you didn't, then you're in, then you got trouble. Yeah. You got trouble. And so, and, you know, it's it's just the the mental load of trying to decipher the gp GPSR laws is is a whole thing.
00:20:35
Speaker
it's It's taken hours and hours and hours to try to figure out. So that's something I feel like i would rather pay somebody to help me sort through.
00:20:47
Speaker
Thing is, it's so new. Nobody freaking knows. How do things... like I don't understand how things like this... Anyway, that's a whole soapbox. Nobody knows how to comply with it completely. Because it just was implemented in February. Well, people write these laws and and it's like they don't even understand how they're... Whether or not they're practically...
00:21:05
Speaker
you know, yeah, it's, it's tough. It's tough to follow. I'm doing, we're doing our best. We're going to do it. There are some people who aren't even bothering. So yeah we're doing better from the get go.
00:21:17
Speaker
Wouldn't be nice if you could just be like, I live in the U S it doesn't pertain to me. That's the alternative is to not sell in the eu Not sell in the EU. Yeah. But I was convinced I was browbeaten into it.
00:21:29
Speaker
Yeah. By Jetty. Jetty and Alan Rowe, they combined forces to beat me down into submission and say sell in the EU. So I said, okay.
00:21:40
Speaker
But anyway. Have them do all that GPSR stuff. Yeah, well, I've got a representative, but yeah yeah that that doesn't mean they have all the answers. Jetty, you're making people's lives hard.
00:21:53
Speaker
Yeah, well. Making people's lives hard. So anyway, this is all anecdotal and this is the whole point, right? Is is just, let's get into some tips.
Tips for Managing Final Project Phases
00:22:02
Speaker
Yeah. Right. Yeah. Because I'd be curious to know, like, what are things that, you know, the immaterial plane should look out for? her Well, ah one I already mentioned, which is um do the hard stuff first.
00:22:15
Speaker
Right. You know, and that's a hard one to follow. It really is. Because and i even i even with Honklester, I was pretty good about it. But i delayed finishing the final Savage Tales a long time.
00:22:31
Speaker
Like until after the backer kit was going. And I finally finished the last, it didn't take long, but I finally finished the last Savage Tale and the last bit of original writing, ah i don't know, a week or two after the backer kit ended. That was one of those things that I probably should have finished earlier because that was a hard thing.
00:22:59
Speaker
Yeah. Where an easier thing would be all the stuff that I did instead, you know, there's some of the polish on the book and some of the stuff like that. But, but, uh, if you do the hard stuff first, like I said, that final 10% can be that much easier for you.
00:23:16
Speaker
Mm-hmm. um Another one is ask for help, which is what we sort of talked about, right? yeah And why I didn't ask for help. That's what's why I didn't. But it also costs, you know, whether it's money or in some other way.
00:23:33
Speaker
um I don't know, unless you're and unless you've got people who just are willing to help for out of the goodness of their hearts. And I don't i don't like to ask people for that. Basically, Daryl's the only one I've really imposed on that ah ah you know in any kind of significant way.
00:23:51
Speaker
I think Daryl would do without you asking anyway. Well, yes, probably, probably. um But, you know, I've, I've built up cachet with Daryl over many, many, many years. So, um but yeah, ask for help. And, and sometimes, like, like I said, I almost went to Katama Shook to do some of that, um,
00:24:11
Speaker
crazy magical stuff that he does for InDesign. But, uh, I didn't because I was like, no, I should learn how to do this myself. But should you? i should. I'm glad I know how to do an index.
00:24:23
Speaker
yeah I'm glad. And it really wasn't that hard. Yeah. And a push comes to shove in the future and you have to do it yourself. Exactly. Yeah. And do you know what it entails so that the people who are doing it, you, you can talk intelligently with them, you know what I mean?
00:24:37
Speaker
Or teach somebody else how to do it. Indeed. Um, i yeah Another thing is take your time during the first 90%.
00:24:47
Speaker
Don't put yourself in a position, and this is related to another one is don't commit until you have to. you know So you don't say it's coming out in two months unless you're really, really sure. Yeah.
00:25:04
Speaker
Unless you're really sure because it puts pressure on you. It allows others to put pressure on you to stop taking your time and really just nose to the grindstone and try to get this done.
00:25:19
Speaker
And deadlines are good. Don't get me wrong. But at the same time. um It can also make the product suffer if you've rushed it too much. Yeah.
00:25:31
Speaker
I feel that way even just talking about Explora. like I'm like, i don't were we ready to even mention it? you know like like I feel pressure just from that alone.
00:25:41
Speaker
yeah you know It's like, okay what if we change our minds and we decide, you know what, we don't want to do this. like how yeah How does that look? you know Yeah, right, right. mean... i mean People have different tolerances for that, think. But for me, i was willing to take my time yeah and ah really get this right and not commit to anything until I reached a certain point.
00:26:07
Speaker
yeah And knowing myself, I'm not going to just hem and haw over it indefinitely. I will i will finish it. Like i said, I'm a closer. So I know that I'm going to close at some point, but I won't commit.
00:26:20
Speaker
Until I won't like publicly declare things haphazardly until I'm really sure yeah about them. And even then I mess it up.
00:26:32
Speaker
let's talk So talk about once you do commit, like then what? Well, sometimes you have to change your mind. Sometimes when I've committed to a certain date on backerkat or a certain year, even which I did, i was like, it's coming out in 2024. I'm like, Nope, it's not. No, it's not. Yeah.
00:26:50
Speaker
Not anymore. What do you do in that situation? i Well, brings us to another one. Communicate. Communicate frequently, right? Which is if things slip, and they eventually will because 10% does that to you, yeah um those who are excited to get your product will absolutely respect the process.
00:27:10
Speaker
And even if it means they have to wait a little bit longer to get together And the the key there is to communicate it. So yeah, you say, well... I was going to launch in 2024, but it's not ready.
00:27:23
Speaker
And um it'll be ready when it's ready. And here's my next projected date, you know, as best as I can figure it, you know. And so, yeah, you just you do your best.
00:27:36
Speaker
You do your best. But communicating is key. Yeah. And that's that's true of of crowdfunding, of updates, of, you know, when when timelines slip, you know, it's if you can tell people what's going on, they'll feel better about it.
00:27:53
Speaker
Yeah, it's an amount of transparency and honesty. Yeah. And I think that builds trust. Yes. Yeah. Yes. um When you estimate how long you think something's going to take, this is true of not just design projects or whatever we're doing. This is true of any Anything. Yeah.
00:28:14
Speaker
Washing like the dishes. Well, yeah. but You know, anything where somebody else is expecting you to give them something. Yeah. Right? I add like at least 100% to the time required. Double it.
00:28:27
Speaker
Yeah. Double it. Double it. like and And it's worked out for me. In CAD work, especially, when because I know that stuff is going to come up. I know that I'm going to get another. i'll say you know They'll give me a job and they'll say, when can you do it?
00:28:41
Speaker
And I'll say, Yeah, well, it'll be this long. Even though I know it will only take me like two days to do it, I'll say it'll take me a week to do it. I mean, that's what Scotty did with Kirk.
00:28:53
Speaker
it didn and And this is legit. I'm not telling you that this is this is um deceptive because other stuff is going to come up.
00:29:05
Speaker
yeah Other people are going to call you for high priority jobs that you just can do in this amount of time or whatever. And then you, yeah as a freelancer, especially, I can decide my schedule.
00:29:17
Speaker
And so when I say it's going to be a week, even though it's going to actually only take me two days to do it, It's legit to say it's going to take a week. Yeah. Well, it and it doesn't necessarily mean that it's a week of solid work time. No.
00:29:30
Speaker
I can have it to you. I can have it to you in a week. Right. Yeah. And you build that time in because, um and you'll learn this eventually, one way or the other, is it you you build the time in and you realize, okay, this is ah this is a sustainable work life. Yes. Right.
00:29:50
Speaker
when I do this. Right. If I told everybody it only takes x amount of hours, if i it'll take me four hours to do this and I'll have it to you in four hours, you're never going to meet those deadlines. No, think things come up, you know, priorities shift, you know, it's in, and it's just, yeah, just setting, setting the X, managing expectations. Yeah.
00:30:13
Speaker
That's really what that's about. Yeah. And that's that's true of of this kind of stuff too, is is you know that that estimating at least 100%, at least 100%, double the time. And to be clear, this isn't just for other people. It's for yourself as well. Yes.
00:30:30
Speaker
Because it's very easy to lie, not even lie to yourself, but to tell yourself, oh, this is only going to take me this much time. I can do this later. Yeah. Yeah. But then later comes and you're in that 10% and it's taking you a lot longer for any number of reasons.
00:30:44
Speaker
Could even just be as simple as you're just tired and it's a slower process for you right now. Yes. and So always, always, always, no matter what you're doing just for yourself, pad the time.
00:30:58
Speaker
Yeah. Pad the time. I'm i telling you. Getting ready to go to a dinner date or whatever. Pad the time. Yeah. It's only going to take me half an hour to get ready. No, yeah no make it an hour.
00:31:10
Speaker
You're wrong. Another one is to watch out for scope creep. So another tip, right, is yeah is the project can expand on you.
00:31:24
Speaker
Without your intent in, you know intending it to. And sometimes that's the right thing to happen. Sometimes that's necessary. Sometimes it's a good thing. It's better for the project to do that.
00:31:39
Speaker
But a lot of times it's not. And it's really easy. To add this or add that. Absolutely. Or, you know, do start to do too much.
00:31:50
Speaker
And suddenly, not only does the project suffer for it, but your timeline suffers enormously for it because that final 10% is all of sudden ballooned because you've got scope creep on your project.
00:32:00
Speaker
There's a difference between, oh, this would be cool if versus this is needed. Right? like And understanding that like where that line is is crucial.
00:32:14
Speaker
Because the stuff that's like, oh, this would be cool if, that could be another product. yeah It could be a supplement that you offer online. could small little PDF that you sell. Any number of things like that.
00:32:26
Speaker
Absolutely. Yeah. in ah You know, and it's, it's so easy to get caught in that trap. So easy. I even, I did it with on cluster. I did it in a way that I feel fine about, but there were moments where I did it and then I realized it and I cut it back.
00:32:44
Speaker
Yeah. You know, where I'm like, whoops, scope creep too much. I don't need this. Yeah. Not, not now, maybe later. Right. You know? Right. And, um,
00:32:56
Speaker
Let's see. I've got, oh yeah. So if you work time into your committed schedule to account for this disproportionate increase in effort, to the end of the project. Like experience can help tell you what to expect there. The more these things you do, the more, the more you, we've talked about this before too, the more you finish things like finished to the point where this is, this is polished and done and whatever it is, whether it's a short story or, or a small RPG one sheet or ah or a larger product or whatever, the more you finish them,
00:33:34
Speaker
the more you realize this 10% thing is actually real and the more you'll account for it as you create new projects. Right, right. You'll know what you don't know.
00:33:45
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So speak. Yeah. Or you'll you'll know that it's impossible to know what's going to come up Right, right. Like no matter how well you've prepared you are, there's going to be something.
00:33:58
Speaker
yeah And that's part of that building that 100%, that doubling the time thing too.
00:34:05
Speaker
So yeah, so that's, that's, that, those are my tips. What, do you have any other tips besides that, Christian?
Learning from Past Projects
00:34:12
Speaker
No, I think, um you know, as you're getting close to the end of a project, ah have conversations about it with people who have done that um because they might reveal things that you didn't even think about.
00:34:25
Speaker
yeah You know, I've had that on a number of occasions where I'm just talking about, oh yeah, we're doing this next or I'm, I'm working on this next. and then they'll be like, oh, Be mindful about blah, blah, blah, blah. Because in my experience, I had this happen. then you're like, oh, I would have never known even think about something like that.
00:34:42
Speaker
Yeah. So that's that can that can help yeah if you have that if you have that opportunity. Knowing that you can anticipate everything and to forgive yourself if you don't. Yeah.
00:34:53
Speaker
You know, like sometimes you're going to miss stuff. And sometimes it will be a lot of work to fix it, but you gotta, you gotta just do the work to fix it and not add to that by blaming yourself for missing it in the first place.
00:35:08
Speaker
I think one of the things that I am glad that Jen and I do with immaterial plane stuff is we we're just doing things and taking the time that it takes.
00:35:21
Speaker
Yeah. Specifically because there are we know that there's things we just don't know about. And so we know that things are going to come up that be like, oh, guess we got to worry about that next. Okay. yeah let's Let's spend time on that.
00:35:32
Speaker
you know Yeah. If you've got the luxury that you're not under some kind of pressure to keep your company alive or whatever. License. you Yeah. Take your time. Take your time. too I took my time. I'm really glad I did. I listened to Mr. Rogers.
00:35:47
Speaker
Yep. You know. Doing it right. I'm really, it would not be the setting it is if I didn't take my time. But that's, that that's, it's, yeah.
00:36:00
Speaker
That's my philosophy. But it's hard to make money with that philosophy if you do it Yes. Yeah. Well, and then I think once you have a number, this is your first, you know, setting book, right? Yeah. First big, big one like this. So the experience that you're getting from this, you can then carry forward to supporting the line.
00:36:19
Speaker
Yep. So. Yep. And doing it, doing it again with something else, you know, it's going to be reinventing the wheel to a certain degree anyway, but I will have much more experience now and I'll be faster.
00:36:31
Speaker
Yeah. And I'll do things right the first time rather or maybe the second time rather than doing things right the fifth or sixth time. Yeah. You know. Well. Anything else?
00:36:42
Speaker
No. I think this is all, it's insightful. So thank you for sharing all this. yeah it's it's It's a real thing. It is. It's real thing.
00:36:53
Speaker
Everybody will tell you who's done it. Yep. All
Engaging with the Creative Community
00:36:58
Speaker
right, then. Well, thank you for listening to the Designing Problems podcast. We want this to be more than a podcast. We want it to be a community.
00:37:04
Speaker
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00:37:17
Speaker
Until next time, keep designing your problems because you're bound to solve a few along the way.