Structuring Small Powerful Documents

COPYRIGHT © 2016-2017 by Michael Herman, Toronto, Canada. All rights reserved.

For the past couple weeks now, I’ve been on the left coast visit with friends and colleagues and having an extraordinary time. Often, the conversation returns to what is the best way to convince someone or some group to do this or that.  Here’s some ideas and templates to consider based on my past experiences:

• Notes from the Field
• Product Planning Cycles
• Project Business Charter
• Preliminary Vision and Scope Document
• Jeff Bezzo’s Amazon 6-Pager

Notes from the Field

Parts

• Introduction
• Scenario
• Problem
• Analysis
• Options
• Solution
• [Preliminary] Results
• Summary

Sample Templates

• Parallelspace-NotesFromTheField v0.A mwh.docx Microsoft Word version
• Parallelspace-NotesFromTheField-Template v0.A.pptx Microsoft PowerPoint version

Product Planning Circles

Sample Templates

• Parallelspace-Product Planning Circles.zip Microsoft Visio drawing (zip)

Project Business Charter

Parts

• Business Project Description
• Deliverables
• Project Scope / Boundaries / Assumptions
• Project Accountability
• Stakeholders
• Project Execution Risks Summary and Mitigation Options
• Project Cost Estimate
• Links to Supporting Documentation

Sample Templates

• Parallelspace-ProjectBusinessCharter v0.A mwh.docx Microsoft Word version

Preliminary Vision and Scope Document

Also known as an Engagement Transition Document

Parts

• OVERVIEW
• PROBLEM STATEMENT
• BUSINESS OBJECTIVES
• EXISTING ENVIRONMENT
• USER PROFILES
• SOLUTION VISION
• PROJECT SCOPE
• CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS
• IMPORTANT DATES
• OTHER ASSUMPTIONS AND CONSTRAINTS

Sample Templates

• Parallelspace-XXXX-Preliminary Vision and Scope-1-0-7.docx Microsoft Word version

Jeff Bezo’s Amazon 6-Pager

Parts

[The six-page narratives are structured] like a dissertation defense:

1. The context or question.
2. Approaches to answer the question – by whom, by which method, and their conclusions
3. How is your attempt at answering the question different or the same from previous approaches
4. Now what? – that is, what’s in it for the customer, the company, and how does the answer to the question enable innovation on behalf of the customer?

(via Amazon: How are the 6 page “narratives” structured in Jeff Bezos S-Team meetings? – Quora)

Sample Templates

• None available (yet)

Best regards,
Michael Herman (Toronto)
Parallelspace Corporation
mwherman@parallelspace.net