Making game plans
A game plan is a strategically chosen set of plays that you can run to achieve an outcome. They provide a guide for your team to follow, and help you to plan and scope projects. They provide some structural guidance with suggested methods and outputs.
If you don’t want to use a game plan, you don’t need to. The playbook is modular, so you can pick and choose activities that are relevant to your project or problem statement.
Why use a game plan?
Game plans can help you:
- plan tasks and track outcomes
- create team alignment towards a common goal, and get consensus on which tasks are required
- understand the big picture – including stakeholders, resources, requirements, and outcomes
- better estimate time and resources
- develop reasonable expectations as you write a request for a quote, or review a proposal
- feel more informed when speaking with designers or other stakeholders
When to create your game plan
It’s best to create a game plan when you’re planning your project – before you begin the discovery stage. But if you're already partway through a project, the best time to create a game plan is right now.
Tip – Using other design approaches
This playbook uses the service design and delivery process, but you can use plays and game plans with other frameworks too – for example, human centred design.
Tip – Defining and measuring success
We recommend that you always include the defining success play in the discovery stage, and the measuring success play in the alpha, beta, and live stages.
Use these plays to determine how you’ll measure the impact of your work, to define what ‘success’ looks like, and to take baseline measurements at the start of the project.
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Contact us
If you need advice, mentoring, or guidance on how to use the playbook, or you’d like to contribute to the playbook, you can contact us.