Curious how others deal with this: if I focus on one vertical slice of a long project (e.g. some design problem), I become annoyed that everything else remains frozen for long periods; if I work on a horizontal slice (a few pieces at once), bulk progress is very slow. Any escape?
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This is such an interesting challenge and one I too struggle with. When the goal is clear I’ve found that starting small, getting it to work and then working primarily on the horizontal while keeping the thing working, never letting it be in a broken state for long. \
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When I do let a project be in a non-functional state for too long I tend to get anxious and if it’s not important to others, I might put it in the freezer and move on to a different project.
Focusing on the verticals has a higher likelihood of getting into a long-term broken \
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state, for me at least, which is why I try to _primarily_ work on the horizontal. For big projects (like Playbit or a PL) and when the goal is shifting I break it up into pieces that has clearer, smaller goals and is more reasonable to “keep in a continuous functional state.”
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So in a way, you could reframe the challenge as being about finding the right “chunk size”; the ideal size of a sub problem that has a clear goal with high probability of adding up to the bigger “main goal.”
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This all really resonates—thank you! I wonder: how do you model a "continuous functional state" when doing design-centric work, rather than e.g. a programming language? Everything always seem so holistic and intertwingled when I'm doing design work.
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Great question. I think by testing it often, like with scenarios. Keeping it a complete (but perhaps shallow with dead ends) experience. Like building a house: some rooms may be missing and some may be empty or missing walls but you can walk around in the house.
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What do you think?
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Yes, what you're describing sounds similar to what I tend to do. The thing that feels painful about it is that because such problems are usually so holistic, I often end up needing to tear the house down and build it anew with every key insight.
Lord this is so real. I also think this is where we’re so spoilt as software people
So much of what we do feels like it’s flexible and dynamic that I want *all of it* to be like that
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Then sometimes I have to accept that there is some minimum chunk as put it, that I’m just going to have to fully build and possibly trash completely later
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