On the wall
Not knowing where to start is sometimes so daunting that I'll procrastinate with productivity. It's amazing how tidy my kitchen gets when I'm facing the great foggy unknowns of a new project.
Eventually though, I need start. After all, fear of the unknowns can be resolved by wading into the fog and trying to find them.
For my Honours project I've adopted some wall space at Uni to try and clear the fog a little. I make far more progress pacing & gesturing at a wall than I do sitting in front of a computer or blank piece of paper on my desk. This is probably because I am a kinaesthetic and visual learner - my brain prefers to work when I'm in motion.
By mapping out what I know about my project the shape of things starts to emerge, and I can begin to see where I need to do more research to clear the rest of the fog.
So how did I start? With the bits I know about. Like where I am now, what I need to achieve before the end of the semester, and what I need to achieve by the end of next semester.
First steps - start with the end and the beginning.
Where I am now (the first sheet of brown paper) is quite blank. It's how I feel. So I speculated ahead to give myself some clear goals to shape the remainder of my work this semester.
Mapping out more details
By having a concept of how I wanted to start the next phase of work - with a toolkit, a user journey map and a set of proto-personas or actors to use in the generative workshops I began to understand what kinds of stories I needed to collect from which participants.
I can see some fuzzy spots in my plan for next semester, and for now that's ok. The interviews I do now will help me get a better idea of what will work, and how I need to structure some of the activities I run.
So what's next? I've drafted up my interview guides and questions, so next stop is interviewing, transcribing & mapping out the journeys of each participant.