The Simplest Thing That Could Work - No Fluff Just Stuff

The Simplest Thing That Could Work

Posted by: Johanna Rothman on February 9, 2009

After I returned home from the Sweden PSL, I had a cold, and then have been redesigning simulations for my upcoming (tomorrow!) customized project management workshop.

At PSL, we invoked one idea repeatedly: the zeroth solution. The zeroth solution is the simplest thing that could work. So, if you need a simulation for a workshop, you look at what you have already: could one of them work? That’s your simplest solution. I had several that could work, but I wasn’t thrilled with them. But I had one, a fallback position. (If you don’t already have one, what’s the simplest simulation you could create?)

As I iterated on the design, I kept asking myself, what’s the next simplest thing that could work? Is there something else that would allow me a new zeroth solution? That allowed me to build the simulation incrementally and iteratively. (No, I didn’t timebox myself :-)

You’ve heard “The perfect/best is the enemy of the good” (Voltaire). The same thing happens at work, in projects, in any sort of endeavor. If you try for perfection at the beginning, the pressure is too much. Instead, try for a zeroth solution, the simplest thing that could work, and better it over time.

Esther, Jerry and I are teaching another PSL March 22-27 in Albuquerque. Email me for more information.

Johanna Rothman

About Johanna Rothman

Johanna Rothman, known as the “Pragmatic Manager,” offers frank advice for your tough problems. She helps leaders and teams learn to see simple and reasonable things that might work. Equipped with that knowledge, they can decide how to adapt their product development.

With her trademark practicality and humor, Johanna is the author of 18 books about many aspects of product development. She’s written these books:

  • Project Lifecycles: How to Reduce Risks, Release Successful Products, and Increase Agility
  • Become a Successful Independent Consultant
  • Free Your Inner Nonfiction Writer
  • Modern Management Made Easy series: Practical Ways to Manage Yourself; Practical Ways to Lead and Serve (Manage) Others; Practical Ways to Lead an Innovative Organization
  • Write a Conference Proposal the Conference Wants and Accepts
  • From Chaos to Successful Distributed Agile Teams (with Mark Kilby)
  • Create Your Successful Agile Project: Collaborate, Measure, Estimate, Deliver
  • Agile and Lean Program Management: Scaling Collaboration Across the Organization
  • Manage Your Project Portfolio: Increase Your Capacity and Finish More Projects, 2nd edition
  • Project Portfolio Tips: Twelve Ideas for Focusing on the Work You Need to Start & Finish
  • Diving for Hidden Treasures: Finding the Value in Your Project Portfolio (with Jutta Eckstein)
  • Predicting the Unpredictable: Pragmatic Approaches to Estimating Project Schedule or Cost
  • Manage Your Job Search
  • Hiring Geeks That Fit
  • The 2008 Jolt Productivity award-winning Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management
  • Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management (with Esther Derby)

In addition to articles and columns on various sites, Johanna writes the Managing Product Development blog on her website, jrothman.com, as well as a personal blog on createadaptablelife.com.

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