Peter Morville's document discusses planning for strategic design. It begins with an introduction and overview of the agenda. It then provides principles for planning, including making planning social, tangible, agile, and reflective. It also outlines practices for each step of the planning process: framing the problem, imagining possibilities, narrowing options, deciding on a course of action, executing the plan, and reflecting on the results. The goal is to promote understanding and flexibility through practices like prototyping, iteration, and considering alternative scenarios.

1. Planning
for Strategic Design
Peter Morville, UX STRAT, Boulder, Colorado, 2017

2. Agenda
• Introduction
• Purpose
• Principles
• Practices
• Conclusion
“Do you know how to make God laugh? Tell him your plans.”

4. Planning

5. Planning
for Strategic Design
Introduction, Purpose, Principles, Practices

6. The Ants and the Grasshopper
On a cold, frosty day the ants began dragging out some of
the grain they had stored during the summer and began
drying it. A grasshopper, half-dead with hunger, came by
and asked for a morsel to save his life.
“What did you do this past summer?” responded the ants.
“Oh,” said the grasshopper, “I kept myself busy by
singing all day long and all night too.”
“Well then,” remarked the ants, as they laughed and shut
their storehouse, “since you kept yourself busy by singing
all summer, you can do the same by dancing all winter.”

7. Start
1
2
3 3
2
1
Goalè
“Planning is the crowning achievement of human cognition.”
The Cognitive Psychology of Planning (2005)

8. The findings suggest planning can be accelerated
by relevant education, both formal and informal.
Age 5 7 9 11
Searching for lost items 12 18 16 28
Manipulating grownups 4 34 24 22
Avoiding punishment 0 44 12 8
Relations with peers 6 26 68 92

11. Our brains use stored memories to
constantly make predictions about
everything we see, feel, and hear.
Prediction is not just one of the
things your brain does. It is the
primary function of the neocortex,
and the foundation of intelligence.

12. System 1 is intuitive,
emotional, fast,
automatic, and biased
by data and heuristics.
System 2 is conscious,
logical, deliberate, and
thinks it’s in charge.

13. What if perception is less about the
registration of what is present, than
about generating a reliable
hallucination of what to expect?
What if emotion is not agitation from
the now, but guidance for the future?

14. “I had left the Marine Corps
not just with a sense that I
could do what I wanted but
also with the capacity to plan.”

15. If you put people in situations where they can
practice feeling in control, where that internal
locus of control is reawakened, then people
can start building habits that make them feel
like they’re in charge of their own lives – and
the more they feel that way, the more they
really are in control of themselves.
It violated one of the ground rules. Recruits had
been told they could not act until they heard a
verbal command from their team leader. But with
their gas masks on, no one could hear anything.

16. “Planning is the art and science of
envisioning a desired future and laying out
effective ways of bringing it about.”
“The purpose of design is to achieve a
greater understanding of the environment
and the nature of the problem in order to
identify an appropriate conceptual solution.”

18. Better decision-making cannot
be taught, but it can be self-taught.
A key to developing successful
strategies is to be aware of
your strengths and weaknesses,
to know what you do well.

21. 10 Theses
1. Planning is impossible and essential (prediction, uncertainty)
2. Planning is making (false dichotomy, commitment, discipline)
3. Planning is a skill (we can get better, practice, understanding)
4. Planning creates possibility (autopilot, lever)
5. Plans are built on beliefs (models, research, experiments)

22. 10 Theses
6. Strategies are built on options (habits as traps, awareness)
7. There is no one right way (preference, context, fit)
8. We must use experts wisely (gaps, tradeoffs, incentives)
9. Planning can be fun (meaningful goals, health, happiness)
10. We can plan a better future (technology, optimism, hope)

25. The dark matter of strategic
designers is organizational
culture, policies, market
mechanisms, legislation,
finance models, governance
structures, tradition, habits.

26. • Design
• Planning
• Positioning
• Entrepreneurial
• Cognitive
• Learning
• Power
• Cultural
• Environmental
• Configuration

27. What is Strategy? by Michael Porter
• Strategy is the creation of a unique and valuable
position involving a different set of activities.
• Operational effectiveness (performing similar
activities better than rivals) is not strategy.
• A sustainable strategic position requires tradeoffs.

28. Activity System Map for Vanguard from On Competition by Michael Porter

29. Digital Strategy
• See any differences?
• Why might they exist?
• What are the tradeoffs?

30. Strategic Design
1. Align with business strategy
2. Shape digital + experience strategy
3. Help executives with planning
Stories
Proverbs
Personas
Scenarios
Content Inventories Analytics
User SurveysConcept MapsSystem Maps
Process Flows
Wireframes
Storyboards
Concept Designs
Prototypes
Narrative Reports
Presentations
Plans
Style Guides Specifications
Design Patterns
User EXperience Treasure Map
by Jeffery Callender and Peter Morville

31. Planning
for Strategic Design
Introduction, Purpose, Principles, Practices

33. ★ Social
• What (plan with people, early and often)
• Who (family, friends, mentors, stakeholders)
• Why (get started, better ideas, empathy, buy-in)

34. ★ Tangible
• What (get ideas out of your mind-body)
• Why (embodied cognition, extended mind, collaboration)
• How (writing, sketching, modeling, prototyping)
“How can I know what I think until I see what I say?” - E.M. Forster

35. ★ Agile
• What (plan for disruption, embrace change)
• Why (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity)
• How (Agile, Lean, improv, optionality, mindfulness)
“Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.” - Eisenhower

36. ★ Reflective
• What (question beliefs, methods, and goals)
• Why (human fallibility, context shifts, wisdom)
• How (metrics, feedback, metacognition, meditation)
“The power of authoritative knowledge
is not that it is correct but that it counts.” – Brigitte Jordan

39. ★ Framing
• What (seeing problems, defining goals, designing process)
• How (research, sketching, OKRs, impossible list)
Social|Tangible|Agile|Reflective

42. Marines Corp Planning Process
An essential function of planning is to
promote understanding of the problem.
Framing is the most important step.

45. Beliefs are models (and) are often the main
thing standing in the way of change.

46. Goals Gone Wild: The Systematic
Side Effects of Over-Prescribing Goal Setting
• The harmful side effects of goal setting are far more
serious and systematic than prior work has acknowledged.
• The use of goal setting can degrade employee performance,
shift focus away from important but non-specified goals,
harm interpersonal relationships, corrode organizational
culture, and motivate risky and unethical behaviors.

47. “We project a straight
line only because we
have a linear model
in our head.”
Nassim Taleb

50. “One of the most common myths of agile
software development is that agile teams
don’t plan. In fact, agile teams do a much
more thorough job of planning than
many traditional project teams.”
short iterations, pairing, daily
standups, last responsible moment,
tests, fail fast, feedback, reflection

51. Making Software
Interview with Jonah Bailey and Micah Alles
• Software creation is preceded by a research,
design, and planning phase (design artifacts).
• A well-groomed and executable backlog
(estimated with points) is the core of a living plan.
https://soundcloud.com/peter-morville/making-software

52. As an entrepreneur, nothing plagued me more than
the question of whether my company was making
progress toward creating a successful business.
What if we found ourselves building something
that nobody wanted?
Our job was to find the synthesis between our
vision and what customers would accept.

54. Design the smallest possible thing that you
can that might invalidate your hypothesis.
Prototype tests are the single best way to
validate your product as early as possible.
Lean UX always has a measurable goal,
and you should always figure out how to
measure that goal before you start designing.

57. An inability to predict
means an inability to plan.
No real world strategy can be
purely deliberate or purely
emergent, since one precludes
learning while the other
precludes control.

58. Step Activity / Outcome Artifacts
Framing current state description
context, what we know
a look back, point of view
problem definition
written summary
problem statement
point of view statement
sketches, mindmaps
stakeholder list
Imagining
Narrowing
Deciding
Executing
Reflecting

59. ★ Imagining
• What (expanding awareness of paths and possibilities)
• How (research, mental models, counterfactuals, play, simulation)
Social|Tangible|Agile|Reflective

61. “I walked around
answering calls with
this block of wood,
and of course it
didn’t do anything.
I did it to see if it
worked. I decided it
worked pretty well.”
Jeff Hawkins

64. Plans fail because of what we have called tunneling, the
neglect of sources of uncertainty outside the plan itself.
An option makes you antifragile and able to benefit from the positive side of
uncertainty, without a corresponding serious harm from the negative side.

65. Step Activity / Outcome Artifacts
Framing
Imagining brainstorming
bodystorming
research
daydreaming
business model canvas
ideas + research summary
mental models
sketches, prototypes
Narrowing
Deciding
Executing
Reflecting

66. ★ Narrowing
• What (evaluating and filtering paths + options, estimates, risks)
• How (research, COG analysis, planning poker, affinity estimation)
Social|Tangible|Agile|Reflective

67. “It’s not fear that
stops you; it’s your
unwillingness to
feel fear. That’s
what stops you.”
“I mean: is it really
an adventure if
there’s no fear?”

68. Breadth First Depth First

70. Search Objects
Portal
Find
About
Discovery
Paths
Patterns
Incentives
Users
Brand
Findable Social
Goal
Gateway
Collection
Ask Browse
Federated
Faceted
Fast
“Give me a fulcrum and a place to stand,
and I will move the world.” —Archimedes

71. Planning Poker

72. If passengers die in a crash, pilots
die as well, whereas if patients die,
doctors’ lives are not endangered.

73. “To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan,
and not quite enough time.” – Leonard Bernstein

74. Step Activity / Outcome Artifacts
Framing
Imagining
Narrowing needs + wants defined
priorities identified
plans + options evaluated
negotiation
ranking
requirements
parking lot
written / graphic plan(s)
Deciding
Executing
Reflecting

75. ★ Deciding
• What (committing to and communicating a course of action)
• Who (the “decider” / RACI - responsible, accountable, consulted, informed)
Social|Tangible|Agile|Reflective

76. The (COA) course of action
graphic and narrative portray
how the organization will
accomplish the mission.
No more detail than needed;
balance guidance + freedom
(commander’s intent).
When writing plans or orders,
words matter.
Marines Corp Planning Process

77. Ambushing Santa Claus
by Trip ODell
Maeve (10 years old) documented three
potential plans, each included:
• A map of furniture + features
• Likely “points of entry” by Santa Claus
• Likely paths of travel to/from the tree
• Observation posts (personnel, tools)
• Checklists (equipment, tasks, rations)

80. Step Activity / Outcome Artifacts
Framing
Imagining
Narrowing
Deciding milestones defined
costs calculated
approval process
schedule + budget
orders + instructions
OKRs
RACI matrix
Executing
Reflecting

81. ★ Executing
• What (making, building, traveling, getting things done)
• How (systems, tools, feedback, mindfulness, motivation)
Social|Tangible|Agile|Reflective

82. Progressive elaboration involves
continuously improving and
detailing a plan as more detailed
and specific information and more
accurate estimates become available.

83. DISRUPTION

86. Step Activity / Outcome Artifacts
Framing
Imagining
Narrowing
Deciding
Executing sprint
build, measure, learn
testing, feedback loops
MVPs
burndown chart
change orders
Reflecting

87. ★ Reflecting
Social|Tangible|Agile|Reflective
• What (look back at the whole from the end)
• How (project debrief, data analysis, counterfactuals, meditation)

88. To Reflect, Look Back and Within
• what you did, what worked
• how might you do it differently
People who as a matter of habit extract
underlying principles or rules from new
experiences are more successful learners than
those who take their experiences at face value.

89. Step Activity / Outcome Artifacts
Framing
Imagining
Narrowing
Deciding
Executing
Reflecting evaluate results + process
review analytics
identify trends + influences
counterfactuals (what if)
project debriefs
lessons learned