In general, processes are more efficient when they are arranged in a pipeline of batched operations
That principle equally applies to creative processes
When designing a product with a significant amount of unknowns it is good to separate information gathering from information refinement
With such a division, Scoping is the information gathering phase and Design is the information refinement phase
Scoping
Friction Free
A good scoping process creates minimal friction for capturing information
Scoping should be optimized for writing, not reading
Organizing captured scoping information is not a priority
With repeated scoping the process can be gradually refined and more structure added without increasing friction
After scoping is finished the collective scoping documents can act as a long-term archive
The information in this archive may rarely be needed, and querying it may require some rummaging and interpretation, but the information is there when needed
Scoping Composition
Depending on the nature of the product being designed, scoping commonly contains some or all of the following elements:
Notes
Brainstorming
Existing reference samples
Links to external resources
Design
Transition
Ideally Design doesn’t begin until Scoping has finished
Often circumstances do not permit such separation and the two phases overlap
When there is overlap between Scoping and Design it is good to treat them as separate contexts, consciously switching back and forth between Scoping mode and Design mode
Channeling
The output of Scoping is the primary input for Design
Design takes raw scoping information and refines it into well organized and easy-to-use documentation
It can be useful for individual elements of design documents to link to scoping artifacts so that design decisions can be traced back to their motivation origins