Scoping a Project

The most common failure mode is not technical: it is scoping. A project that takes three weekends gets finished; a project that takes three months gets abandoned at week two.

The one-paragraph spec

Before any code, write a single paragraph answering:

• Who uses it and what they get from it.
• The one core action the project exists for.
• What is explicitly out of scope for version one.

Post it in the project channel on Slack before you start — feedback is cheaper before the first commit.

Size it down until it bores you

If the core action takes more than a focused weekend to build for the first time, cut it in half. You can always grow a shipped project; you cannot show anyone an unfinished one. A tiny deployed project with real users beats an ambitious local one every time — and it gives the community something concrete to review when you ask for help.