A practical pre-flight check for digital work
Digital Project Checklist.
Use these questions to pressure-test an initiative before assumptions become commitments. This is not a gate or a scorecard; it is a prompt for clearer conversations and better decisions.
Dream — are we aligned on where we’re going?
- Can we state the intended outcome in plain language?
- Do the key stakeholders share the same understanding of success?
- Are we solving a meaningful business or user problem?
- Is a deadline driving the work before the problem is understood?
- What assumptions are we making about the opportunity?
- Who needs to be in the room before we move forward?
Define — do we understand the problem?
- What problem are we actually trying to solve?
- Which assumptions need to be treated as hypotheses?
- What do we know about the people who will use or experience the solution?
- If direct research is unavailable, what credible evidence already exists?
- What constraints, dependencies and risks are material?
- What would make the problem clear enough to act on?
Recommend — are we choosing deliberately?
- Are we exploring more than one viable path?
- Does the proposed solution address the validated problem?
- What evidence supports the recommendation?
- What tradeoffs are we making—and are they explicit?
- Are decision-makers clear on why this direction is being chosen?
- What would change our recommendation?
Solve — can we move without losing clarity?
- Does the team understand the decision that led to this work?
- Are ownership and decision rights clear?
- Are we checking the solution against the original problem as we build?
- Are new assumptions being surfaced rather than silently accepted?
- Is the delivery plan realistic about constraints and dependencies?
- What feedback or validation is needed before the next commitment?
Measure — do we know whether it worked?
- Did we define success early enough to measure it?
- What outcomes matter to the business, users and delivery team?
- What evidence tells us the solution improved the situation?
- What unintended effects or new problems appeared?
- What did we learn that should shape the next decision?
- What should we continue, change or stop?