DWP Episode 19: Statistically Significant Samples

Dauntless Writing Podcast Episode 19: Statistically Significant Samples

What is a statistically significant sample for deciding whether something works? When do I drop what I’ve been doing and how do I decide to do next? Below, I give a ten step example of how I go about the idea vetting process in order to try and simplify my decision-making process.

In this podcast:

Some things you have to do as a fiction authorpreneur;
How to decide to approach these things;
Sound Principles for next level organization;
Finding what works for you;
MVP’s – Minimum Viable Product at the Minimum Viable Price for the maximal result;
On giving a plan a fair run before canning it;
Applying the 80/20 rule;

The 10 step vetting process:

1) Get an idea, ex nihilo or from something I’ve encountered;

2) read up on the idea, has other people done it? How hard is it to implement? What successes and/or failures have they had? What pitfalls have they mentioned? Are people recommending it? If not, maybe shelve the idea until later.

Rate each of the factors involved on a five point scale.

The factors are:

Time (how much time out of my day it will take 1 is none at all, 5 is a lot);
Money (Will it cost money? If so, how much?);
Effort (is there a lot to learn before hand? how much info is available to ease learning?);
Skills transfer (can I use some of these skills that I learn somewhere else? I’m more inclined to learn things that are); and
Fun factor (Does it actually sound like something I can do for the fun of it?).

I give each of these factors a % weight (like the fun factor is more important to me than the time factor at this stage, but the Money factor is usually a decider)

3) Come up with a strategy of how I would implement the new idea into my current schedule. If not enough time, maybe shelve it for later, or find another activity that is not panning out and replace it with this new one;

4) Research and write a policy and procedure for the activity, include a cost-benefit analysis taking into consideration my resources, such as time and money. Then measure it against other shelved projects. Maybe you had a gem lying on the future plans list that is better than this one.

5) Set roles and goals for the activity (Look for synergy and others to help, and quantify the cost of their help). The goals are what I’ll use to measure whether the activity is good or not;

6) If the activity is similar to another activity that I’m currently running, such as maybe taking on Linkedin when I already use Facebook, set it up as a split test to that activity.

7) Implement the strategy. Go for it as if it’s the only thing you’re doing. Try your damnedest to get it to work.

8) Monitor your actual resources spent and results obtained against your projected goals and readjust your expectations and the factors that you mentioned in step number 2. No plan survives contact with the enemy.

9) After a period of time (set out in step 3 and 4 above), see which of the activities are producing the goods, and double down on those (this is your new control to measure future things against), and cut the ones that don’t. The ones that don’t can go back onto the future list, because things can change and you’ve got some data on how it worked for you in the past with ratings.

10) Start planning a new split test with the next most likely thing that may replace the thing that you’re doing.

The post DWP Episode 19: Statistically Significant Samples appeared first on Dauntless Writing.