Conducting an Environmental Scan

Starting any digital project begins by looking around – there’s no gain from re-inventing the wheel. There is great opportunity in learning from past experience.

An environmental scan is intended to define the gap or challenge being addressed by the project proposed, establish the landscape in which it is pitched identify examples of similar solutions learning from their strengths and weaknesses.

A typical environmental scan will include:

  1. A short description of your project’s general area of exploration or operation;
  2. A brief indication of where and how you explored the existing environment;

It will ask:

  1. Who has done something similar and what did it look like?
  2. What are the strengths of of what you have found? What can you build?
  3. What are existing weaknesses/gaps that you sense/seek to address?

Optionally it may include:

  1. Who is it for?
  2. What is the value of what you prose to accomplish?

 

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