// track 02 · 10 lessons · ~50 min
Discovery & Planning.
First brief → kickoff.
Everything between "we should do this" and "the team is starting work" — the project charter, stakeholder mapping with RACI, requirements via interviews and JTBD, scope definition with WBS, two estimation traditions (relative agile + absolute software), critical-path scheduling, risk identification, the kickoff meeting, and how to pick the right PM for the right project.
- 14 min02.01
The project charter
The one-pager that authorizes a project to exist.
- 5 min02.02
Stakeholder mapping (deep dive)
Plot the political graph before it plots you.
- 6 min02.03
Requirements gathering — interviews, JTBD, user stories
Talk to people. Listen for the actual job, not the surface request.
- 5 min02.04
Scope definition + WBS
Decompose the work until each leaf is something a person can finish.
- 5 min02.05
Estimation I — story points, t-shirt sizing, planning poker
When you can't predict hours, predict relative size.
- 6 min02.06
Estimation II — 3-point, COCOMO, function points
When the org needs hours and dollars, here's how to give them honestly.
- 6 min02.07
Scheduling — critical path, Gantt, dependencies
The longest dependent chain decides your finish date.
- 5 min02.08
Risk identification + the Risk Register
Name what could go wrong before it does.
- 4 min02.09
The kickoff
The one meeting where the team aligns before reality starts pressing.
- 4 min02.10
Picking the right PM for the project
Different projects want different operating styles.
// canonical reading for this track
Beyond what we wrote.
These are the primary sources our lessons draw from. If you want to go deep on this track, start here.
// put it into practice
Reading is half the work.
The simulator drops you into real PM scenarios so the concepts from these lessons stop being abstract.