altMBA - Project Prompts
altMBA Project Prompts are constrained briefs that force a specific piece of thinking or design work inside a short deadline, then put the output in front of peers for direct feedback.
A short brief runs into a deadline, then straight into a room of peers giving direct feedback.
Reach for this when…
- An idea has been circling for months without ever getting shipped.
- You need a deadline and a peer audience to force the thinking, not another meeting.
- Someone needs a concrete brief rather than an open-ended 'go think about strategy'.
How to run it
- Review the project prompts.
- Select the prompt most relevant to the current challenge.
- Use the prompt as a forcing function inside a constrained window, typically 48 to 72 hours.
- Present the output to a peer group for direct feedback.
A worked example
Situation. Kenji Watanabe led programmes at an education NGO in Osaka, Japan, and had been circling a redesign of the donor-reporting process for months without shipping anything.
Applied. He picked a prompt matched to the problem, gave himself sixty hours to produce a full draft, then presented it to three peers for direct feedback.
Result. The new reporting process went live within the fortnight instead of staying a someday idea, because the deadline forced the thinking he'd been avoiding.
The catch
The prompts are only as good as the deadline behind them - without real time pressure they become another item on the someday list. Peer feedback needs peers willing to be direct, not just encouraging. And the format assumes the person already has enough context to act inside 48 to 72 hours, which not everyone does.
A prompt without a deadline is just a suggestion.
Origin: Seth Godin / altMBA