Use parking lots to defer discussion

Parking Lot

When collaborating with others we're often moving towards one or more goals. However, from time to time ideas or information come up in the discussion that are valuable, but don't necessarily contribute to the goal or goals at hand. We want to keep these ideas or information, but set them aside till we need them.

Establish a parking lot as a place to put ideas and information you wish to keep for later discussion or use.

In a collaborative worksession a sheet of poster paper stuck to the wall labeled "parking lot" works well. As ideas or topics for discussion come up that don't seem to be relevant for the current goals it's appropriate for a participant to say "This is important, but I don't think it's helping us reach our goal to [insert goal here]. Can we put it in the parking lot and get back to it?"

During other activities a parking lot could be a place on a whiteboard, an open spreadsheet document, a napkin at a dinner table, or some post-its on the desk. Even when working on my own, I find it valuable to keep a personal parking lot to keep track if ideas that emerged while working.

When working together as a team, decide on a place for a parking lot, create it and use it.

Feed Forward Bin

A parking lot is a useful idea for keeping track of ideas and information that emerge during work that don't directly pertain to the current goals. However, it often occurs that ideas or information comes up and we have a good idea of where and when we intend to use it. Or, a certain type of idea keeps coming up and you'd like to keep that type of idea collected together.

Use a named feed forward bin to hold specific information for future use.

The name "feed forward bin" is borrowed from Constantine & Lockwood as a useful technique used in Usage-Centered Design. For example in a collaborative worksession it's common for terminology to come up that may need more research. A "glossary" feed forward bin is valuable to have around. As terms come up, add them to the glossary. You can go back and define them later as time permits. Other feed forward bins such as business rules, project risks, or feature ideas are common.

If you find yourself frequently parking information and ideas and you know what type they are and/or where and when they'll likely be used, name a feed forward bin and place them there instead.