The 20-Min Project Evaluator

Assess Your Work in 3 Simple Steps

 Table of Contents
I. A Note on Evaluation & Reflection

II. The Activity: 3-Step Project Evaluation

i. Step 1: Visualization

ii. Step 2: Brainstorm

iii. Step 3: Choose

III. Applying Your Criteria

IV. Celebrate!
V. About Me

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 A Note on Evaluation & Reflection
I have a confession.

I seriously enjoy reflecting, evaluating and assessing my work.

It’s true. Reflecting on where I dedicate my energy each day, week, month and year helps
me make more confident and informed future decisions. It also serves as a reminder of
where I’ve been and what I’ve done.

I wasn’t always like this, though.

Completing tasks, projects and goals gives me the greatest fulfillment. This “need to
complete” comes with a focus on efficiency and productivity. I used to plan out my days to
the minute and check off tasks with giddiness.

But this motivation to complete everything was also paired with overwhelm.

Plowing ahead with no consideration for past actions, behaviors, or outcomes were
actually making me less efficient and productive. I was caught in a spiral of seeking
achievement without honoring my limitations in time, energy and focus.

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Over the years I’ve used different methods to test, learn and incorporate reflection and
evaluation, from yoga and meditation to measuring and collecting data. These activities (all
of which I still practice today) shifted my mindset about building in time for reflection and
evaluation in order to be more productive. (There is science on how reflection increases
productivity, if you want to nerd out.)

This guide was created to reflect and evaluate at project-level. It offers a 3-step
framework to quickly review the inputs of past work in order to make more informed
future decisions. My clients and I use this to evaluate projects of all shapes and sizes as
the four categories are present in every piece of work.

The results of this activity can be used to compare past work, analyze new opportunities,
and even showcase your body of work. It also ties into a forthcoming program on pitching
a paid project.

Grab your pens and paper, set a timer to 20 minutes, and let’s go!

Katie Crepeau
Founder & Creator
DesignAffects.com

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 The Activity: 3-Step Project Evaluator
Grab these tools:

o Pens
o Paper or blank notebook page
One final important note before we start...

This activity has been practiced and completed in 20 minutes, both in person with my
clients and during an online webinar. I recommend you turn off alerts on your computer,
turn your phone to face down, maximize this PDF to full screen, and dedicate this time to
your career. It’s worth it.

Let’s go!

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Step 1: Visualization
Think back to one of your favorite projects. This can be a built piece of work, something
you wrote, a piece of art you created, a research project, or even a school project.

Go with the first one that pops into your head. Don’t over-evaluate or second-guess
yourself.

Return to a day that you were working on that project. It could be when you were in the
middle, or maybe it was the day before you celebrated its completion.

Pause for 20 seconds to return to that place.

Think of the people you were with, the environment around you, and the activities you
were doing.

Close your eyes to sink in.

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Step 2: Brainstorm
Time to get those memories on paper.

Grab your pens and a piece of paper or a blank page in your notebook.

Split your page into four columns, and leave space for a title on top.

At the top of each column, write People, Environment, Skills, and Goals to look something
like what’s on the next page.

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Now you are going to fill in each column.

This is about getting all those thoughts in your head onto paper so do not worry about
perfection.

People

Beginning with the first column, write down all the people you worked with.

Be general and specific in describing them.

Take a minute to write everything that comes to mind.

• Were they friends? Colleagues? Family? People who you got to know through the
project? Or were you alone?
• What were their roles?
• What were their names?
• How many people were there? Was it a big group? A small group? An entire
community? Or were you alone?

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Environment

This column is about the place and space around you.

Describe these factors in a list format.

Take a minute to write everything that comes to mind.

• Were you inside? Or outside?

• Was it somewhere warm? Cold? Temperate?
• Was it raining? Or sunny?
• Were you at home? In a work space? Out on the streets? In nature? Project site?

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Skills

Spend a bit more time on this column as it contains the activities you contributed to the
project.

Take two minutes to write everything that comes to mind.

• Were you talking with people? Making something? Reading? Researching? Drawing?
• Was it a lot of things that you were doing in the day? Or were you focused on
something for a long period of time?
• What were the things that were challenging?
• What made you grow or learn a lot?
• What were you most proud of contributing?

Reminder
There are no right or wrong answers.

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Goals

Finally, write down all the reasons why you participated.

Take a minute to write everything that comes to mind.

• Why were you there?

• What were you aiming to achieve? This could be a personal reason or a group
decision, or both.
• What drew you to it? Why did you choose to spend your time on it?

Once your columns are filled (at least 3-5 items in each), take a moment to look at what
you’ve just written.

Look at everything that went into making the project happen.

Pretty impressive, right?

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Step 3: Choose
You have put on paper the key inputs and conditions that went into the project. It’s now
time to prioritize the “must haves,” “like to haves”, and “non-essential” items.

Return to your list.

Within each column, choose one “must have” using the following questions:

• Which one calls out to you most?

• Which one are you not willing to sacrifice?
• Which one, if not present, would make the project feel incomplete or not worthy of
your time?

Go with your first reaction and circle the primary one from each column in a big, bold
marker.

Torn between 2 or 3?
These four top criteria in each category—people, Ask yourself:
environment, skills and goals—represent an ideal Would I be willing to give up X for y?
condition to do your best work. Or are they the same thing?

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Now cross out the ones that are neither essential nor critical.

These also represent things that you want to leave behind or not repeat again.

The remaining untouched inputs in each column are “like to haves.”

Used separately or combined together, these can be replacements for “must haves” that
aren’t met in future opportunities.

For instance, your top skill might be model making. In a new project, you may not be able
to make models but you can hand draw and 3d model, which together measure up to
model making.

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(Optional) Step 4: Analyze
With each of your selected “must haves”, dig into the meaning behind them by asking
‘why’.

• Why this one?

• What about it made you select it?

This will help discover underlying values that motivate and drive you.

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 Applying Your Criteria
Keep this project review on hand and use it to:

1. Assess other projects

> Past work – projects where you thrived and where you floundered. Look at overlaps
between multiple project reviews.
> Current work – discover where can you focus your energy and what might you need
to change.

2. Evaluate future opportunities

> Go/No Go Priority Checker – add these criteria to the questions and use this to
analyze jobs, projects, and new opportunities.

3. Showcase your work focus

> CV/Resume/Portfolio – reframe your project descriptions and accomplishments to

showcase these top criteria.
> Website – rewrite your headline using the four top criteria, such as this statement:

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 I do/provide [“must have” skills] with [“must have” people] in

[“must have” environment type] in order to [“must have” goal].

Through these efforts, you will paint the picture of what you do and where you are going
rather than having others make assumptions.

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 Celebrate!
A quick recap of what you just did in 20 minutes:

1. You implemented a framework to evaluate your favorite project.

2. You identified 4 top criteria to compare future opportunities against.
3. You discovered conditions you need for your ideal work.
4. You are ready to use your criteria in your CV, resume, portfolio, and/or website to
showcase your focus.

One final activity...

Let’s take this meta for a moment. Ask yourself these questions: What did I learn through
this activity? What was my ah-ha moment?

If you’re up for sharing, send me a quick email with your response to the two questions
above.

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 About Katie Crepeau
Since 2009, I’ve been invested in the field of social impact design. I’ve led numerous
projects; built organizations; worked in partnership with community members; hosted a
dozen or so workshops; and written a million words on the topic.

Now my focus is working with individuals and organizations on getting paid for work they
care about. Through coaching, advising and training, designers are gaining business skills
to improve how they approach, communicate, and evaluate their work.

Learn more about my current programs.

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