Wrapping up week 2 of 7 for my dream project, The Inside Shift, has me wishing I felt on more solid ground. I have a very neatly packaged project management plan that gives me hope (more on that below). But it’s the creeping thought of, “Did I bite off more than I can chew?” that’s nagging me.
It’s not unlike me to dream big, and if ever there was a time to do so, it’s now. Why is that? Well, why not? You’re never too old; it’s never too late is a guiding principle, and I’m chanting it as the creeping, nagging fog rolls in. So, let’s dig into where I am, what I have, and what’s to come. By the end of this post, I am setting the intention for the fog to clear. Side note: I also managed to fit all of this around a family vacation in upstate New York, which made the week feel full in the best possible way.
Continued Research and Discovery
Since planning and building the platform is entirely up to me, I tasked myself with a handful of research and discovery quests to build the foundational pieces of The Inside Shift. Week 2 involved finalizing my website platform choice, assembling the bones of a framework, drafting essay ideas, cleaning up my 30+ research list plus notes, and creating an extensive project management plan. Let’s zoom in.
Website Platform Choice
It wasn’t a difficult choice between Ghost, Squarespace, and WordPress. Ghost was brand new to me; I have another site fully built in Squarespace, and this blog and site it’s attached to are all in WordPress. With the latter being the freshest, and my growing comfort level with its flexibility and endless templates, it feels like the right choice. I even purchased my URL, insideshift.co. Up next will be solidifying the navigation, sketching the sitemap, and starting wireframes.
Formulating the Framework
I pored over IDEO’s The Little Book of Design Research Ethics, Hartford and Stein’s research titled Attentional Harms and Digital Inequalities, and a 2017 essay by Don Norman, each discussing ethics from different angles. One focused on attention, another on designer agency, and the other on human-centered design. While different, they all support my idea that our work as designers and communicators shapes other people’s experiences.
The framework foundation is based on this question: what if there were a simple way to pause before creating something and think through the experience you’re asking another human being to have? The framework is shaping up around the ethics of influence. Next, I’ll be developing that idea into an actual framework and start testing it against real-world creative scenarios.
Essay Ideas
I started with my whitepaper, Designed to Fracture, to get initial ideas. The core of the whitepaper’s argument is that we as creators are uniquely positioned inside the systems to make changes from within. To take this idea further, I explored that ethical design and communication begin with recognizing that all creative work influences people. By embracing this responsibility and acting intentionally within the systems we work in, we as practitioners can help create more humane and ethical experiences. The essay’s main argument will be rooted in this philosophy. Next steps will be developing the outline, refining and adding sources, and writing the thesis and introduction.
Honing Research List
Week 1’s bibliography was full of hopeful research sources. As week 2 took shape, a few didn’t make the cut. I removed some that weren’t as supportive of the project’s evolving focus and added others to fill foundational website-building, medium-related, and framework gaps. The removals came from tightening scope, while the additions provided stronger support for the upcoming site build, future-casting deliverables, and the broader decision-making framework. The result is a research list that is more focused, balanced, and better aligned with the platform’s direction.
The Big Beautiful Project Management Plan
As the project moves from ideas into execution, I’ve spent time in week 2 building a project management system to keep the research, writing, framework development, and website build moving in sync. What began as a collection of deliverables is now organized as one connected workflow, helping me see both the big picture and the day-to-day tasks that will carry The Inside Shift to launch. The full project management plan is linked below for a closer look at the details.
Looking Forward to Week 3
Looking ahead, the project begins shifting from research to creation. The focus will be on developing the first version of the original framework: the ethics of influence, defining the platform’s visual direction, and beginning the foundational writing that will shape both the statement of purpose and long-form essay. At the same time, I’ll start translating ideas into structure through website architecture and wireframes, bringing The Inside Shift one step closer to becoming a tangible platform.
As I hoped, after writing, editing, and rewriting this post, I feel more grounded. I see what I’ve already accomplished and feel hopeful for what’s to come. I am reaffirmed that not only can I dream this, but I can also do this.
