Discovery plan

Decision to inform

Before extending this browser-local planning sample, determine whether the person-day model helps planning leads make a clearer tradeoff than their current spreadsheet or meeting process. The question is comprehension and decision support, not willingness to buy or a claim of delivered business value.

Hypotheses to test

1. A portfolio lead can identify that time off and operating work reduce initiative capacity before looking only at allocation totals.
2. Showing the affected initiative beside an overloaded person-week helps a participant explain the product consequence without treating the signal as a delivery prediction.
3. A visible baseline and draft lets a participant revise a scenario without believing the original plan has changed.

Neutral research tasks

Recruit consenting product operations and engineering-planning practitioners who regularly review capacity. In a moderated session, give each person the seeded Northstar scenario and ask them to locate an unavailable week, explain the inputs, make a half-day reallocation, compare the draft with the baseline, apply or undo it, and export a discussion copy. Ask what they expected each state to mean before explaining it; avoid calling the sample clearer, safer, or more accurate.

Assign two of the five participants to describe their current spreadsheet or meeting method before using the sample and three afterward. Record that order beside each session and treat it as a qualitative counterbalance, not a comparison with enough power to estimate an order effect. Do not collect a real staffing plan or confidential work details. Participation and permission to record are separate choices; retain only the notes required for the stated study.

Falsification and next decision

The model needs reconsideration if participants repeatedly use allocation totals as the only capacity signal, cannot explain why an initiative is marked at risk, or believe editing a draft changes the applied plan. Capture task time, incorrect explanations, recoveries, and confidence, with every participant retained in each relevant denominator. If these failures persist after formative iteration, invest in a simpler conflict explanation before adding scenarios, imports, or collaboration concepts.