Origami and project completion
I was talking with Jeffrey Hyland this weekend about Basecamp and it got me thinking again about visualizing project progress. Checking off milestones does not inspire me. Milestones are emotionally flat. Projects have heft and we grapple with them. My first thought was folding a box from a sheet of cardboard: As the project progresses the box has more and more shape until it is a solid object when the project is done. Then it struck me that we should pick an piece of origami with the same number of folds as the project has milestones. As the milestones are completed the next fold is made. When the project is complete so is the origami piece. Team members would have the completed piece on their desks as a reminder of the project. The project's kick start is picking the origami piece and folding it.