You can’t see the end before you begin. No matter how much you plan, new ideas and challenges always arise in the process of creation. Whether you’re writing a book or designing a new product sometimes the best plan is to start.
Prototype it early. Not as an end product, but as a tool to facilitate learning. Deeper learning than could be achieved by simply making an outline on paper.
Dan Pink calls it “writing to figure it out.” In the design world the phrase is “building to learn.” Whatever you call it, the idea is to experiment sooner.
Typically we create something as a result of our learning. But the possibilities emerge in abundance when we let our creations facilitate learning.