Status: documented draft, untested. Part of the MktOS Operating Handbook.
When to use it
Use when a prioritized opportunity needs a bounded intervention, or an existing project needs material rescoping. A small routine task can stay a task. This playbook produces a project definition and commitment decision; completing it does not complete the project or validate its marketing impact.
Inputs and responsibility
Bring the existing strategy/annual objective and KRs, relevant evidence, current commitments, actual contributor availability, known constraints, and the existing project record when revising. Missing evidence stays explicit.
The proposed project owner drafts and coordinates. Contributors estimate their work and dependencies. The people with priority, resource and acceptance authority make the relevant decisions; coordination alone does not grant authority over non-direct collaborators. One person may carry all responsibilities in solo work.
Steps
- Frame the problem and contribution. State the problem, supporting evidence, intended users and why action matters now. Link the annual objective/KR the project is expected to influence and explain how. Where no credible connection exists, revisit prioritization rather than inventing a new quarterly OKR.
- Bound the result. Name the usable deliverable, included/excluded work, owner and required stakeholders. State item acceptance criteria and the applicable Definition of Done. Declare whether the project promises delivery, a validated decision, or both; define its done-when evidence, stop/narrow conditions and treatment of insufficient evidence.
- Make progress visible. Identify useful milestones with target dates and attainment evidence. Define the tasks needed for the next milestone, with owners, estimates and dependencies. Milestones are checkpoints; supporting tasks consume effort. Avoid detailing every future task upfront.
- Check feasibility. Check availability by required person/skill after routine work and existing commitments, plus budget, access and dependencies. If it does not fit, propose deferral, reduced scope, changed timing or additional support, identifying what existing commitment would change. Do not promise another person's time without agreement from the relevant authority.
- Define the evidence and communication. Confirm the measure/source is readable; if not, include measurement setup and retain an unknown baseline. Name who will inspect delivery, who reads results, and when. Record how stakeholders receive updates, which changes need a decision, and the next handoff. An experiment uses a Test Card with its own observation window; a sprint does not shorten it.
- Record the decision and next action. Review the bounded proposal with the relevant contributors and decision-maker. Record commit, revise, defer or reject with the reason. Put the definition in the shared project record, link it from the backlog, and identify the next ready action. Keep unresolved prerequisites visible; only dependency-ready work can enter a sprint.
Use the Project, Milestones and Completion sections of the existing marketing plan template. Link to the live project rather than maintain a second project brief with duplicate status.
Output and completion
The job is complete when there is one accessible project definition, an explicit commitment decision, and an owned next action. For committed work, scope, milestone evidence, acceptance/completion criteria, capacity, dependencies and result follow-up must be understood by the responsible people. If a prerequisite prevents commitment, record a revise/defer decision and the person obtaining it; do not label the project ready.
Delivery acceptance and project closure remain separate from KR achievement. If observation continues after delivery, the record retains its owner, source and date. Publish or hand off only when that action is authorized; writing a project definition does not send it anywhere.
Exceptions and escalation
- Missing baseline/access: keep it unknown, assign the discovery/setup work, and hold only dependent judgments or work.
- Unclear authority or unavailable contributor: identify who can decide, keep commitment pending, and continue independent preparation.
- Urgent request: explain the consequence and replacement tradeoff to the priority/resource decision-maker before setting delivery expectations.
- Revised project: retain the prior scope/decision, record the reason and implications, and recheck dependent estimates and acceptance criteria.
Illustrative application
A team proposes improving an existing enquiry page. The project links to an annual qualified-demand KR; its scope covers the page and working tracking, with a named reviewer. Milestones cover measurement readiness, accepted delivery and the agreed outcome review. Writers and analytics contributors confirm availability separately. The owner records the decision and first task. Accepted delivery does not imply qualified demand improved; the result owner reads that evidence at the planned observation point.
This playbook is MktOS guidance, not an official Scrum or Kanban procedure. See the handbook's source notes and artifact definitions for credit and the distinction between quality, completion and impact.