Part 1: Before the day

BEFORE THE DAY

The day is six hours of building wrapped in two weeks of quiet preparation. Almost everything that goes wrong at 14:00 was decided at your desk the week before: a brief that was never tested on one person, users nobody recruited, a sponsor nobody briefed.

Part 1 is that desk work. Recognising the moment, getting the yes, filling the room, briefing the sponsor, recruiting the users, checking the tools, and writing the sentence the whole day runs on.

None of it is glamorous. All of it is the difference between running a day and surviving one.