05 Concept

Activities

The smallest unit of meaningful progress within a quest.

Quests create purpose. Expeditions create momentum. Campfires create shared understanding. Activities create movement.

Activities are the individual acts that help a quest move forward. They are where learning, discovery, creation, and collaboration happen.

Hand-sketched illustration of explorers in a workshop: research, design, experiment, build, reflect, and review connected around progress and learning

Activities are not tasks

Tasks focus on completion. Activities focus on contribution.

A task might be "complete interview." The activity is "understand customer needs." Tasks often exist within activities, but activities focus on intent while tasks focus on execution.

Types of activities

  • Discover: research, interviews, observation, exploration
  • Define: framing problems, mapping opportunities, setting direction
  • Design: concepts, prototypes, architectures, experiences
  • Decide: prioritisation, trade-offs, commitments
  • Deliver: building, implementing, shipping
  • Reflect: sensemaking, playback, learning capture

The Beach principle

Quests succeed one activity at a time. Design activities that create understanding, not just outputs.

In Gleo, this maps to Activity.