VIP Milestone 7: Build a Format and Delivery Model Decision System
Gary Whittaker20 Milestones: From Project to Platform — Milestone 7 VIP System
Advanced Member ImplementationBuild a Format and Delivery Model Decision System
Turn a reasonable format choice into a defensible delivery architecture.
Advanced deliverable: Format and Delivery Architecture File
Decision brief
Critical requirements, constraints, candidate formats and evidence.
Weighted matrix
Priority-based scoring with non-negotiable thresholds.
Delivery architecture
Access path, support layers, portability, accessibility and ownership.
Prototype evidence
Failure modes, first-use test and final memorandum.
Gate 1 — Define critical requirements
- Audience and first-use situation
- Required outcome and central message
- Research findings that constrain the choice
- Non-negotiable accessibility or rights requirements
- Available skills, collaborators, tools and production window
- Expected maintenance and support capacity
- Acceptable platform dependency
- Decision deadline and cost of choosing poorly
Gate passes when: critical requirements are separated from preferences.
Gate 2 — Build the weighted decision matrix
Assign each criterion a weight from 1–5 based on project importance. Score each candidate 0–3, multiply by the weight and document the evidence.
| Criterion | Suggested review |
|---|---|
| Audience access | Devices, bandwidth, setting, skill and account friction |
| Outcome effectiveness | Whether the format enables the required action or result |
| Message fidelity | Ability to preserve nuance, sequence and emotional effect |
| Production reliability | Time, skills, collaborators and quality-control burden |
| Maintenance sustainability | Updates, moderation, support and recurring delivery |
| Accessibility and inclusion | Captions, transcripts, readable files, alternatives and navigation |
| Distribution and discovery | Credible channels, searchability and audience behaviour |
| Ownership and portability | Export, backups, customer access and platform substitution |
| Rights and privacy | Licensing, permissions, data collection and participant consent |
| Strategic reuse | Responsible adaptation into future assets without bloating version one |
Gate 3 — Design the delivery architecture
Map every layer
- Discovery channel
- Decision or landing page
- Access and payment gate, if any
- Primary experience
- Required support assets
- Help, feedback or community route
- Completion or continuation route
- Backup and portability plan
Use the Creator Systems hub to connect the decision to repeatable records, workflows and ownership.
Accessibility and inclusion review
Content access
Readable structure, captions, transcripts, contrast, alternative text and file usability.
Participation access
Time zones, live attendance, language, cognitive load, equipment and account requirements.
Financial access
Free entry points, payment timing, required tools and hidden participation costs.
Recovery access
What happens when a user loses a link, changes devices or misses a live session.
Platform dependency and portability
- Which platform functions are essential?
- Can project files and audience records be exported?
- What access disappears if the platform closes or changes policy?
- Does the creator retain an owned contact route?
- Can the primary experience move elsewhere without complete reconstruction?
- What must be backed up and how often?
Failure-mode review
| Failure mode | Early sign | Prevention or response |
|---|---|---|
| Audience cannot begin | Account, device or instruction confusion | Simplify access and test onboarding |
| Format weakens outcome | Users consume but cannot act | Add practice, feedback or a better primary format |
| Support burden exceeds capacity | Repeated unresolved questions | Clarify boundaries and build reusable support |
| Platform dependence becomes critical | No export or alternate route | Back up assets and preserve owned access |
| Accessibility is added too late | Core assets require costly rebuilding | Include accessibility in the initial architecture |
| Too many formats delay completion | Production fragments across channels | Protect one primary format and defer adaptations |
Prototype the highest-risk assumption
Do not build the entire project to test the delivery model. Create the smallest realistic sample that exposes the greatest uncertainty.
- Assumption being tested
- Prototype or sample
- Representative audience segment
- Task they must complete
- Success, failure and guardrail thresholds
- Observed behaviour and direct feedback
- Required revision and decision
Gate passes when: the prototype supports the architecture or produces a documented revision.
Use the three Creator Roads
Find Your Sound
Test audio format, listening context, production burden, release presentation and rights.
Open Find Your SoundFind Your Voice
Test reading, listening or viewing depth, teaching sequence, narrative clarity and supporting text.
Open Find Your VoiceFind Your Brand
Test access, trust, ownership, offer structure, audience continuation and platform role.
Open Find Your BrandFormat and Delivery Architecture Memorandum
- Decision under review
- Validated project foundation
- Critical requirements and constraints
- Candidate formats considered
- Weighted comparison and disqualifying issues
- Selected primary format
- Selected delivery model
- Audience first-use path
- Required support assets
- Excluded and deferred formats
- Accessibility design
- Rights, privacy and platform requirements
- Maintenance and support obligations
- Portability and backup plan
- Prototype method and findings
- Final decision, conditions and review triggers
- Handoff information for the next approved milestone
VIP completion standard
- Critical requirements and preferences are separated.
- Weights and scores cite evidence.
- Non-negotiable thresholds are enforced.
- The full access path is mapped.
- Accessibility is designed into the architecture.
- Platform dependency and portability are documented.
- Failure modes have controls.
- The highest-risk assumption was prototyped.
- The final memorandum states conditions and review triggers.
