DigiCol Annual Conference 2026 · Panel takeaway
Same destination. Different maps.
Institutions and their partners can want the same outcome and still work from different assumptions about scope, time, authority, and risk. These questions bring those assumptions into the open before they turn into friction.
Use it at every check-in
The Five-Minute Alignment Check
Eight prompts for a quick health check when there isn’t time for the full set. The goal isn’t a score. It’s finding the assumptions that need a conversation.
- DestinationWhat problem are we solving right now?
- ValueWhat does “worth it” look like now?
- DecisionsWhat is still open, and who can decide it?
- CapacityWhere are we assuming time, people, access, or attention that may not exist?
- SignalsWhat is telling us that the landscape has changed?
- RiskWhat uncertainty or risk are we not talking about clearly enough?
- ProgressWhat does “good enough” look like at this point in the work?
- ResetWhat, if anything, needs to be re-baselined now?
Go deeper
Three ways to use the questions
Get the right questions for where you are
Pick your stage, from RFP to reset, and the areas that worry you. Take a short question set into your next meeting.
See where your maps split
Start one link for your project. Everyone on both sides answers the eight prompts on their own, then you all see one grid with the gaps flagged.
All 69 questions, four areas, four lenses
Outcomes, decisions, capacity, and change, each seen through destination, routes, signals, and arrival.
The idea behind it
The map is not the landscape
The map
What both sides agree to on paper.
- Scopes and RFPs
- Timelines
- Contracts
- Success metrics
The landscape
What the work actually moves through.
- Organizational context
- Decision dynamics
- Capacity limits
- Competing priorities and change over time
Neither side’s map is wrong. Friction starts when the maps differ from each other, when they miss the landscape, or when the landscape moves and the map doesn’t. Alignment isn’t a kickoff activity. Come back to these questions when priorities shift, people change, or the work feels harder than the scope suggests.