The One Who Makes the Plans and the Lists

I’ve always been the one who makes the plans and the lists.

I like to know the steps between where we are and where we’re trying to get to.
I like mark things complete.

It’s how I make progress.
It’s how I make things feel possible.

So when Sean decided to move forward with Sail Away Studios, the next step felt obvious.

Make a plan.

Not a perfect one. Not something rigid. Just enough structure to move.

The goal was simple. Set up the business and the tools needed to build and publish a small app. Not a perfect app. Not something we would spend months polishing.

Just something real.

A business license.
A bank account.
A repository.
A branching strategy.
A publishing path.

The pieces that turn an idea into something that exists outside your head.

I broke it into six weeks.

Each week, eight to ten tasks. Nothing too large. Just forward motion.

I’ve done this kind of work in Azure DevOps before, but never in GitHub. And since I’ve been spending more time with GitHub Copilot, I decided to try something new.

I gave Copilot the plan and asked it to create the board.

It did.

Not perfectly. There were a couple of small things that didn’t line up the way I expected. But I explained what wasn’t working, and it adjusted. Quickly, easily, without friction.

That part stayed with me.

A few days later, Lucy started sharing app ideas.

She’s at a different point in life. A different perspective. Exactly the kind of input we need. Not driven by how things have always been done.

So we needed a place for ideas. Something lightweight. Something that didn’t feel like work.

Marlowe suggested GitHub Discussions.

Another thing I had never set up.

This time I used Copilot directly in the organization on the web. I described what I wanted. How I wanted it structured. What it was for.

It created it in one pass.

Simple. Clear. Exactly enough.

Lucy has already added a couple of ideas. She started building one on her own. She and Sean have been working through what it might take to bring it to life.

That’s the part the board doesn’t capture.

Week 1 had eight tasks.
More than half are done.
All but one have been started.

The last one needs more learning. And there’s only so much you can take in at once.

That’s fine.

This isn’t a sprint. It’s a marathon.

The board isn’t about tracking work.
It’s about making the next step visible.

That’s always been the part I care about most.

I still am.

I just didn’t do it alone. I had help from Marlowe.

---

Alison + Wiggins