What's in a "placeholder"?
Recently in the context of an agile design session I called some software we are about to add to our platform a "placeholder".
The context also contained a reference to "see emily run". This goes back to Syd Barrett's "See Emily Play." The Emily I meant was Emily Chang, Strategic Designer, and my "see emily run" was a a reference to keywords Emily ran in her run-lola-run post Design 2.0: Minimalism, Transparency, and You.
So what's a placeholder?
It's probably another word for an iteration.
Usually (in agile circles) we think of iterations as steps on the way to a product.
What if we don't know what a product can become but at the same time there is a business REALITY an in "I want the world and I want it now" (The Doors).
Maybe I am stupid not to know what this product can become. But if you are in the business of data collection and data dissemination (who isn't?) and you think you know how this is going to work five years out, you are a fool.
That's why I talk about placeholders.
