# Workflow 02 — Scope and feasibility (the proposal)

**When:** week 3, before Sun, Oct 11. **Feeds:** the **proposal milestone**, 300–500 words (shorter for 4 or 3 units; see the overview).

## Goal

Make sure your project **can actually be done this quarter**, before you invest weeks in it. Then write the proposal. The syllabus asks for three things: **question, motivation, feasibility**.

## You produce

A 300–500-word proposal with:

1. **Question**: from Workflow 01.
2. **Motivation**: from Workflow 01, tightened.
3. **Feasibility**:
   - what you'll use (data, sources, tools, or cases);
   - how you'll get it;
   - what you'll do with it;
   - the biggest risk, and your plan B.
4. **If you have a partner: a work-sharing contract.** It doesn't count toward the word limit.

Use the template in `docs/polisci158-proposal-template.md`. The rubric is in `docs/polisci158-rubrics.md`.

## Steps

1. **You.** Define your **minimum viable project**. If everything went wrong except one thing, what's the *one* analysis or argument you'd still deliver? Write it down. That's your floor.
2. **You.** List what you'll use (data, documents, tools, cases), and mark each item *have it*, *can get it this week*, or *unsure*. Use existing public data, documents, and tools, not new surveys or interviews. Those take approvals and weeks you don't have.¹ If your question is about what people think, consider a **synthetic sample**: for example, AI-simulated respondents, used to pilot a questionnaire or explore how answers might vary. Treat what you get as a test of your instrument, not as evidence about real people.
3. **With AI.** Walk through feasibility. Paste in your question, your minimum viable project, and your list:

   ```
   You are a feasibility reviewer for a 10-week undergraduate project in a course on AI and politics.
   Here is my question, my minimum viable project, and what I plan to use.
   1. What is one "unit" in my project (a person, a bill, a county, an ad, a model output, a user)?
      Check that my question and my evidence are at the same level, and name any mismatch.
   2. For each source, tool, or case, ask how exactly I will access it and how long that takes.
   3. Name the 2-3 things most likely to stall me, and suggest a plan B for each.
   4. If the project is too big for 10 weeks, suggest 2-3 ways to narrow it
      (fewer cases, a shorter period, one outcome, one feature).
   Finish with the single biggest risk you see.
   ```

4. **You decide.** Narrow the project if you need to, and choose a plan B for your biggest risk. Narrowing makes the project sharper, not weaker.
5. **You.** Write the proposal in your own words, using the template.
6. **With AI (optional).** Check your draft before you submit:

   ```
   Here is my proposal draft. Do not rewrite it. Tell me whether it clearly covers the question,
   the motivation, and feasibility (what I'll use, how I'll get it, what I'll do with it, the biggest risk
   and plan B). Point out anything a reader would find unclear.
   ```

## Check before moving on

- [ ] You can describe your minimum viable project in one sentence.
- [ ] Every data source or tool you need is *have it* or *can get it this week*.
- [ ] You have a plan B for your biggest risk.
- [ ] The proposal is 300–500 words (or the shorter length for your units), and in your own words.
- [ ] You've attached an AI-use note (`docs/polisci158-ai-use-and-disclosure.md`).
- [ ] With a partner: your work-sharing contract is attached, and both of you have a role in every major step.

## Common traps

- **Scope set by ambition, not by the calendar.**
- **"I'll run a survey"** with no plan for approvals, sampling, or time.
- **A tool you haven't tried yet.** Test the API or dataset *before* the proposal, even for ten minutes.
- **No plan B.** Data access is the most common reason projects stall.

¹ If you believe your project can only work with new data from people (a survey, interviews, an experiment), talk to the teaching team **before** you submit the proposal. That kind of work needs instructor approval and may need review by Stanford's Institutional Review Board (IRB), which oversees research involving people.

---
*Proposal requirements from the POLISCI 158 syllabus, Project Components and Deadlines.*