Most course outlines die on the first line, because the first line is the hardest one to write: what does the student need to know first? You don't know. Nobody knows. It's the wrong question.

Outline backwards

Start at the end. Write the result the student walks away with, then ask one question over and over: what has to be true immediately before that? Each answer is a module. Keep going until you reach the state your student is in right now, then flip the list over.

This works because you already know the end. You've taken people there before — in a call, in a client project, in your own work. Reversing it turns outlining from invention into memory.

The template

markdown
MISSION
I help [who] get [specific result] in [timeframe],
without [the objection they'd raise first].

FINISH LINES
Minimum : ______________________________
Target  : ______________________________
Stretch : ______________________________

MODULES (work backwards from the result)
5. ____________________  <- the result itself
4. ____________________  <- what has to be true before 5
3. ____________________  <- what has to be true before 4
2. ____________________  <- what has to be true before 3
1. ____________________  <- where they are today

PER MODULE
  Trainings : 3-5, each one job, each under ten minutes
  Action    : what they DO at the end (write / record / send / submit)
  Evidence  : how you would know they did it

How to fill it in

  1. Write the mission sentence first. One line. If it takes a paragraph, you're describing a topic, not a transformation.
  2. Write the three finish lines before the modules — they set the scope, so the modules can't sprawl.
  3. Fill the module lines from 5 up to 1. Resist the urge to reorder while you write.
  4. Now flip it and read it forwards. If a step feels like a leap, you found a missing module.
  5. Add trainings per module last. This is where most people start, which is why most people never finish.

Four to six modules, not twelve

If you land on twelve, you haven't found twelve steps — you've found one course and its sequel. Pick the modules that get to the promised result and set the rest aside in a file called course two. That file is worth more than it sounds: it's the thing you sell to the people who finish this one.