Extensive planning must be used to produce television programs. Students must develop sound design practices and understand these attributes of design in their production planning. Through the design and planning processes involved in television production, students learn that design is a creative process, and that there is no perfect design, but rather that design is a compromise of several attributes. Throughout the preproduction process, students begin to understand that the planning of their television production needs to be continually checked and critiqued, with proactive refinements to their original plan. This article is designed to introduce the twelve steps of preproduction that film, television, and advertising producers use. The twelve steps of production is an authentic design tool in television production technology that does not hinder student creativity, but rather logically sequences their ideas into a purposeful and working form. Formative rubrics may be used to assess each of the twelve steps. (Contains 4 figures.)