Using the main dispute of the litigation as the subject of the conflictineering is not necessary, or even desirable in most conflictineering events. Lawyers have stymied the development of any concept similar to conflictineering for years thinking the case-in-chief was the only source for the subject matter of the conflict. By selecting a subject matter other than the dispute in the litigation, you are allowed greater flexibility and broader options for sustaining the conflict until you can prevail.
 Selection of the subject matter for the conflictineering event is another crucial area of preparation.

 After gaining information, you should next test market a few issues. This can be done in many ways; the easiest is by testing different ideas for a conflictineering event on various people, first friends, and the other people in the community. One important inquiry is to decide if your information is correct, another is to decide if anyone is interested in the issues you plan to create. Using issues that easily polarize people is advantageous.

 You should select an opportune time to begin the conflictineering.  This can be as crucial as anything in the process. The key to selecting the appropriate time to begin is being flexible.  Being flexible enough to delay the beginning is important or even scrap the whole event if conditions change. Your own health considerations and work load are as large a consideration for the timing process as the overload of your adversary. Conflictineering is not a low stress event.

 Whether a private practitioner or a public defender, you must have the financial resources, including time, and the willingness to expend these resources to sustain the conflictineering process to its conclusion. You can't begin an event that will fold due to inadequate commitment of financial resources. The plan for conflictineering must include a budget for both time and money. This budget must be as flexible as any component in the conflictineering process.
 These financial considerations are discussed here because we are constantly amazed at the number of lawyers that fail to realize how their performance in one case affects all of their other cases. For many lawyers in private practice, each project must be cost-effective or they're angry with their client and become unproductive.  Likewise, many public defenders do not put enough time in some cases because the case doesn't seem to justify the time. If each project must be cost-effective, or time-effective, maybe you should not venture into conflictineering; it is not always cost-effective or time-effective.
 For many institutionally employed lawyers, peer acceptance, easy working conditions, approval of their agency's funding source and approval of their behavior by their agency become important considerations. To practice effective conflictineering, you must be prepared to make sacrifices in these areas, for they are often incompatible with true representation of powerless or indigent clients. Many institutions established to represent indigents are opiates for the sponsors. Conflictineering, if done correctly, removes the opiates from the "do-gooder" segments of society that are the pseudo-supporters of indigent representation. When you are preparing for the conflictineering process, be careful in structuring the people who will work on the team. If a person practices life "pro se" -- be careful.

 For people who do not presently work in a team concept environment, the preparation process for conflictineering must include developing a team.  There must be group discussions, planning, and division of responsibility. At a minimum, there needs to be some assignment of roles.

 A rigid plan and a predetermined script limits the power of  the conflictineering concept. It is necessary to talk about and think through alternative plans and to seize opportunities that present themselves.