The version of this I'm most familiar with is the 4e skill challenge.
Just thinking it through, the challenge consists of:
*A threat to be overcome, or an overall goal - in my experience, in a complex challenge (eg 10 or 12 successes required), this can itself evolve as the challenge unfolds;*A set of elements, probably introduced by and definitely managed by the GM, that oppose the PCs' efforts;*The use of the skill systems to (i) frame local scenes/events within the larger context of the challenge, and (ii) work out what happens to them (based on success or failure of a skill check).
I think it is the first two dot points that establish some structure for the scenes/situations, and that suggest the "latent" scenes/situations; and then the third dot point is how the actual progression of the scenes/situations, and the move from latent to actual, is handled.
Does that seem right to you?
Yeah. I think the key is probably the forward facing nature of this? Like "you will achieve this goal when you get to full" changes the context of how the players and GM interact with the obstacles? There's no hidden guesswork, your actions iterate or are insufficient to address the problem at stake. I think this can be "Event Driven" in that the GM has planned out a set of obstacles between where the players want to go and their ultimate goal, or it can be responsive to the players in a "play to find out" sort of way.