Project Success Starts With Proper Planning
Managing projects of any size is a tricky task. Like a pirate, you’re rallying a crew to travel from one place to another against the backdrop of an infinite number of external factors that can blow you off course. An adept project manager adapts to changing conditions, gets things done through collaboration, and charts the ship’s course to get where you need to be on-time, under-budget, and without a mutiny.
Two projects are rarely similar, let alone the same. Neither are people. With experience, you start to learn what works for you and the team around you. You’ll notice patterns in how you like to run projects and what drives results.
At the start of each project, I like to dump all my thoughts down into a document before springing into action. Over the years, it’s developed into a template that I use each time I start a project. I’m sharing it here for anyone to use if they think it will help them organise their thoughts, spark their own ideas, and inspire them to action.
In addition, I’ll share a few tips to consider when planning, and nailing, your next big project.
Repeat the why. Then repeat it again. and again.
If the project team doesn’t understand the ‘why’ of the project, how it fits into the business’ overarching strategy, or how they directly contribute to the success of the project you’ll be pushing the stone uphill from the start.
Make this crystal clear in the kick-off meeting, and repeat it until you’re blue in the face. It should feel like you’re repeating yourself — face to face, in video updates, in written project updates. The team will likely start making jokes about your new catchphrase. That’s fine. Whatever it takes to make sure everyone understands how the pieces fit together and gain their buy-in.
Encourage asynchronous communication.
Meetings are expensive, and most are wasteful. Rather than all-hands meetings to go around the houses, encourage quick 1:1 syncs where possible. With the technology we have on hand it’s easier to keep things on track than ever before.
It’s also more respectful of others’ time — particularly when working across multiple time zones and supporting different lifestyles — whether it’s letting night owls do their best work after dark or protecting a parent’s family time.
Document everything.
I hate admin. Always have done. However, experience has taught me that routinely taking care of project admin — documenting everything, sharing detailed updates, keeping files organised etc — saves heaps of time and confusion in the long run.
Well documented task management and updates prevent oodles of time wasted on conversations bringing everyone up to speed or executing on outdated information.
Establish ground rules from the get go.
One of the most common ways I’ve seen projects derailed is when a decision is made, but in some people’s minds the issue remains unresolved and they continually bring it up. When this happens, energy is wasted constantly revisiting an issue and can breed resentment from the team member.
It’s best to get ahead of this at the kick-off meeting and establish ground rules. I like to let the team know that whilst a decision is being made everybody’s input and challenges are encouraged and will be taken into account, but once a decision is made there should be cohesion in moving forward — even if there’s disagreement about the outcome.
Openly share that mistakes will be made by everyone, including yourself, along the journey and commit to a review at the end of the project when you can analyse the decision making processes and improve for next time.
If you’re leading the project, it’s up to you to conduct the orchestra.
Know your key risks, and test your assumptions.
Problems will emerge. Mistakes will inevitably be made. Their occurrence might be out of your direct control, but the response is not. The better prepared you are by knowing where the key risks lie, the better position you’re in to minimise the chances of them happening. You can also figure out what you’ll do if they do.
Likewise, what major assumptions are you making? We tend to be optimistic when planning projects, using variables which seem reasonable in isolation but when combined together would result in something resembling a lucky streak. Identify where you’re making such assumptions and figure out ways to test them cheaply and quickly to create more realistic and accurate projections.
You’ll save yourself a bunch of headaches further down the line.
Understand the culture, and implement major change slowly
I’ve been on the receiving end of this one a few times. Not all projects are fun ones, some involve structural changes that impact people’s work and livelihoods. If that’s the case, go slow to go fast.
Invest the time to understand the culture in which the project is immersed and the timing of the project. Try to understand key stakeholders and those the project will impact — understand their motivations, learn from them, and implement change slowly.
Don’t just jump in and make changes without understanding the cultures and systems that keep a place humming along.
Give everything a deadline.
Self-explanatory, but it is a simple and effective way of ensuring stuff gets done on time. Work with the team to agree on the deadlines rather than dishing them out, ensuring to take into account competing deadlines and priorities.
If there are genuine clashes, find a way around them together. If someone agrees to a deadline, hold them accountable for it. A day late here or there doesn’t seem like much, but that sloppiness compounds and quickly turns into months over the course of a long project.
Enjoy it, and celebrate the wins.
There’s no better feeling than when a team hits a state of flow, gets stuff done, and delivers results. It’s easy to get bogged down in the minutiae of day-to-day project management, losing sight of the woods for the trees.
Take a beat to look around, call out the milestones, and celebrate progress.