Tag: Project Management

Consulting Project Management: Strategy & Tactics

Strategy

When I started my first professional job in Spring 2012, I had no idea that Project Management was an entire industry with certifications, academic literature, and week-long seminars. I was fortunate (or not so fortunate) to never receive this training, and instead developed an approach through trial and error, and lots of great advice and coaching from managers over the last eleven years. This is an attempt to write down what I’ve learned so far, mostly through the lens of a consulting organization.

  • Create a project plan – even if you never update it again.
    • Where can you see there will be disruptions? For example, if your project stretches over Thanksgiving and the December holidays, you already know you’ve lost three weeks (give or take) of time to work – make sure you distribute the work accordingly.Who will miss time from the project team? Vacations, parental leave, etc. Build it in.
    • Other deadlines in other projects you are not leading? Make sure to confirm them with that engagement manager / PM and plan around them, if possible.
  • Set your milestone dates in advance, if possible, and work backwards.
    • Where possible, ask Clients or MD / Director for any natural milestones to tie our work to – i.e., council meetings, election cycles, budget cycles, etc.
  • Insist on having an internal kick-off meeting
  • Make sure you have a kick-off meeting with the client, too
  • All tasks should have a deadline, all deadlines should assume one additional round of revision.
    • For example, we need to draft an outline for a final report on tax policy recommendations; this task needs 1) due date to the client (meeting scheduled already), 2) final version sent to client ahead of time (if applicable), 3) date to be sent to “reviewer” (I.e., Director, SME, etc.), and 4) internal meeting to discuss / brainstorm (if needed)
  • Learn to love your calendar. As an analyst, meetings are few and far between. As you’ll soon read in this guide, being a great PM will require a solid number of productive meetings. At many firms, you’ll still be expected to do significant analyst-type work – often up to and including your time as a senior leader. Use the points below as a guide to get started.
    • Schedule out as far as you can – when possible, set meetings to be recurring (bi-weekly, monthly, or even quarterly in some cases).Schedule your analyst tasks as meetings with yourself. If you need three hours to write a report or ninety minutes to QC someone’s analysis, put it on the calendar. If you need to stop for lunch (Author’s note: I do my best to schedule my lunch hour a month in advance), then make sure you have an hour booked mid-day.
      • IMPORTANT NOTE: Once you get consistent at booking this time, anyone viewing your calendar will have a more accurate understanding of how “busy” you are at any given time. (Author’s note: This is why more senior members of the team regularly look at my calendar and say it looks more packed than theirs. The truth is they probably have just as much to do, but I look “busier” because I’ve actually tried to account for all the hours I need to do the work!!) This is invaluable when it comes time to honestly communicate your capacity to meet a tight deadline or add another project midstream.
    • Adopt “Power Scheduling” principals. Like all good management systems, no one follows this 100% of the time, but in general, these guidelines help with productive work flows:
      • Know yourself! When do you do your best work? Make sure you are scheduling your most important tasks / meetings for those windows whenever possible. Getting ahead and staying ahead helps here, for sure.  As an example, I often start to drag around 2PM, so I will try to schedule low-value meetings during that time since I won’t be doing much work anyway.Know your team. Don’t be inflexible, and don’t say ‘I’m doing this to follow Power Scheduling!’ Just default to these choices and the rest will fall into place.Book yourself back-to-back, but not all day. Two one-hour meetings or three thirty-minute meetings is probably the outer limit of what can be productive if you are leading each one. Schedule a break in between, then go back-to-back again if possible.Monday / Friday: Internally focused days and nights. Try to schedule as many of your internal meetings on these days as possible. Reserve your evenings for time with family, friends, etc.Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday: Externally focused days. Schedule your client meetings and internal working meetings for these days. Reserve the 9AM, Noon, and 4PM hours for yourself (sending emails, having lunch, etc). These are the target days for any after work professional / networking type events or outings. These responsibilities are very infrequent early in the PM’s career, but increase over time.Saturday / Sunday: Can be used sparingly for work. In the official Power Scheduling system, Saturday morning is reserved for closing out any items that didn’t get attention during the week. I don’t personally find this valuable except when I’m really swamped, but obviously your mileage may vary.
      • FINAL NOTE ON POWER SCHEDULING: Again, it’s not an exact science. The keys are being mindful of the things you need to do each week, and making them as repeatable and as simple as possible. Once your calendar is pre-loaded with some of these “big rocks” you can fill in around them more easily.
  • As a general rule, assume no one will do anything related to your project unless you directly tell them it is their responsibility and that it is needed by a certain date / time; even then, be sure to follow-up if you do not hear back from this person in a reasonable timeframe (silence is almost never an affirmative answer).
  • Relatedly, if you are assigned to a project and no one else is obviously the project manager, consider yourself the project manager unless and until someone else tells you not to play that role.
    • This would apply to tasks like scheduling, note taking, meeting agendas and follow-ups, etc.
  • Goals, Roles, and Budget – the most important parts of every project.
    • Goals: from the client and MD / Director – what does success look like for this project? What specifically does the client need from us (i.e., capacity, guidance, a specific deliverable, etc.)?
    • Roles: who is the project lead (“Engagement Manager”)? Who needs to sign off on major documents / presentations / etc.? Who leads the regular meetings? Who is the project manager (“second chair”)? Who is the analyst?
      • Project Roles also apply to (and may differ from) roles related to specific documents and meetings, see more on this below
    • Budget: for a given organization, this may be more about time than money – so be sure to apply your leader’s approach to this element of PM.
      • Based on the scope of work, who is expected to do the majority of the work? Who else can be involved as an expert or support if needed for extra capacity? How much is the project worth – and by extension, are we comfortable going over budget for any particular reasons (i.e., opportunity for staff training, marketing purposes, helping to win future work, etc.)?
  • Ship something every two weeks. It will probably need to be in draft form in many cases – this is a good thing! It forces the PM to play more of a role in creating templates or very early drafts for internal work.
    • If this fits your project plan, great. If not, consider how you can have some “thing” (a topic, a draft document, a key question) to bring to each bi-weekly meeting.
    • Always try to deliver your major project deliverables at these bi-weekly meetings – it saves time on scheduling and keeps your client on a rhythm of focusing on this project.
  • As a result, meet with your client once every two weeks.
    • Depending on the project, this may not be entirely necessary; meeting frequency should be agreed upon by your team and the client as part of the kick-off meeting
  • Notes on scheduling any and all client meetings, including bi-weekly meetings:
    • Always provide at least three options for dates / times
    • Always clarify the length of the meeting – 30 minutes, 60 minutes, or longer, as needed (and only with Client / Engagement Manager approval).
    • Always provide times in the time zone of the client (or most senior person on the client team, if it differs)
    • Use calendar HOLDS when scheduling for someone with a tight calendar (I.e., most MDs and Directors); this means sending calendar invitations for each meeting window clearly labeled “HOLD – PROJECT X MEETING” and sending these BEFORE you send the email to the group you are scheduling
    • Once the meeting is scheduled, delete the HOLDs you no longer need
  • Meetings must have an agenda and clearly assigned roles – who will present what, who is preparing any documents to present, who is sharing their screen, etc. The level of preparation definitely scales according to the importance of the meeting, though it should always be clear
    • If no clear agenda, reach out to those attending to ask for topics or to cancel.
    • Meetings must have an assigned notetaker, and they MUST identify the next steps and who is responsible for each.
  • Documentation must be intentional and consistent. Ideally, every activity in a project will be captured by some sort of documentation. Without this documentation, you can easily get lost or forget a critical decision. (Author’s note: This recently happened to me with a project where roles were inconsistent, and I made the mistake of not assuming notetaking responsibility. The decision I did not capture was pretty important – the date selected to launch a survey).
    • Meeting notes: Every meeting should have notes taken and saved in a central location. If there were not noteworthy items in a meeting, it should not have happened in the first place!
    • Emails: As a general rule, I try to not have something in email only, because it is unreliable and less accessible than a shared drive. However, for internal items or basic information sharing, it is of course an acceptable document. If you write a great email with lots of information in it, consider printing it as a PDF and saving to the client drive.
  • Meetings must have a follow-up email, promptly (within 24-48 hours of meeting) with clear and direct next steps, assignments, and deadlines.
    • Use bullet points to separate out the next steps
    • If scheduling a meeting is a next step, consider whether to include it in this message or send a separate email to the relevant project team members
  • Internal meetings – as needed, but assume you need more than you do. Meet too much first.
    • Again, having an agenda is critical; roles can vary by what type of meeting – if you want to brainstorm something, prompt the team so they come prepared; if you want to present a draft of something, consider whether you need to send it ahead of time (not a requirement)
    • For managing specific analysts, consider a once-per-week check-in for 15 minutes, three question agenda
      • What did you work on last week?
      • What are you working on this week?
      • Are you stuck anywhere / on anything?
  • When in doubt, send an email.
    • How are we feeling?
    • What did you think of that meeting?
    • Where should we go next?
    • Should we ask an MD / Director / Senior Advisor what they think?
    • Does the timeline still feel right? Do we need to speed up / slow down / change something?

Understanding Strategy vs. Tactics

Strategy

This post was inspired by Mr. Timothy Richards, who I had the pleasure of studying under while attending the University of Pennsylvania. His graduate-level course, “Strategic Engagement with Governments,” was among my favorite I’ve taken at any academic level.

Whether you are reading about sport, politics, movement building, or are just mindlessly scrolling your social media feed – you are engaging with strategy almost constantly. Though it is ubiquitous, it is also often misunderstood or misapplied within organizations. Many of my clients came to us with problems that were merely symptoms of deeper issues. “We need to rebrand because the restaurant down the block is crushing us.” “Our website is outdated, so our online donations are down this year.”

It is important to address these surface-level issues in most cases, but in others, you need to start at the beginning. Is that other restaurant really more crowded because of its logo? Are you asking enough supporters to donate to make your goals? These questions move you beyond your presenting symptoms to your central issue. They lead you to strategy.

What is strategy?

In simple terms, strategy is your plan to get from A to B under ideal conditions. With zero friction, changes, or challenges your strategy would lead you on the most direct path to success. It represents why, how, and what for your organization, your team, or a campaign.

For example, your strategy for getting your car washed might be:

  1. Get in the car
  2. Drive to the car wash
  3. Wash the car
  4. Return home

While it is not the most complex strategic approach, it does fit our definition, and it isn’t the only path forward. For example, an alternative strategy might be to simply walk out to your driveway and wash your car at home. This would still get you from A to B – your current state to your desired future state – just in a much different way from the first strategy.

Knowing which approach is best for you will require three pieces of data – knowledge of the past, observation of the present, and forecast of the future. Historically, have you been happy with your local car wash? Do you have time to drive across town and back? Are there other services (waxing, vacuuming, etc) that you will need that can’t be done at home easily? You can imagine applying this to your organization, department, or individual contributions as well.

What are tactics? And how do they interact with strategy?

Once you decide you’d prefer to go out to the car wash, you can begin implementing your strategy. Go outside. Get in your car. Start driving to the car wash. But what happens if something external interferes with your strategy? Let’s say, even though it wasn’t forecast, you notice rain clouds rolling in as you drive to the car wash. No one wants to wash their car right before a storm that will muck it up again. In this situation, you might want to abandon your strategy.

But you have a goal! You want to get your car washed. Do you continue following your strategy? Or do you need to make a change? This is where tactics come in to play. A tactic can be thought of as a tool to use in case your strategy doesn’t work out exactly as it should. You will be reading and reacting to the environment as your strategy unfolds, and tactics are how you course correct or take advantage of opportunities. In the case of the car wash, your tactic might be “retreat” for now, and go back out after the rain clears. This way you still get from A to B, but you are not sacrificing reaching your goal of a clean car (for more than a few hours).

Organizations don’t always do the best with tactics. Oftentimes, leadership promotes their goals over all else. The strategic plan either reigns supreme or sits on a shelf and is replaced with the desires of executives. Tactics can be viewed as “failures” or “abandoning the strategy,” when in reality they are simply a pivot or, to borrow from the negotiation field, the BATNA. If your strategy is to increase turnout at your events, but volunteers aren’t responding well to your free t-shirts, you might consider changing tactics. Maybe diverting that funding to food, entertainment, or childcare would help to bump up your numbers. It doesn’t mean that you were failing, it just means a new tactic was needed.

Conclusion

Your strategy is your plan A – what you would do if there was zero friction and no change in the wind. Tactics are what you need when you rollout your strategy in the real world, and you find that your strategy runs into blockers. Knowing the difference is helpful, but its even more important to get comfortable with moving between the two as you approach your mission.

Kotter’s Model: How a change management approach improves digital projects

Strategy

This post was originally written in September 2019 for the Message Agency blog.

Digital projects usually seek to both decrease costs and increase efficiency through the use of technology. If the choice was “either-or,” these projects might not be as attractive to decision-makers. Most want to understand the “both-and” proposition.

John Kotter spent nearly three decades on the faculty at Harvard Business School. His 1996 book, Leading Change, was an international best seller. In 2011, TIME® magazine listed it as one of the “Top 25 Most Influential Business Management Books” of all time.

While it is most commonly taught in leadership and management contexts, I find his 8-step process for managing change to be invaluable for managing projects with our clients. To paraphrase Kotter on the topic, there are two fundamental goals at the heart of most digital projects:

  1. Increase revenue / equity or decrease costs
  2. Become more effective / efficient

Many astute managers would ask the question:  Why not both? Digital projects, in particular, usually seek to both decrease costs and increase efficiency through the use of technology. If the choice was “either-or,” these projects might not be as attractive to decision-makers. Most want to understand the “both-and” proposition.

Fortunately, by following some of the key steps in Kotter’s eponymous model, you can manage costs and increase the effectiveness of your digital project.  Achieving this goal is particularly important for nonprofit organizations and others with limited budgets, who need to ensure a substantial return on their organizations’ investments.

Urgency, Urgency, Urgency!

Like the famous rallying cry of real estate agents everywhere regarding location, the one thing your project simply can’t do without is Urgency. The unfortunate reality is that some projects will fail for one reason or another. You’ve probably been part of projects that got off the ground but couldn’t stay the course. Or maybe one decision maker’s flavor of the week replaced a more sustained effort from years past.

Regardless of the context you find yourself in when embarking on a new digital project, it is imperative that you find a source of urgency. This can come in many forms, including:

  • Executive sponsorship and support (e.g., your new ED recognizes a need to improve the website);
  • Alignment with a key milestone (e.g., your organization is celebrating its 50th year in operation);
  • Acknowledgement of the danger in maintaining the status quo (e.g., your website is end-of-life next year, and you need to raise funds for a redesign). 

Wherever you find your sense of urgency, Kotter recommends that you should do what you can to protect it!  We agree, as 50% of transformations fail at this first crucial step. Maintaining a sense of urgency means your project will be more likely to get prioritized by you and your colleagues.

Great Guiding Coalition

Your project team is another major variable in the success of your new digital strategy, website, or public education campaign. While you need dedicated resources to manage the day-to-day of your project, you also need to go beyond the usual suspects in order to ensure success. 

A great guiding coalition will include:

  • Diversity in diverse forms (e.g., level, tenure, ideas, and departments);
  • A strong project manager to consolidate communication; and
  • Accountability to the project goals.

Accountability in this case goes beyond attending meetings and checking boxes. The project team should have the goals aligned with their own department or functional goals. Digital projects can often be considered “internal work,” but should be prioritized in the same way as serving end users. 

Generating Quick Wins

During project planning, it is imperative that milestones are agreed upon early. At the same time, coalition members should be asking:  “What can we show (or implement) at the end of each phase?” This evidence of change could be as simple as a list of actions taken, lessons learned, or an immediate process improvement. Quick wins build credibility and generate support for the digital project across relevant teams. 

For example, if your user research uncovers that most donors are donating online, but you don’t have a link to donate on your homepage, could you simply add a donate button today? If so, you can address a specific, evidence-based need and demonstrate to colleagues that you are focused on tangible outcomes.  

Sustain Acceleration, Institute Change

Your coalition is collaborating at a high level. You’ve maintained your sense of urgency along the way. The quick wins are piling up, and your digital project has become the envy of the office. So, you’re good right?

Not yet.

During the project, you’ve surely bumped up against a few barriers, or found elements of your internal processes to be restrictive. Now is your chance to consider how they might be improved. Use your success so far to address a new goal that fits the overall project vision. 

For example, in creating a content strategy to drive more volunteer sign-ups through your site, you realize the intake form is not very user-friendly. To maximize the effectiveness of your website redesign, work with your volunteer coordinator to make improvements that can launch with the new site. 

Getting the additional input from their department while making an update that improves user experience is a win-win. As you build momentum in your digital project, don’t overlook opportunities to fuel further positive change. 

On the path to digital transformation

Kotter’s model can be applied to any change management process, but it is especially helpful for digital projects, where multiple stakeholders, complex technologies, and competing interests can quickly hamper progress. Change is always challenging, but if you follow some of these simple steps to help build trust and maintain momentum, it doesn’t need to be painful.