Driving Project Success
done
Get work
with more ease
Project management is the practice of organizing, tracking, and executing work that involves two or more teams. Some common project initiatives at Clio include developing new product features, redesigning organizational structures, and implementing cross-functional workflows. Having a project management process helps ensure that all stakeholders are aligned in rowing together towards the desired outcome by the defined timeline. It’s also important to note that projects can vary significantly in complexity, and not all projects need the same level of project management structure.
Develop a project plan and team
The best way to set up a project for success is to lay out a proper foundation that keeps key stakeholders on the same page throughout your project’s full life cycle from ideation to completion.
The project planning phase is where you build out a project brief, which is a document that centralizes information, sets direction, defines scope, and identifies team members and their roles. Some key considerations for a project brief include:
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Structure strategicallyWhen it comes to writing, we often think about documents that are full of paragraphs, yet sometimes certain information can be better understood through other formatting styles such as bullet lists, tables, slide decks, and graphs.
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Spoil the punchlineSince we often skim documents for key points before deciding to dive into any details, frontloading your key points will capture your reader’s interest faster. This can be done by opening your message with a subject line, overview summary, or table of contents.
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Create visual appeal and accessibilityIt can be difficult for your reader to stay focused and engaged with a wall of plain text. Spice things up and catch your reader’s attention by chunking your text into sections with headings and bolding keywords or phrases.
What’s the goal, scope, and timeline of the project?
What roles and skills are needed to successfully complete the project?
Ask yourself...
Define clear roles and expectations
Effective discussion and collaboration among team members is crucial to drive project success. Once you’ve developed your project plan and assembled your dream team, facilitate a kick-off meeting to align on project goals, roles, and expectations for how you will work together. Below are two important logistics to consider:
Documentation
Centralize your project files and resources in a shared Google Drive folder for team members to quickly access important details and collaborate on consistent document versions together.
Communication
Establish your channel and cadence of communication, including how and when information will be shared and by who, whether that be through a Slack project team channel, bi-weekly check-in meetings, or asynchronous project status reports.
Who on the project team is responsible for which tasks by which deadlines?
How should the project team work together?
Execute and
track progress
The execution phase—when your team works on their deliverables—will make up the bulk of your project. During this phase, you’ll want to oversee the progress of your tasks and deal with any scope creep (adding/changing work to the project without any formal process) to make sure your team is aligned, on track, and not overwhelmed.
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Structure strategicallyWhen it comes to writing, we often think about documents that are full of paragraphs, yet sometimes certain information can be better understood through other formatting styles such as bullet lists, tables, slide decks, and graphs.
-
Spoil the punchlineSince we often skim documents for key points before deciding to dive into any details, frontloading your key points will capture your reader’s interest faster. This can be done by opening your message with a subject line, overview summary, or table of contents.
-
Create visual appeal and accessibilityIt can be difficult for your reader to stay focused and engaged with a wall of plain text. Spice things up and catch your reader’s attention by chunking your text into sections with headings and bolding keywords or phrases.
How will I manage the progress of each task and the accountability of each task lead?
What are my criteria
and/or contingency plan for potential changes
and risks?
Launch and monitor project deliverables
Did the project team achieve what was set out as the desired outcomes?
Are there any follow-up iterations that need to be made after the project launch?
Project management is not a set-it-and-forget-it process. While you may be tempted to call it a wrap immediately after your go-live date, don’t forget about those project goals and key performance indicators from your project plan. Time to dig them up and check!
Evaluate whether your project deliverables have met your predefined measures of completion and success. If they did, move onto the offboarding phase! If not, establish follow-up actions to iterate your project launch until you’ve achieved your desired outcome.
Debrief project outcomes and offboard the project team
Now that you’ve executed and launched your project, you’re ready to enter the closing stage and wrap up any loose ends. Going through a project readiness checklist can help ensure that you’ve met all the expectations for your project, resolved all issues, and attained all the approvals needed to formally close the project and offboard the team.
Finally, conducting a project debrief will give you and your team an opportunity to reflect on the wins and losses that occurred during your project’s life cycle and enable you to take these learnings to improve future projects.
