I know having spoken to many OBMs, ops managers and project managers that one of the trickiest parts of managing projects and businesses successfully is getting started.
How do I get all my pieces on the board?
“I’m great at following a project plan. I can smash through making sure things are done and done on time. But when I’m staring at that blank canvas, somebody help me.”
Let me give you a really easy way to put the core components on your board to get started with a successful project plan.
This episode shares:
- End Goal: The clearer that vision is, the easier it will be for you to identify what’s needed to achieve it
- Main components: What are the main components that are going to need to happen here?
- People: What people are needed?
- Timeline: Doing some rational thinking and some logical steps is going to make your project run smoother
- Hurdles: Identify possible hurdles we might come across when we’re trying to deliver a project
- Solutions: Have possible solutions upfront will help us make clear and consistent decisions
- Essentials: What are they?
- Nice to haves: The breaking point for something achievable
End Goal
The first thing is to set your end goal.
When we are doing any project, we need to keep in mind what we want to achieve with this project. Why are we even doing this? What impact does it have on the business? What do we want it to look like at the very end? Why does this project even exist? What is our aim here?
Try and get as much detail around that as you can. Because the clearer that vision is, the easier it will be for you to identify what’s needed to achieve it. When there’s all these grey areas and all this fuzz, it gets really hard for you to know, are we looking at apples or oranges? Do I need seven people or four? Is this, a big beast, bigger than Ben Hur? Or is this just something small that we want to implement and do because it’s fun?
We need to know what the end goal is. We need to be able to think and feel and see what that looks like, if you don’t know, ask. Sit down with your client and say, all right, I’m going to map all of this out, but I have some questions for you and ask them specific questions.
Give them if else’s. Okay, so do you mean you want to create a whole new membership with its own brand, its messaging for a different audience or do you mean you want to create another option within your current membership that people can opt in for? Give them scenarios so that you can get the understanding you need to make sure this is successful.
Sometimes this can be a 15-minute conversation. It doesn’t have to be a massive one. Or sometimes it needs to be, an hour-long planning session. For you to flesh out with your client what we’re doing, you lead that, that’s what you’re there for. Once you’ve got your end goal, once you know what you’re trying to achieve, then we can chunk it.
If that’s what I’m trying to achieve, a new membership, what are the main things that become part of this? this is where you brain dump a little bit because a lot of the time we will get stuck trying to categorize things before they’re even in front of us. Well, hang on. Is that a person? Is that a financial consideration?
Tip💡: Take the time to sit down and clearly define your project’s end goal. Document your vision in as much detail as possible. If clarity is missing, arrange a concise meeting with stakeholders or clients to ask targeted questions that help refine this vision.
Main components
The next thing you can do is brainstorm all those main components. Okay, we’re gonna need a designer. These are the kinds of things we’re gonna need to design.
We’re going to need sales pages, gonna need a web dev. We’re gonna need the technology that the web dev will use.
Let your brain popcorn around a bit because that way you are going to cover all the bases. Once you’ve let your brain do that, stop, take a break, come back, and start to group things together.
What are the main components that are going to need to happen here? What is it can you do it in phases?
Tip💡: Hold a freeform brainstorming session where you list everything you might need for the project, from people to technology.
People
Some people will list out all the tasks, some people will list out all the processes, some people will list out all the different pieces of impact, and some people will think about it in a start-to-finish order and put in random bits.
It’s more the phase that they can group into however you want to do it. It’s fine. The biggest thing is getting it out. All the things that need to happen, then let’s chunk them into little groups, whatever makes sense for what you’ve got. So whether that is phase one, phase two, phase three, whether that is the technical components, okay. Website, emails, social media, marketing. Whether it’s department, accounting, customer service, operations, or whatever it is, start to group them.
Then once you’ve got your main components, we can start to pull that out a little bit. For these components, what are the people that are needed?
Let’s start looking at some resources. What are the people that are going to be able to execute this stuff? Do we have the people? Do we need other people? What are the options we have? Map that out for each of your components. What are the finances? So is there a financial component or a budget we need to consider?
Looking at our components, our big chunky bits, Are we going to have to get a new person in? How much is that going to cost? Are we going to have to buy a new tool? How much is that going to cost? Let’s start putting some of these pieces in place. Making our project nice and full.
Tip💡: Assess the manpower required for each component of your project. Determine if your current team can cover all bases or if external hires are necessary. Consider both skill sets and the availability of your team members.
Timeline
Once we know what we have to work with, once we can see the things that have to get done, then, and only then, do we move toward the timeline.
We start to plot things out. Then, you can layer things over the top and you can move things easier because it becomes almost like a fill-in-the-blank.
Taking pieces from one bucket and putting them in another. Every time you take something from your main component list and you put it on that timeline, you have one thing less in your component bucket, one more thing on your timeline. What you’re doing here is making sure you’re not going to miss anything.
Checking that it makes sense as you’re doing it. If you’re putting something on your timeline and you’re going, hang on a second, this isn’t going to work because I know for this component, that’s going to take weeks. It’s not going to take a day. Maybe I need to wiggle the timeline and then you deal with that before you go and add another component to your timeline.
Doing some rational thinking and some logical steps as you’re building it, is going to make your project run smoother until you’ve got all those main components out of your bucket and onto your timeline. Now you’ve got a really solid timeline starting place. You’ve got all your milestones there.
Tip💡: Only start mapping out your timeline after you’ve defined the components and resources you have. Plot each task or phase on the timeline, allowing for flexibility.
Hurdles
I want you to start thinking about the validity of this project. What can I do to achieve my end goal with the least friction? We want to think about what are the possible hurdles that we might come across when we’re trying to deliver that?
If we’ve got all our components, we know what our end goal is, where we’re trying to head, we’re looking at our timeline where we’ve put everything together, what are the things that might go wrong here?
It is going to mean tight turnarounds, and I need my team to work together so that it can have that quick hot potato impact. I need you to be on time so that the next person can and the next person can because that is going to be a critical point. Looking at the information you have, what are the hurdles? What if we can’t find a specific tool that’s going to do this thing we need it to do? Pre-plan as much of this as you can. Look at it and think, what would shift the ability for us to complete this project? List them all down.
Tip💡: Identify potential challenges that could derail your project. Look at your timeline, resources, and project components to anticipate roadblocks. Discussing these with your team can provide additional insights and help you better prepare for unforeseen issues.
Solutions
Put your solutions cap on.
Look at that list and go, is this likely to occur? Is this something that will really derail this project if it does occur? And that’s how you weigh up whether it’s worth pre-planning a solution or not.
If it’s highly likely to occur, yes, we want a solution. If it’s, not likely that it’ll occur, and if it does occur, is it something that we’re going to be able to fix on the fly or do we need a solution now?
Like weighing all these things up. If it is something that is going to have a really big impact and stop the project in its tracks. You want a solution for that first so that then when we get there, we’re not panicking and we’re not making decisions that aren’t quite logical because we’re stressed and under pressure.
Having possible solutions upfront will help us make clear, consistent decisions, it will give us stability because we’ve already thought about it. We’ve got a backup plan. We just switch gears.
Tip💡: For each identified hurdle, brainstorm potential solutions or preventative measures. Prioritise solutions based on the likelihood and impact of each challenge. Having a plan in place for major risks allows you to navigate challenges more calmly and effectively.
Essentials
Think about that end goal again, then I want you to look at all of your components and think about what are the essentials here. Look at all your components and think about what are the essentials here.
If this is our end goal, what are the things that absolutely must happen that this project will be a failure without that? They become your priority. That is your baseline. That’s what you’re trying to achieve. If you complete this project and those things have all been ticked off and exist, well done.
Tip💡: Review your project components in light of your end goal. Identify the non-negotiables—elements that are critical for success.
Nice to haves
Are there things in this plan that are nice to have? Are there bonuses? It would be cool if we had this. But will the project objective not be met without it? Because when we’re planning things, especially if it’s new and we’re working with visionaries, we get excited and we have all these ideas.
We want it all now because it’s exciting and it will make it better. But sometimes things have to happen in iterations. As much as we will always try to include the nice-to-haves, we need to know, what is the breaking point here for something achievable to get created, versus something that is way too big and really will never exist because we’re trying to achieve too much.
This also gives the ability that when you are moving through your project, and see how it rolls out. And what in reality gets created, if you need to drop some stuff out of the project or move it to phase two, you’ve already got a list of nice-to-haves. You already know which of the bits to pull versus leaving everything in and then not completing this project at all.
Tip💡: Distinguish between the must-haves and the nice-to-haves. While innovative ideas and additional features are exciting, they should not compromise the core project objectives. Be prepared to phase out or postpone these elements if necessary to ensure the success of the essentials.
And… that’s a wrap!
Your success rate in project management and project completion will go way up because you’ve got a really solid idea of what you’re aiming for.
You’ve already set up phase two of your project. You already know the bits that are going to have to be done. You’ve already seen the kinds of hurdles that you’ve had to face and got solutions for them and it rolls on and it becomes easier and easier.
I hope that that gives you a really simple framework that you can follow so that next time you’re sitting in front of that blank screen and you’re thinking, there’s so many different ways I could do this. What’s the right way? What’s the best way?
How do I even get started? But now you can just move through these simple steps and you’ll have something you’re looking at quite quickly that you can play with and move around.
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Follow along with the transcript
E36 Project planning: The Art of breaking things down
Leanne Woff: Hello, hello, hello, lovely. How are you today? Okay, today we are [00:01:00] getting stuck into project planning, the art of breaking things down. I know having spoken to many in OBM, an ops manager, a project manager, that one of the trickiest parts of managing projects and businesses successfully is getting started.
How do I get all my pieces on the board? I’m great at following a project plan. I can smash through making sure things are done and done on time. But when I’m staring at that blank canvas, somebody help me. So today I am going to give you a really easy way to put the core components on your board to get started with a successful project plan.
The first thing is set your end goal. So when we [00:02:00] are doing any project, we need to keep in mind what we want to achieve with this project. Why are we even doing this? What impact does it have on the business? What do we want it to look like at the very end? Why does this project even exist? What is our aim here?
Try and get as much detail around that as you can. Because the clearer that vision is, the easier it will be for you to identify what’s needed to achieve it. When there’s all these grey areas and all this fuzz, it gets really hard for you to know, are we looking at apples or oranges? Do I need seven people or four?
Is this, a big, big beast, bigger than Ben Hur? Or is this just something small that we want to implement and do because it’s fun? We need to know what the end goal is. We need to be able to think and feel [00:03:00] and see what that looks like. And if you don’t know, ask. Sit down with your client and say, all right, I’m going to map all of this out, but I have some questions for you and ask them specific questions.
Give them if else’s. Okay, so do you mean you want to create a whole new membership with its own brand, its own messaging for a different audience or do you mean you want to create another option within your current membership that people can opt in for? Give them scenarios so that you can get the understanding you need to make sure this is successful.
And sometimes this can be a 15 minute conversation. It doesn’t have to be a big, massive one. Or sometimes it needs to be, an hour long planning session. For you to really flesh out with your client what we’re doing, you lead that, that’s what you’re [00:04:00] there for. Once you’ve got your end goal, once you know what you’re trying to achieve, then we can chunk it.
And if that’s what I’m trying to achieve, a new membership, what are the main things that become part of this? And this is where you brain dump a little bit because a lot of the time we will get stuck trying to categorize things before they’re even in front of us. Well, hang on. Is that a person? Is that a financial consideration?
Is it a task that will need to get done? And we hold ourselves back. So the first thing that you can do is brainstorm all those main components. Okay, we’re gonna need designer. These are the kinds of things we’re gonna need to design. We’re going to need sales pages, gonna need a web dev. We’re gonna need the technology that the web dev will use.
Let your brain popcorn around a bit[00:05:00] because that way you are going to cover all the bases. Once you’ve let your brain do that, stop, take a break, come back and start to group things together. So what are the main components that are going to need to happen here? What is it can you do it in phases?
All right. I’ve identified the processes. The way that everybody does this is different and that is okay. Some people will list out all the tasks, some people will list out all the processes, some people will list out all the different pieces of impact, some people will think about it in a start to finish order and put in random bits.
So it’s more the phase that they can group into however you want to do it. It’s fine. The biggest thing is getting it out. So all the things that need to happen, then let’s chunk them into little [00:06:00] groups, whatever makes sense for what you’ve got. So whether that is phase one, phase two, phase three, whether that is the technical components, okay. Website, emails, social media, marketing. Whether it’s department, accounting, customer service, operations, whatever it is, start to group them. Then once you’ve got your main components, we can start to pull that out a little bit. For these components, what are the people that are needed?
So let’s start looking at some resources, yeah. What are the people that are going to be able to execute this stuff? Do we have the people? Do we need other people? What are the options we have? Map that out for each of your components. What is the the finances? So is there a financial component or a budget we need to consider?
Looking at our components, our [00:07:00] big chunky bits, Are we going to have to get a new person in? How much is that going to cost? Are we going to have to buy a new tool? How much is that going to cost? Let’s start putting some of these pieces in place. Making our project nice and full. And then, we want to start looking at the timeline.
Once we know what we have to work with, once we can see the things that actually have to get done, then, and only then, do we move toward timeline. And we start to plot things out. Because then, you can layer things over the top and you can move things easier because it becomes almost like a fill in the blank.
You’re taking pieces from one bucket and putting them in another. And so every time you take something from your main component list and you put it on that timeline, you have one thing less in your component bucket, one more thing on your timeline.[00:08:00] What you’re doing here is making sure you’re not going to miss anything.
And you’re checking that it makes sense as you’re doing it. If you’re putting something on your timeline and you’re going, hang on a second, this isn’t actually going to work because I know for this component, that’s going to take weeks. It’s not going to take a day. Maybe I need to wiggle the timeline and then you deal with that before you go and add another component onto your timeline.
And so you’re doing some rational thinking and some logical steps as you’re building it, which is going to make your project run smoother until you’ve got all those main components out of your bucket and onto your timeline. Now you’ve got a really solid timeline starting place. You’ve got all your milestones there.
The big blocks for this. Now, I want you to start thinking about the validity [00:09:00] of this project. So what can I do to achieve my end goal with the least friction? And the first thing is that we want to think about What are the possible hurdles that we might come across when we’re trying to deliver that? So if we’ve got all our components, we know what our end goal is, we know where we’re trying to head, we’re looking at our timeline where we’ve put everything together, what are the things that might go wrong here?
Okay, I know that in part C of my timeline, there’s a lot in there. It is going to mean really tight turnarounds, and I need my team working together so that it can have that quick hot potato impact. I need you to be on time so that the next person can so the next person can, because that is going to be a critical point. So, looking at the information you [00:10:00] have, what are the hurdles? What if we can’t find a specific tool that’s going to do this thing we need it to do? Pre-plan as much of this as you can. Look at it and think, what would actually shift the ability for us to complete this project? List them all down. And then, put your solutions cap on.
Look at that list and go, is this something that is likely to occur? Is this something that will really derail this project if it does occur? And that’s how you weigh up whether it’s worth pre-planning a solution or not. If it’s highly likely to occur, yes, we want a solution. If it’s, not really likely that it’ll occur and if it does occur, is it something that we’re going to be able to fix on the fly or do we need a solution now?
Like weighing all these things up. If it is something that is going to have a really big impact, and stop the [00:11:00] project in its tracks. You want a solution for that first so that then when we get there, we’re not panicking and we’re not making decisions that aren’t quite logical because we’re stressed and under pressure.
We want to make clear, consistent decisions. Having possible solutions up front will give us that, it will give us our stability because we’ve already thought about it. We’ve got a backup plan. We just switch gears. And then the last thing that I want you to do is to think about that end goal again. And then I want you to look at all of your components and think about what are the essentials here.
If this is our end goal. What are the things that absolutely must happen that this project will be a failure without that? They become your priority. That is your baseline. That’s what you’re trying to achieve. If you complete this project and those things have all been [00:12:00] ticked off and exist, well done.
Are there things in this plan that are nice-to-haves? That are bonuses? Hey, it would be really cool if we had this. But will the project objective not be met without it? Because when we’re planning things, especially if it’s new and we’re working with visionaries, we get excited and we have all these ideas.
And we want it all now because it’s exciting and it will make it better. But sometimes things have to happen in iterations. As much as we will always try to include the nice-to-haves, we need to know, what is actually the breaking point here for something that is achievable to get created, versus something that is way too big and really will never exist because we’re trying to achieve too much.
This also [00:13:00] gives the ability that when you are moving through your project, seeing how it rolls out. And what in reality gets created, if you need to drop some stuff out of the project or move it to phase two, you’ve already got a list of nice-to-haves. You already know which of the bits to pull versus leaving everything in and then not completing this project at all.
And so your success rate project management and project completion will go way up because you’ve got a really solid idea of what you’re aiming for. And then you’ve already set up phase two of your project. You already know the bits that are going to have to be done. You’ve already seen the kinds of hurdles that you’ve had to face and got solutions for them.
And it rolls on and it becomes easier and easier. So I hope that that gives you a really simple framework that you can follow so that next [00:14:00] time you’re sitting in front of that blank screen and you’re thinking, there’s so many different ways I could do this. What’s the right way? What’s the best way?
How do I even get started? But now you can just move through these simple steps and you’ll have something you’re looking at quite quickly that you can play with and move around. Let me know if this was helpful, please leave me a comment, send me a DM, say hello. And if you found this helpful, please leave me a five star review about what you loved most.
See you next week, guys. [00:15:00]