John Lund/Getty Images
-
Tweet
-
Post
-
Share
-
Save
-
Get PDF
-
Buy Copies
-
Print
Deciding when to invest your company’s scarce resources in a project is of strategic importance. Yet, there is currently no management framework available to help executives or individuals with the vital decision of when the right time has arrived. The authors explain how applying the S-curve model can help decision makers. The base of the curve represents a period of investigation where relatively few resources have been committed. The purpose of this phase is to ascertain whether there is really an opportunity in an idea — or not. During this phase is when you should seek answers to six important, foundational questions: 1) Has the project been done before? 2) Is the project part of your core business and will it leverage your strengths? 3) Can you clearly define the scope? 4) What is the investment cost? 5) Do you have buy-in from key leaders and the wider organization? 6) What is the timeline?
Knowing when to start a project is a key factor to its success. And yet it’s a strategic talent very few companies have developed. If you begin a project too soon, chances are high that the project will miss its deadline — if it doesn’t fail outright.
New!
HBR Learning
Innovation Implementation Course
Accelerate your career with Harvard ManageMentor®. HBR Learning’s online leadership training helps you hone your skills with courses like Innovation Implementation. Earn badges to share on LinkedIn and your resume. Access more than 40 courses trusted by Fortune 500 companies.
Help your team hatch and harness the best new ideas.
Start Course
Learn More & See All Courses
You want to be an influential project manager by showing you care about your project, its people, and the process. So how do you do this when you’ve got a new project and a new client? It comes down to knowing what makes a project run well—and what questions to ask to make sure you have those details locked in place.
Before you start any project, take some time to sit down with your client and ask some tough direct questions. This will go a long way in ensuring you’re applying the right processes to the project and setting the right expectations about how your teams will work together.
Here are 7 questions to ask your client to get your project started on the right foot.
Knowing the why behind a project can help keep your team focused on the goal at hand. It also enables you to devise a project strategy that ensures you meet your client’s overall objective.
2. What’s the project deadline? Are there any key milestones, important dates, or time constraints?
Every project has a deadline. Sometimes it’s arbitrary. Other times, it’s related to a meeting, campaign, or other big event that has a hard date. Using event project management software like TeamGantt can help ensure you get everything done on time.
Don’t just sketch out a plan that might make the deadline. Create a project plan that’s based on the urgency of a final date, and keep that in sight. A gantt chart is a great tool for mapping out your project plan, communicating timelines to your team, and tracking progress all the way to the finish.
Want to set your team up for project success? Then have a goal in mind, and establish some clear metrics around those goals. Work closely with your client to determine what criteria will make the project a success. This simple question can help set your team up for success beyond a single project, whether it’s in the form of client referrals, additional projects, or another long-term win.
4. Who is responsible for which project deliverables? Who are the stakeholders involved?
Responsibility is primarily internal. Who owns what part of the project? Make sure your team serves your client’s needs by staying organized and clearly communicating responsibilities. TeamGantt’s free project management software makes it easy to assign tasks and track progress along the way.
Every project also has an owner. It might be the person you’re talking to. It might be that person’s boss. No matter what, you need to know who’s going to give you final approval—and who’s going to sign those checks. Be sure you loop the owner of the project in, and keep them informed at the right steps. It’s important to sort those details out before you start work.
Use a RACI chart to delegate roles and responsibilities so everyone knows how they contribute to a project’s success.
5. How will you communicate feedback and inform stakeholders of project success?
If you’re accepting client feedback and iterating on any of your deliverables, you want to be sure your clients understand how the process works. There’s nothing worse than receiving 5 sets of conflicting feedback and having to sort through it all—it’ll confuse you, annoy you, and set your timeline on fire. Talk about the feedback process and set expectations early on about how you’d like to receive feedback and who should be involved.
It’s not uncommon to educate your clients about your work. This may come in the form of presenting your project plan and explaining your process and each deliverable. It might mean you have to explain the intent of a deliverable before you present it. Either way, knowing just how much effort you put into explaining things will help build trust with your client and set you up as the expert.
6. Has your team been through a project like this in the past?
History can teach us a lot when it comes to running projects. If your client has completed similar projects, they might be able to share some insight on how to make things go smoothly. The more you can learn about what does—and doesn’t—work when it comes to how projects run in your client’s organization, the better prepared you’ll be to create a process that works for them. That way you look like a total pro.
7. Are there any obstacles or barriers that would prevent the project from being successful?
Risks or issues are inherent in any project. As a project manager, it’s your job to predict project risks, then seek and destroy them if possible.So why not ask your client what risks they might see before you even get started? There’s no shame in starting a project with the upper hand! Plus, keeping your clients happy will boost your mood as you keep things on track.
Consider this example: You’re ready to present the biggest deliverable of the project, and your client declines the meeting because their company will be closed for a staff meeting. Your plan’s thrown off, putting the final deadline at risk. You can easily avoid that situation by simply asking for a peek at your client’s calendar. (You also might want to ask this question again midway through the project because schedules change often!)
Keep clients happy with TeamGantt
Looking for a simple way to stay on top of project risk and communicate clearly with your clients? With TeamGantt, it’s easy to track progress and share project updates with your clients and other stakeholders.
You’ll have all the features you need to ensure projects finish on time and under budget, including:
- Drag and drop simplicity
- Easy team collaboration
- Customizable views
- Team availability & workload management
- Planned timeline vs. actual timeline
- Dedicated mobile app
Give our online project management software a free try today!