“OK dream team. . . we are focusing on idea #10234 today and it needs to be completely executable in 3 – 4 weeks (ideally). Let’s bust it out team! And break!!”
Team prepares to dive in, you make the to do list, brainstorm out the copy, maybe you announce your incredible excitement over new fangled amazing idea #10234 that will be live and ready in just short of a month.
You are all in, rollin’ up your sleeves, rockin’ a top knot and have your go get ’em Pandora station on full blast.
Oh. . . snap. There’s one little problem.
The to do list is now epicly LONG and you may have over extended yourself (again)!
What to do? How to pivot, make time up, and still be close to the “live” date?
Breath girl, I got you! This is nothing new and it is a problem that is somewhat easily fixable.
You may have missed a crucial point in developing this project: Paying attention to the 3 stages of project development. Development, Strategy, and Execution!
I know, BORING! Total snoozeville! We want to dive right in to all the fun parts and the things that light us up. But planning and executing a project (like amazing project #10234) is what will take it from ho-hum, thrown together to fantastic launch/execution/reveal!
When we here at FPM build out project plans and execution dates we typically start with the “live” date, then work backwards to set the proper timing for each stage. Some projects- like a launch of a program, completely new service, or big time reveal- need more development. While other projects – like a 3-4 part training series or new structure to your newsletter- don’t require as much development, but lean into strategy a little more.
It is important to remember a few things that will help make successful project management.
3 keys to help setup each stage for success:
- Knowing your team’s velocity.
- Having a repeatable system in your back pocket.
- Considering your personal calendar AND business calendar. (And your team’s too).
Now, let’s take a real life example and see how we break it down to build it up. <
I recently took on a project that was a relaunch of a high-end group program. We decided to rework the program from the ground up, but keep the same type format- just make it better and really niche down to our ideal customer.
This required our team to look at the program through so many lenses: Calendar and Timing, Development vs. Real Time Work, Team Members, Technology, and Systems and Workflows. Considering these factors, among others, we could break down the entire project and set each task in the specific stage.
Stage 1: Development
Your goal in the Stage 1 | Development is to frame out the entire project. You’ll want to determine dates and to break down everything you will need to create for the project. For this example: marketing, onboarding, and the actual program itself. This will show you how much you have to do and estimate how much time to dedicate to each bell and whistle.
The calendar was the first thing we looked at. We decided when the program would start and how long it would last (6 months). This helped up have an end date to work backwards.
After we had the end date we looked back at previous cycles of this program. After much consideration, we zoned in on what features we wanted to keep and how the education would be dripped out. We broke down what types of eduction would be needed and created a rough timetable. This helped us nail down exactly what type of trainings or education we needed to supply.
Once we knew the program dates and the future education we had to consider the work necessary to market and launch a group program at this level. NOTE TO SELF: This is by far the biggest misstep I see.
We had to consider the development of not only the program’s education, but the development of the marketing, onboarding, and launch of the program.
Considering our typical launch system (we are actually really lucky to have a repeatable system in place) we knew the general number of primer emails, soft sell, hard sell, and other emails and social media marketing that created our launch plan. That ended up being pretty much plug in play. BUT we still had to build in an entire sprint that would focus on just writing the emails, captions, and other launch content. Plus, we had a loose marketing calendar that noted our marketing and launch dates.
We spent considerable time brainstorming what exactly would make up the onboarding process, qualifying leads, and creating a system that could be prepped ahead of time.
The development of this section was pretty heavy, especially when we had to break down the dates and work backwards to ensure we had framed out the program and the marketing to our expectations.
Start here:
Step 1: Define “live” dates
Step 2: Consider marketing and launch calendar requirements or milestones
Step 3: Break down future requirements (education in this instance)
Step 4: Create the development calendar for each piece of content, marketing system, and onboarding.
Stage 2: Strategy
Your goal in Stage 2 | Strategy is to take the framework and start strategically refining your plan. This includes, WHEN you will work on each to do, polishing your marketing plan, and looking at LIVE dates vs. prep work. Plus, you’ll be able to add any new strategic ideas making sure you they fall into the decided framework you did in Stage 1 | Development.
This is absolutely when you need to firm up all your tasks in your project management system and start assigning clear due dates!
Once we developed the program calendar, marketing calendar, and general onboarding schedule in Stage 1 we had to focus on how to strategically work on the content and implement some new features. This transitioned us to Stage 2 | Strategy.
Just a note: strategy isn’t just marketing or funnel strategy, it encompasses team and resource management as well.
Most of the educational content was being reworked and the marketing followed our typical system- but I had to determine exactly how much time was needed to actually write the content and hand off to the next person down the pipeline. We created easy templates to follow for each dripped content, which made it easy to estimate / track how much time to designate to each month’s content development.
Important note: We busted out 2 months worth in 1 sprint.
The marketing emails followed our typical pattern, which we designated to 1 week in a 2 week sprint, leaving plenty of room to work on other preparations and edits.
Here’s where the tricky part happened and where you really want to consider your resource management. We knew this program required hands-on focus as we qualified leads AND during the actual live program which meant we were going to spend considerable time doing real-time work. This meant we needed almost everything that could be done ahead of time completely done, so we could focus on the real-time work (calls, reviewing applications, onboarding, and live program features) without overextending ourselves.
We firmed up our onboarding schedule and what pieces needed to be implemented. Then we reviewed the calendar. We noted when applications and qualification calls would start, how long we needed to properly onboard accepted students, and when live calls and trainings would be done.
At first look, there was too much overlap between live calls/application reviews/live onboarding and wrapping up marketing and content development. This was NO bueno! We wanted to be ahead and make sure when things were “live” we were only focusing on that!
I went back to the drawing board and reviewed our work sprint by sprint. I shifted a couple of dates around with the intentional focus that as live, real-time work was happening my client would not be writing content or any other task.
What I found was a pocket of tasks originally designated to be done ahead of time that we could shift out to after the program started, but between live dates of the program’s monthly calls. Remember when I mentioned we busted out 2 months worth of educational content in one sprint, that estimated and tracked velocity played a heavy factor in determining this strategic calendar shift.
Now our resources and team management felt much more doable and we kept our goal of only focusing on live tasks when they are live, not doubling our workload with content creation. <
Now I was ready to firm up all the details and load everything into our project management software.
Start Here:
Step 1: Review your live, real-time work dates vs. prep schedule
Step 2: Make sure you consider any NEW strategic plans (funnels, additional calls or reviews, new content)
Step 3: Double check your calendar and resource management
Step 4: Have it locked and loaded in your project management system with clear assignments and due dates
Stage 3: Execution
Your goal in the execution stage is to manage #allthethings and make sure YOU are focusing on your piece of the pie. You should not have much more development or calendar shifts. Your goal is to take the work sprint by sprint and move them to the DONE! column!
Once we had the calendar up, firm dates, and everyone was up to speed on their assignments- we hit the ground running. This is also a good time to mention, I started maternity leave about the time we entered the Execution Stage. This program will start without me, but I’ll be back when they are a couple months in. So that was another layer of complexity we were up against.
BUT since we had spent so much time developing the framework, fine-tuning our program’s offerings, creating new and improved funnels, and managing our resources strategically we felt confident we could nail the execution!
There were a few things I did differently with this project that I plan to add into my own VIP project system.
I recorded a ton of Loom videos that walked through each aspect step-by-step. I actually did this for myself during development and also for team release. It was also really cool when my client and our team members Loom’d me back with questions. It made for an easier transition to the execution stage.
We also leaned heavily into our workflows and refined or added new ones for the entire team to see. This kept our systems fresh and organized!
If all these stages sound like a ton of work and your head is spinning trying to process all the content- its OK! I have a tool that will help you break it all down to build it up. It’s called Your Progress Gameplan and it will walk you through my exact project development plan.
You’ll hit the ground running and have project #10234 executed with impeccable taste and speed! Just remember, it’s ok to go slow at first, then you’ll be able to rev up and repeat the system faster next go round!
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