Blog : Systems

How Very Important Progress (VIP) is Made

How Very Important Progress (VIP) is MadeLike I’ve mentioned many times before, I work as a project manager, OBM, COO. . . basically I am the business version of a traffic director. That means that I help big dreamin’ creative business owners wrangle all their ideas, manage their teams, and bring ideas to implementation in the form of project management. That’s all well and good but what does that ACTUALLY look like? In this week’s post, I’m taking you behind-the-scenes of my business showing you exactly how I help my clients go from #alltheideas to prioritized plan of action with the VIP Intensive Program.

STEP 1: Figure out what they need (like actually need, not THINK they need)

I start off by diving deep and putting my superior PI skills to work. I know that when a client at this level needs some immediate support, they have a thousand and one on-going projects and a million and one new things they want to work on. Because I know this, my deep dive into their business helps me objectively figure out how their business is operating, what is working well, and where immediate attention is needed. It’s important that we look at their business this way because once they see how to improve the current state of affairs, the new ideas (or projects) are easier to start working on. For some this is way easy, for others we have to focus on improvements so we can scale and grow with less annoyance or risk of making a bigger mess.

STEP 2: 30-60-90 Day Gameplan

The next step is taking my deep (very nerdy) assessment and create a custom 30-60-90 Day Gameplan. This gives us a tactical plan of how we are going to attack those crucial areas AND make way for the new ideas to get off the ground. Things like adding on key team players, improving SOPs, moving to new tech or software, or even re-structuring a work week are what we plan for. Of course we also do an epic project breakdown where we also tackle the top projects or priorities that will support their goals.

STEP 3: VIP Treatment and Implementation

As we start to implement this 30-60-90 Day Gameplan, we work really closely together. You’re gonna see my makeupless face and mom bun- but you’ll also see things getting moved to the DONE! column. I’ll set you up with our signature system, The Progress System, and you’ll start working daily on the gameplan. I’m here to be your mentor during this process and help keep you (and your team) accountable and moving forward. This includes your very own Trello (or Asana) boards, milestone achievement dates, sprint checkins, and tasks with assignments and due dates for you and your team. While it’s not always super feasible to me to come on as your own COO- I can help you work through this gameplan and lead your team towards your goals. That’s why we stay connected and on top of milestones and sprint planning.

Of course each client is different but my goal is always to help you wrangle all your ideas and improve your operations so you can scale and grow to that next level. As a go-getter myself, I know that those cookie cutter solutions or at your own pace courses aren’t going to cut it, but I also know that hiring someone to sweep in and handle it isn’t exactly a line item you can afford (yet).Which is why working with me to create a custom plan (and help you stick to it) is the only way you can quickly move from idea to implementation.
The VIP Intensive is for those creatives who know they want to hit the next level, but don’t know how to get everything in line to do so. They know they need to be better organized and fire up their teams, but can’t find the time to plan for the things because they are trapped under the #allthethings to do list. This program is made for those creative business owners who want to feel accomplished when things are moved to the DONE! column, excited to get to work and moving on the next big thing, and ready to scale/grow to hit the next level.
Sound like you? I want to talk! Sign up for a complimentary call and see how we can work together to create a prioritized plan of action.

Sprint Training


Everything in business is tasked with a hole heapin’ side of mindset. There’s not a growth spurt, sales slump, plateau, or level that doesn’t require several mindset shifts amidst all the strategy, tactics, and lists. . . you know that’s the truth!

Today I’m not writing to you about the bigger mindset shifts: playing a bigger game, taking more of a leadership role, having uber confidence in selling, but rather something smaller- but maybe, just maybe, the most important shift of my signature method.

One of the most fundamental shifts I help clients (and heck even those of you that get The Benchmark) with is making the transition from a to do list into a prioritized plan of attack. All of that begins with shifting into a sprint mindset and proper training!

So what’s a sprint? A sprint is two weeks, organized in your project management platform of choice, where you and your team roll up your sleeves and get to work. You may be working on retooling your funnel, outlining a challenge, getting your videos done for the new sequence, batch recording a podcast, regular stuff, or systematically updating your SOP’s. Whatever the case, it’s simply a solid two weeks of work on a handful of important tasks- without the shiny object syndrome.

Why a sprint?

I love a good sprint because of a few reasons. 1- its enough time to accomplish a mini project (as long as its broken down well); 2- It gives enough legs to a new idea once it passes the PIZZA test; and 3- It gives the right amount structure (yet wiggle room for creativity) that your Type A VA loves and many Type B Creatives need!

Other than these three, here’s a few other reasons we love sprints!

It gives your team enough dedicated time to collaborate and forecast hurdles TOGETHER as a team rather than going silent when something breaks that needs fixing.

If you’re a number + data cruncher, 2 weeks is prime time to review analytics and make small tweaks before a bigger monthly or quarterly review.

Working from a task oriented list / to do list you don’t really have wiggle room. You are scrunching remaining tasks into one or two days for sake of “finishing my to do’s” or are left with a week or two of extra room in your schedule once you complete the big stuff. Working in sprints reduces the up and downs that come with a to do list. It pushes you to do more (if there’s room) and also gives you structure to stay on task without overwhelm!

But making that shift from a Task Oriented to do list (like what some see in Asana) can take some getting use to. I’ll admit, the Progress System is a radically different approach that does require some overhaul of to do’s most people think work just fine. BUT thinking in terms of sprints is an easy way to dip your toes in the water.

So how can you make that shift, even if you aren’t ready to fully implement the Progress System?

3 steps for Sprint Training:

It’ super important that while you train your brain to work in Sprints is to make sure you’re giving yourself enough structure to implement the tactical steps and stay open to new ways of thinking.

For now, as you are working to adopt a sprint mindset, I don’t want you to do anything to your tasks. You are simply setting up physical and mental cues to help click into a sprint mindset.

1- Put it on your calendar

This is a google calendar with FPM’s standard sprint dates. Feel free to copy this right over to your own calendar! Pro tip: I add a green * for start sprints and a red * for end sprints in my physical planner.

Simply start thinking about Sprints starting on a Monday and ending on a Sunday. This is your first step of sprint training!

2- Schedule yourself a Sprint Review (I like mine on Fridays)

The easiest way to hold yourself accountable and shift into this way of thinking is to schedule it in! What is scheduled gets done, same idea with this. Assign yourself a task (named Sprint Review) and due date it to a day close to the end of the Sprint. You will review your work and check in with your team on this day (or over the course of a couple days).

Schedule and make intentional time to complete this step and your mental framework starts shifting.

3-  Take stock and measure up

This is super easy. Print your task list (easy enough in Asana or Trello) and draw a big red line above Monday (start of sprint) and a red line under Sunday (end of sprint). Look only at those items and make some notes.

What is checked off that was one giant step for your business?
What was a tedious task?
What things are on your list that need to be delegated to an existing (or new) team player
Where could you have squeezed in more?
What days did you stretch yourself too thin?
Is there anything that you checked off that’s not exactly 100% done? And does said task require a follow up or additional task for completion?

If you continue training for sprints in a second sprint (yay!) you’ll want to make small improvements or refinements to your tasks. Again, don’t overhaul everything at once (of course unless you are all-in, then hit me up!) but a gradual move toward working in sprints will definitely help you improve how much gets done (and done WELL) in your business.

This is the easiest way to set up mental and physical cues to get into the Sprint mindset. I am not lying when I say the Progress System is alive and well in my personal and business life. I plan for vacations and packing, meal prepping, and house projects all in sprints. It truly helps me not just make sure my business + clients are moving along, but that I’m also on the same page in my family life as well.

Once you start thinking in two week sprints you keep unnecessary pressure off your shoulders, even out your end of week pushes, and you find hidden time to work on new ideas or just take a little break. Of course if you are a recovering to do lister, it’s not always that easy or automatic- but there is freedom in the sprint and I can help you make that shift! 

If you are interested in learning more on training for sprints, I truly want to hear from you! We could be crafting a new challenge that needs YOUR INPUT! So seriously, let me know in the comments or hit me up on Instagram @moves.you.forward.

Asana vs. Trello

  • By amanda@amandaburris.com
  • July 9, 2018
  • Systems

Introduction

Progress System Recap:

    1. The progress system uses boards rather than to do’s, though your team and yourself will have plenty of tasks to check off.
    2. You work from checklist/systems/process list to Current Sprint-30-60-90, then q’s impediments, working on, waiting on, and DONE!
    3. You’re in luck because both Asana and Trello offer board functionality.

Wondering what is right, wrong, easy, hard, business/life hack-able? Let me give you a brief rundown of each, why we love/hate/indifferent on certain aspects. Just remember, there is no wrong or right answer. The only thing I would caution you on is using both (there are people who do) for project management.

Asana

Features Summary:

Boards are relatively new to Asana, but it makes running a Scrum-like system pretty amazing where before it wasn’t possible! Visually, once you set your board up it’s practically the same thing in Trello. In Asana (board or tasks) you can easily sift through projects in the sidebar, even change up what team you are looking at.

What we love and why:

There is so much we love about Asana! I love there are 9+ more tag options for labelling tasks (color coded chaos) and the same for coordinating projects across your dashboard/sidebar. Even though I am a sucker for a clear and coded board, I do still appreciate (and use daily) the task manager feature in Asana. Sometimes I just need a quick checkoff without diving deep into the board or I need to check and see if a specific task was completed or when it was. Speaking of tasks, the subtask feature is legit and makes getting down to single level tasks very easy. I also like that you can assign repeating tasks to a person that may fall outside of the boards you have at the moment. So the functionality for managing a team is pretty awesome. Not to mention, the calendar, dashboard, project status updates, and file sharing is pretty slick.

What might not work for you:

Like I said, board functionality is new which means lots of fancy tricks and hacks are simply not available. For card creation, you may have 3-7 extra clicks or places to provide info compared to Trello or other platforms. To work around that you might want to upload a csv to workaround the extra clicks, but unfortunately Asana isn’t setup to organize parent and sub-tasks on a board. So you can’t save any clicks or minutes there.

What we would love to see:

  1. CSV uploader to organize parent tasks and subtasks on a board is #1 on my Asana wish list.
  2. Easier way to automatically move cards from list to list.
  3. Velocity tracking and measuring would be fantastic!

Trello

Features Summary:

Trello is built for Scrum systems, so it’s no surprise that we love it so much. Tasks are easy to recreate, you can organize teams and projects a little more naturally, and you can move, archive, or rehome cards in the click of a button. You have tons of add ons available, like: velocity tracking, calendar, Google Drive or Dropbox, Butler, and much more to make Trello even more amazing to make managing your boards a breeze.

What we love and why:

Color coordination is great for both tasks and boards. I color coded my boards to my brand colors (Template, Clients, My Projects) by upgrading to Trello Gold and the perks are worth the $50. I cannot emphasize enough how the automation for moving cards, archiving, copying, and adding standard checklists are timesavers. It is a breeze to setup a new board or copy and customize projects! Velocity tracking is so easy, we use the Chrome extension Scrum for Trello. It will transform your progress! We regularly use a CSV importer and it makes creating an entire board so easy!

What might not work for you:

Checklists are awesome, but as you grow your team some checklists may need to be divided into smaller sub-tasks and assigned out to multiple team members, which is clunky in Trello. Add-ons are cool, but you can find many of those features built in with other platforms.

What we would love to see:

  1. The ability to add parent and sub-tasks with due dates!
  2. More colors for tagging.
  3. No restrictions in how many add ons you can have per board.

Make it work for you:

My rule of thumb: If you are starting out or have less than 3 team members, Trello is for you! Especially if you run the Progress System exactly like I teach or even adapt it to your style. You can get around the parent/sub-task issue and use the CSV importer to make things go even faster. But once you grow beyond 3 team members, I would look at moving to a more robust platform- like Asana. You’ll be able to really dive into tasks, manage from multiple perspectives, and keep things nice and tidy.

Conclusion:

There’s no right or wrong answer for this. Really, you have to look at your team, your projects, and where you see yourself in the next 6 months. I’ve built and run multiple projects on both platforms. You’ll need your systems down and to continue to refine and adapt over time, but all of that makes your life so much easier. I would stress that velocity tracking is incredibly critical when you run the Progress System. So if you move to Asana, you’ll want to keep a log of it by hand or spreadsheet (by hand is what I do) to make sure you are increasing speed and keeping high quality control. I think you might even have a better feel of velocity when you do keep the handwritten log. All in all, seeing your tasks move to the DONE! column is a glorious feeling no matter if you are in Asana or Trello.