A successful project starts with a solid plan.
Projects begin with a reason, a problem needs to be solved, or an opportunity to be achieved. They go through design and development, the team gets paid, and the client is happy. Along the way, there are many decisions to make, and they all have to fit within the allowed time and budget for the project. A good plan gives guidance throughout the process so that everyone is aligned in working towards the goal.
Clients come to you because you're the expert. They feel the pain points and have ideas for solving them, but designers and developers are more familiar with the available options and level of effort required. We meet in the middle to understand their perspective and determine the path that will achieve their goals.
Some projects are mission critical, like an ecommerce site, or a widely used app. The business is hungry to create a system that drives their bottom line. They don't want to waste money, but are willing to spend it when they see the value. You need a strategy that delivers a working product up front, and earns revenue for future phases. Articulating the value you can create and working within their budget will get more follow up work.
Non profits and small businesses are much more budget conscious. The art of planning is in narrowing the scope and focusing effort where it matters. Systems like wordpress are easy to set up in a way that lets clients edit content. A team that can quickly assemble good solutions with off the shelf parts will deliver huge value to their clients.
When you start talking to a client, you'll quickly find out the motivation for their project, and the results they want to achieve. Ask questions to understand the context and offer recommendations. If they want to work with you, hash out a scope the covers their core needs, with options for additional features. Ideally begin with a discovery phase so this can be a deeper analysis with a better roadmap. The budget is triangulated between what you can offer, the client's limit, and what options they choose.
Clients are satisfied when their expectations are met or exceeded. Setting expectations is they key to a successful project. Some projects are easy, you have a routine design and development process and have a clear scope to estimate up front. Bigger projects have a lot of unknowns that will be uncovered throughout the project. Stakeholders from the organization may raise issues or have bigger needs than originally believed. There are more risks in underestimating features or delivering a product that doesn't achieve the desired results. This risk needs to be communicated and shared with the client. More complexity means it may take an iterative process to find success. Clients need to be on board with this so they can plan their long term budget.
To write a good project plan, you need to have these conversations and get the right input. A well written plan provides guidance to the client and team, to align efforts and tradeoffs and steer the project in the right direction. Without one, everyone has their own idea of what's happening and how to scope their work.
- Why are we doing the project?
- Pain points
- Opportunities
- What is the desired outcome?
- Vision
- Goals
- What are the client's needs?
- Requirements
- Expectations
- How do we get there?
- Ideas
- Recommendations
- What will it take?
- Budget
- Strategy
- What else can be done?
- Options