Whether it’s big or small, corporate or single owner, all businesses need to find a system that works for project management. Project management and organization can make a huge difference in productivity, efficiency and ultimately profit. Here are some great tips to consider when it comes to projects/tasks to manage.
  1. Define What Success and Failure Is Before even starting a new project, you need to have a rough definition of what success or failure looks like. These concepts should also come from any team members and the client so expectations are clear. Things to consider are budget, timeframe, quality, value and objectives.
  2. Make A Plan Every project that comes to you should have a plan for execution. After defining the goals and objectives, a plan should be created to help you get from start to finish effectively.
  3. Know Your Client Understanding goals, visions and expectations from a client will give you a clear cut answer to how you should be managing project tasks and timelines. Also knowing how they address conflict when things don’t go as planned will help you better serve your client if this is ever the case.
  4. Embrace Change/Have An Open Mind Not every project goes off without a hitch. You are bound to run in to issues at some point. How you deal with these bumps in the road will determine the outcome of projects. With every new project it’s always a good idea to either physically or mentally make a list of potential issues so you can have a game plan on how to handle those situations.
  5. Follow Through Regardless of any issues that have popped up, you always need to follow through on promises or commitments. With that being said, because of issues or unexpected developments, these commitments or promises could change. It is your job to verbalize and discuss this with client to make sure everyone is always on the same page.
  6. Use Project Management Systems Organization is key. Organization becomes even more important if there are multiple team members working on a project. Using a project management system will allow everyone to know what needs to be done, when things need to be done and where in the process everyone is.
  7. Ask For Feedback Once a project is complete, one of the best things you can do is to request feedback from everyone involved. Feedback from team members will give you insight in to what worked well, what did not and how to improve the overall process on future projects. Feedback from a client can give you insight in to what they were satisfied with, how to improve outcome and what needs to be addressed for future projects.
While managing projects is no easy task, there are definitely ways to make the process smoother. If you have experience managing multiple projects we would love to hear your feedback on how you approach projects and any systems you use to help keep everything and everyone organized. Shoot us a message or comment below!