We take the medicine. We go and see a doctor. We rest up for a while… whatever it takes, we sort out the problem and move on with life.

We don’t ignore the warnings.

We make sure that we take as good a care of our bodies and minds as we possibly can. We are in tune with ourselves instinctively.

Effective project management is the same. In order for the “whole” to work, we must understand each part of the projects make-up and how they interact with each other towards success.

If we use the human body as an example, the project manager is the brain. It is the project managers responsibility to be in tune with the rest of the team and to be aware of things that are possibly not going according to plan.  The rest of the body is the remaining elements of the project management process and the team engaged to make it happen.

It is vital that the project manager is conscious of every aspect of the project – budget, processes, input/outputs and the people that are going to make it happen.

Problems in projects start when the project manager loses touch with what is going on in a particular part of the delivery. Problems start when something doesn’t go according to plan; a person makes an error, a machine breaks down, a budgeted item is more expensive than previously thought, the scope is creeping because it wasn’t defined correctly in the first place….  The list goes on and on. The trick for the project manager is to make sure that the problem is identified early and action taken.

But how does the project manager do this?

Singularly the most important part of any project is the people engaged in its delivery. People notice (or make) problems and it is people who are going to fix those problems for the project manager. This means that the strongest aid to helping a project manager overcome a problem is an open communications structure where honesty on mistakes does not equal a witch-hunt!

Depending on the nature of the project, the team can be local or dispersed. Communication can be written or verbal – but there must be communication. To me, the strongest form of communication is verbal – pick up the phone, turn around in your chair, conduct those necessary meetings… whatever it takes, make sure that the verbal communication happens.

Once the channels of communication are open, the next step is to make sure that there is a “comfortable” environment in which to report problems. The project manager, while inevitably will feel/express frustration, must encourage problems to be brought to the fore as soon as possible. The longer they are left, the more expensive they are to fix.

Lastly, once the problems are out in the open, they should be addressed and not ignored. Talk to the project sponsor, re-negotiate with the client, inform the management team that there is a budget overrun… whatever the problem is, the project manager should engage with the right people to overcome the challenge at hand.

Are you in sync with your project body? Are you operating a clean communications path for problem discovery?

Photo: Brain_blogger

Whether you plan using the infamous gantt chart, write the plan down in a notebook, pop it into a spreadsheet or use a project management tool, the accuracy and detail behind that plan will determine how well you run your project.

Why have a project plan?

A project plan enables you to determine the following;

1. Is the end-game deliverable, along with the key time lines for critical pieces of work, actually achievable?
2. Who are you going to need and what materials are going to be required to deliver point 1.
3. What needs to actually get done from beginning to end of the project.
4. To identify any potential problems that may arise and to plan in advance how you are going to handle them.

It helps to avoid confusion during the project and gives you a baseline against which your project can be measured.

Regardless of the complexity of the project being delivered, it is advisable to ensure that sufficient time has been spent in the planning process.  When the plan is created and shown to the relevant parties, it is something that everyone can sign up to – customers included.

So what makes up a good project plan?

A project plan has to be more than a pretty looking gantt chart. It has to serve it’s purpose and so should contain other things beyond the simple targetted timelines for beginning and the ending the project. The plan should identify;

1. The person/people on the team who are going to make your project a reality for your customer.
2. The key milestones (main pieces of work) that need to be achieved and the order in which they are to be done.
3. A breakdown of the activities required to make it happen and their sequence – there is no point in building the walls if the foundations are not in place!
4. The budget that you are allocating to the project and how it will be managed.

The plan should then be backed up by an understanding and acceptance (preferably documented) for;

1. Any identified risks and constraints that may occur. E.g. if you are building a house and a full site survey has not been done, a risk might be the presence of an unknown cabling or piping layout on the site. This would have a significant impact on the ability to, for example, lay the foundations and will incur extra costs to resolve.
2. Any assumptions that have been made up to that point should have been agreed and signed off.
3. The basis for the approach that was undertaken to produce the plan in the first place and how it was structured.
4. The reporting structures that will be put in place to manage the project to the plan e.g. weekly updates with the client.

The above lists are just the basics but apply to any project in any business large or small. Project planning might seem like a boring task but it will help you deliver great projects to your clients.

How do you plan your projects?

This is a challenge that I have faced since setting up MyProjectTracker. For months, it was all about features and capabilities. The 15 second pitch included the words project management (and yes, I could see peoples eyes glaze over!). In other words spoken like an IT person selling to an IT person, not as a marketer or sales person to a business owner.

I was pitching a great product (modesty aside)  in a boring way.

Learning to speak in the language of our customer has been one of the toughest challenges I have had to face as a start-up. In my previous lives, I have been able to talk tech because I was selling to techies. Now I have had to leave behind my background of technical comfort and drag myself kicking and screaming into the real world where people talk about unique selling points and customer benefit. Not only that, but to stand out, I have to find a way to do it that puts us above the competition.

In some ways, I consider myself fortunate in that I understood that this was/is going to be a challenge and sought help early enough along before I dug a large hole for the company. It has been a lengthy process and it’s still going. I am still working to shape the company message and still seek assistance when needed.

The ability to project a strong message for our potential customers so they can really understand the benefit of the product is too important to get wrong.

I still on occasion find myself talking about hosted project management solutions. It’s going to take some more practice, fine tuning and help but I’ll get there. I can’t speak for Eoin of course – he’d just say he’s naturally gifted.

Do you talk the language of your customer and make your message fresh?

We elected to go for it and opened up the product so anyone could sign up to and have a look around. We felt the benefits of open and honest feedback far outweighed the risk of exposing ourselves to potential criticisms.

We pushed the product for exactly one week directly to companies and via the usual social media channels. We decided to ease off once we had about 125 users signing up. We had a target of 20% of those people to actually go beyond the look around and actually get themselves setup and using the product in anger.

We hit our target in less than a fortnight – delighted. We got our sign-ups and our 20% of active users – a mix of businesses from single person consultancies to our largest, a company with 30+ employees. A good cross-section we felt.

We received some great feedback from people as well, both via email and also directly where users allowed us to sit with them and observe their interaction with the product. The open beta has given us the ability to see where people were going in the product, whether there were any stumbling points, how users were getting on setting themselves up, pretty much everything we needed to see.

We have benefited enormously and aspects that we have shared, such as the “shop” site needing to be clearer, are currently being re-worked prior to commercial launch.

Why are we doing the re-work before launch? Why not just go with what we have and tweak?

Well we could have done. However, negative experience is very difficult to overcome. If potential customers don’t want to move beyond the “shop” or are not happy with a user experience at a key point in the set-up process and leave us, they won’t be back.

It takes time to attract people to the site. We don’t want to waste that effort by putting them off after they arrive. We want to ensure that when potential customers arrive that we convert as many as we can. This is why, after we got our numbers for testing, we stopped pushing for sign-ups.

I am not sure there is a correct answer as to when the best time to show your wares to potential customers is. We have done it three times now; when we were defining the concept (market research), during a closed testing phase with selected customers and now the open beta. This has worked for us, but it may not be right for your business.

The one thing I would say is that you have to show your hand at some stage – putting it off because of nerves or concerns of negative criticism is most definitely not the right approach. If you do put it off, you may never open you shop door!

What experience have you had of proving your products and services to the market?

Photo : tasteful_tn

When Eoin and I presented the concepts for MyProjectTracker to our friends in Contrast, we had already written down to an implementation level i.e. dictating (almost), how we wanted the product to be built. We had gone the direct route to come up with an answer for how the product should be put together based on our own experiences up to that point. Oh, and to ensure it was deployed as fast as possible (in our eyes).

A different path

In our first meeting with the development team, we were introduced to the power of the newer technology sets that could be used to build what we were looking for more robustly, more cost-effectively and faster.  Our eyes had been opened to all sorts of new possibilities on what we could do with the product if we sat back for a little while and re-assessed how we were going to get to our end-game i.e. not to take the direct, prescriptive route.

With Contrast acting as our coaches,  letting us make up our own minds where we wanted to go, we saw the possibilities and alternatives. The indirect road to the end game was actually going to deliver a better result.

It’s taken longer but we are now coming around the final bend and like where we are going to end up. We’re going to have the same abilities in the product, less unnecessary “stuff” that gets in the way of simplicity and it’s going to be far easier to maintain. Sounds like a result to me.

The power of not taking the direct route is that it gives you exposure to choice. You can still go direct if you’ve found it’s the right thing to do, but sometimes that side-road is exactly the one you should be driving down.

Have you ever stopped and re-assessed the route you are taking and why in your business?

Photo: unhindered by talent

“You are scheduled to come in for filming for Dragons Den during the first week in January”

Our call to arms that made the Dragons Den application suddenly very real. We were lucky though. We found out in early November so we had time to prepare.

But where to start?

Well the first thing we did was sit back and look at previous contestants on other shows. What did they do well? What did they do that didn’t help their case? We tried to get all we could out of the clips.

So then what?

We prepped the pitch. We prepped it again. We delivered it to nice people who told us to go away and prep it again. We pitched to a trial panel supported by the most excellent Wicklow CEB who told us to go away and work on it again. They all said the same thing. “It’s a bit boring, but you get into it once the conversation opens up.”

We worked on the pitch some more. How could we make a project management product sexy for business in our pitch? It’s not a tangible thing. We couldn’t give the Dragons something to eat, smell or touch. It was going to have to be how we pitched ourselves more than the product itself.

We worked on the wording, we ran over it again and again and again….

The day of filming arrived. It was the week of the big snow – typical. So we set off about two hours early in case we got stuck. We didn’t so arrived in plenty of time to regret not having a proper brekkie!

The time between arrival and filming was a blur of make-up, rehearsing ourselves again and blind panic – could we make a run for it?

“Barney and Eoin, you are up next.” Damnit – too late!

Then we were walking up the stairs and into the room with the Dragons. Surreal does not even begin to sum it up – it looks like it does on the telly. This probably sounds a bit odd, but we were expecting it to be different somehow in terms of “feel”.

The Dragons all looked very serious but welcoming. They became the focus and in fairness to the production team, the TV element drifted into the background. It was us and the Dragons, nothing more, nothing less. Some things went well, some not so much. Nerves got in the way a bit, but this eased up as we went along.

Then we were heading back down the stairs again. The Dragons are a shrewd bunch. Their questions and comments were fair – I say this having had time to reflect. On the day we were bulling with some of them!

No cash was forthcoming but we were now much more aware of what we needed to focus on and the direction we needed to take.

Waiting to see how it turned out was pretty stressful. We had created some classic telly moments, but we were happy with what was shown. Even Bobby commenting that we’d kill each other came across as a fair point. He’s right, we would! Of course, the best comment was from Sean at the end and this made it worthwhile.

We’re glad we did it. It was quite an experience. What do you mean you havn’t seen it?

To me, value proposition is simply the value a customer receives when buying a product and/or service. It applies to both new business and to servicing existing customers. A business has to create this value proposition for its customers and make sure that the value proposition is viable and sustainable.

How do we translate the concept into our pricing models and offerings?

The subject is broad and deep, so for purposes of this blog, I will focus on the strategy we are taking as we consider the commercial pricing for MyProjectTracker.

So how much to charge to give value?

The correct answer is “As much as someone is willing to pay”. That’s all very well, but what happens if you are in the situation where you really are simply not sure.

For us, we had lots of on-line references we could check out to see what they were charging.  This gave us a bit of a start, but was it the correct value? Some of our features are richer than those of our competition, some are less rich – how were we to ascribe value?

Frankly, we were a bit lost! So we did what anyone should do when you feel like this, we did a survey and asked our potential customers. And guess what? They all came back with what they deemed as fair product value. Not surprisingly, the numbers that were entered pretty much came out in the same kind of area as our expected competition.

We then looked at the opportunity for our customers in terms of time saved and more effective management. Feedback from a number of our potential customers estimate that the product will be save  around 3 man days/month in efficiencies for their companies. That has to be worth around EUR750+ which will give a return on investment within a couple of hours use a month.

So we hope that we will be providing good value in our product. The next question is how to maintain that value vs the competition. This is where the intangibles come into play; customer service, staying on top of the product capabilities and releasing relevant product modules/services into the market, ensuring that the team lives and breathes the customer – pretty standard stuff really, but amazingly forgotten by many.

Have you asked yourself recently “do I over a good value proposition and does it relate to existing as well as new customers?”. Both are equally important!

Photo : wetwebwork

Hello Everyone.

We felt it was about time we shared a bit of an update with you to let you know what’s going on in MyProjectTracker world.

Where to begin… hmm!

Well, the beta testing is going well and we have had a great response from the folks who are “using it in anger” – of which there are a fair number. As expected, we have hit a few bumps in the road that we are working through at the moment, but thankfully nothing awkward – just a bit time consuming.

We are looking at our marketing site again. The message coming back is that it is brilliant in design but to subtle in its approach. We need it to be more like a shop than it is at the moment so we’re working hard to see what we can come up with. We’ll probably pop a couple of ideas up on Facebook at some point to see what you reckon – we’d love your opinions.

We were on the Irish version of Dragons Den the other day. Grateful for great editing. It was a fun experience and we’ll put up a post about it in due course.

What else. Ah yes, the road-map for the next while is effectively finished.  We have some exciting things in the pipeline and once we have our ball-park dates for when we are going to pop them into the product, we’ll let you know. If your using the product, let us know your thoughts for possible inclusion too!

We’re enjoying the blogging as well.  Hopefully you are as well. We tend to write a little about a lot of different things that come into our minds – but this means it’s from the heart and not contrived (we hope!). It also means we don’t run out of things to write about!

Commercial launch is approaching, but we need to iron out the bits and bobs first. We’ll keep you posted.

That’s about it. Looking for any information, sure let us know at info@myprojecttracker.com.

Best Regards

The MyProjectTracker Team.

Photo : Our own project on MyProjectTracker

Collaborative project management is a term that has derived from the ability to manage and share communications and information relating to a project delivery on-line. As a term, it has become a fashionable concept as the business world has moved to the internet to run itself and as teams become more dispersed.

But is collaboration sufficient to effectively ensure a successful and profitable project for your business?

The premise here is that the project manager is capable of course, the tools are simply that – tools, not project management.

Well certainly, communication is a key part of a successful project, but in a standard business, I would argue that face to face interaction will never totally be replaced by on-line collaboration (video interaction included). It is simply too important to talk to your customers and get a “feel” from them about how things are going.

So what can we use it for?

1. Tracking written communications and requests.
2. Assigning activities and tasks to people so they know what they have to do and when.
3. Reminding people of when they have to do their actions.
4. Submitting and tracking project “problems” so that the right people know about them.
5. Allowing people to comment on activities and messages.
6. Documentation review.
7. Team updates and conversations.

These are the basics that will allow you to successfully collaborate on line.

However, is this enough to ensure your project remains profitable and on-time?

Absolutely not. You simply can’t expect a communications tool to effectively look after the other key aspects of a successful project.

What about;

1. How much time you have spent on a project?
2. How much budget have you spent to date?
3. Are you still on time?
4. Are you delivering a quality project?
5. How will we know if we have a problem?
6. How are you informing your management team know what’s going on without having to be included on every message?

These are some of the basics. Without these, collaboration will lose it’s impact on it’s ability to help you deliver your project.

Remember;

1. Project managers have a responsibility to ensure they come in on time and on budget and to quality.
2. Senior managers need to be able to see how every project is doing against budget and time along with being able to assess which projects may need their support.

Without this information, your project collaboration tool simply becomes another communications method. Effective in its own way, but not sufficient to run a project with the required control.

What are your thoughts?

Photo : PSD

We were contacted one afternoon by Des from Contrast to make the decision on the payment solution for MyProjectTracker. Payment Server Provider or Payment Bureau.

Myself and Barney sat down one afternoon to trash out the pro’s and con’s of using a Payment Server Provider (RealEx) or a Payment Bureau (PayPal). To be honest, Barney favoured PayPal and I favoured RealEx.

A well formulated guide that helped us make sense of the online payment choices was www.webpayments.ie. This should really be the first port of call for anyone creating a website that will be required to take payments.

Here is a summary based on our discussion that day and our discussion of this topic with others who have setup website that require payment:

Payment Server Providers: (RealEx)

• Higher quality system
• Better user experience
• No need for customers to visit other website for Credit Card verification
• No additional accounts required for customers
• Better system in the long term
• Tougher to set up with banking in the short term
• It may take a number of weeks to acquire a Merchant ID from the bank
• A Setup fee may be required with the Payment Service Provider

Payment Bureau: (PayPal)

• Messy user experience
• Customers must visit third party website to for Credit Card verification
• Messy administration of account
• Easier to set up in the short term

A number website designers we spoke to seem to seriously regret choosing PayPal as a solution, but their decision was made at the time due to time or financial constraints.

We plan to provide the best customer experience possible for MyProjectTracker customers, and this begins at the door. It’s all about first impressions, and we want a smooth credit transaction to be the start of a long customer relationship.

As we were not under anytime constraint with regards applying for a Merchant ID, we decided to go with the Payment Server Provider solution.

The fact that we had heard good things regarding RealEx’s customer support, we then decided to choose RealEx as our Payment Service Provider.

Did you decide to go down the Payment Service Provider or the Payment Bureau route?
What were the reasons for you decision?