Transcript:

Hello, and welcome to our Impactful Projects and Planning Series. I'm Jami Yazdani. And in today's session, we're going to talk about how to initiate projects and best prepare for project planning. I actually talked about project and initiation at a session at the start of the year. In that session, the content was really aimed at the organizational and teen levels. We talked about activities that should happen during the initiation phase of a project to set your team and stakeholders up for success. In that session, we discussed project approval, setting parameters, and holding a project kickoff meeting. These are all still things that I recommend, and ideally would be part of your organization's project processes and workflows.

So what I want to talk about today is project initiation from the project manager's perspective, as this is a question I get a lot from project managers. So folks are asking me, "What are the first steps I need to take as a project manager on a new project? And regardless of our organization's processes during initiation, how can we prepare for project planning?" So I've got four steps to share that should help you as a project manager get off to the right start. I'll also share some of the challenges I see new project managers facing as they start a project.

All right. So I recommend that your first step is to confirm your understanding of the project scope, or overall purpose with the project's initiators. What this means practically, is that we have a conversation with leadership or whoever has initiated the project to make sure we completely understand the project's purpose. In mission-driven organizations projects may start with a funding or grant proposal, and there may be significant time between when that proposal was written and when the project actually starts. You may be handed that proposal during initiation. But it's also useful to affirm that nothing has changed since the project was proposed, even when a project is internally funded. And even if you think you understand the project scope well, I still recommend confirming or reconfirming scope with your leadership. So one of the easiest ways to do this is to write out your project scope, and ask your leadership and initiators if this scope reflects what they would like to see from the project. I find that this question can really spark a conversation that can help you gain clarity and understand project expectations.

The next step is to confirm any project parameters or constraints. So common project parameters include budget, timeline, and resource availability. So for budget, we want to understand how much money if any, the project can spend; are there any constraints on how or when that money can be spent? If you're working with grant funding, it's going to be really important that you understand any requirements set by your funder. For timeline, when should the project start? When should it be completed? Are there any critical dates or deadlines within the project's timeline that you need to know about? Also, are there other things happening in the organization that might impact your project's timeline? You also want to ask and confirm what resources are available to you. Who can you tap into to support the project? Are there tools or technology or access to spaces that you can count on during the project? Maybe there are resources you can't count on. So even if it's only for a certain period of time during your project. So for example, perhaps you won't have access to volunteers in the month ahead of your organization's annual event. Like scope, we want to make sure we understand and clarify our project's context before we do any planning. Often you can confirm and discuss these parameters and constraints with leadership or initiators in that scope conversation that I just recommended in step one.

The next step is to identify the project's key stakeholders. As you consider and confirm your project scope and resources, you may feel like you are well on your way to knowing your project's key stakeholders. I still think it's useful to spend some time thinking about and actually listing those stakeholders or stakeholder groups. Stakeholders are going to be anybody who is impacted by the project or involved in the project; we may want to consider who we need to engage with throughout the project. So in mission-driven organizations, the success of our projects is often defined by our stakeholders as our projects are building programs or deliverables for them to use. And our projects cannot be successful without the work and support of folks across and sometimes even beyond our organization. So these are our stakeholders, so take some time to draft a list of them, so that you can start to engage and communicate with them as soon as you begin planning.

Lastly, I recommend reviewing any project templates or plans for similar projects to help you get some ideas for structuring and drafting your own project plan. So perhaps there are documents from similar past projects or programs, or even current projects that your organization is running, that you can look at to inform how you approach your project planning. Maybe there are templates or examples of reports or agendas or schedules that have been used in other projects within your organization that you can repurpose. You can also look for templates or examples being used by similar organizations to yours that you can borrow from. I've said this before, and I'll probably say it again. But don't reinvent the wheel. You may not find a template or example within your organization or online that exactly fits your needs. But you're pretty likely to find some elements that may work for your project. This puts you in a better position to start your project, and will save you time creating things from scratch.

So those are a few steps that you can take as a project manager to set yourself up for leading project success: confirm your project scope with project initiators, confirm any project parameters or constraints, list your project's key stakeholders, and review templates and plans for similar projects. These steps can take you into your project planning.

So wonderful. Sounds simple, right? We even covered it in just a few minutes. But what I find is that it's actually kind of easy to get tripped up with these steps, despite how simple they may sound. So one of the challenges I often see with folks trying to get their projects off the ground is that they can't get past the project scope step; they essentially get stuck at scope. I see this most often when the project manager has been part of the project's inception. So perhaps the project was their idea, or they were very involved in that early concept or the funding proposal. I also see "stuck at scope" when a project manager is building something that they will also lead. So perhaps they're designing a program or deliverable that they will later run and manage. These folks often have so many great ideas for the project, and they've dreamt about all the impacts the project is going to have and that eventual program will have, right?

So while this has some great benefits in managing the project, it can also make it hard for them to concisely and clearly articulate the project scope. So, I recently had a really wonderful project coaching client who had this issue. She was managing the development of a program that was her idea, something she was very, very passionate about. And so when you asked her about project scope, she launched into this long, kind of beautiful, wonderful speech about why the program was so important, about all of her ideas for how users would interact with the program once it was launched. Because of this, she was struggling to get her colleagues and team on board with the project in any concrete way. They didn't know what they could offer or how they could help because they didn't actually know what needed to be done during the program development project; they could not see the ladder for the clouds. With this client, we worked on drafting a one-sentence scope statement that clearly stated what the project was about—not what the eventual program would do, or how it would impact those that it would serve, or why the project needed people support—but what the project's purpose was, which was to design and develop this particular program. While we absolutely can use big ideas and those clouds to initiate buy-in, we need a concrete purpose to keep folks engaged with us throughout a project. When we combined this scope with some concrete project deliverables, it became much easier for my client's colleagues to get engaged; she was giving them that ladder. So if you're stuck at scope, try writing a clear, concise scope statement. Like my client, it may take you a few drafts to get it down to one sentence, but it is definitely worth your time.

The next challenge I see project managers face is that they try to go it alone. So they think they have to magically have all of the answers and should be able to generate a perfect project plan and approach from scratch or from the funding proposal they were given. Project planning should be collaborative, which is why I suggest starting initiation with some conversations. Get clarity through these conversations, start drafting a plan, and bring your stakeholders in to offer input and suggestions. While I sometimes joke that I project manage myself, and many project management strategies and tools are useful when you're working alone, project management is really about collaboration. Your role as a project manager is to facilitate collaboration to get to those successful deliverables or outcomes. So, collaborate from the get-go. It's going to save you a lot of time, and keep you from underutilizing your colleagues.

Which brings me back to that conversation with leadership. A great question to ask during that scope and parameters conversation is, "What have you seen other project managers do that you think contributed most to their project success?" The answer to this question may give you some great ideas for approaching project planning, as well as some insight into challenges you might face. I'd also encourage you to talk to other project managers or folks leading similar projects or programs within your organization. What has been most useful to them? What pitfalls can they share that you might be able to avoid?

Alright, so for more help getting your projects off to a great start, check out our Project Planning Checklist. This simple checklist is a great place to help you plan for project planning. This free download is available at yazdaniconsulting.com/resources. If you need hands-on support leading projects and teams or initiating your projects, visit our Project Solutions page at yazdaniconsulting.com/projects to learn about how we can help.

Great, so we only have a few minutes left. I'm happy to take any questions you have about project initiation; you can go ahead and add them into the comments. There's always a slight streaming delay, so I'll give folks a few moments to add their questions. If I'm not able to answer your question live, I'm happy to respond later in the comments. You can also find all of the ways to contact me at yazdaniconsulting.com/contact. Please reach out if you'd like to talk about project initiation or if you're stuck at scope.

So a question is: "If the project is already underway when I'm brought in as the project manager, what steps should I take then?" So really, I would just encourage you to do kind of a version of these four steps. So you absolutely want to do one and two: you want to make sure you confirm and talk with leadership about scope and parameters. I also would recommend not only talking with leadership or initiators, but also having conversations with your project team and key stakeholders. I would also recommend reviewing existing project documents and plans so you want to get really familiar with what's been happening in the project. Then, I think you are going to be in a position to go to your project team and ask them what has been working and what hasn't. Essentially, you'll conduct a retrospective. If you have any concern that these kinds of questions will seem like a judgment on the previous project manager's work, you can always kind of frame it as, "How can I be most helpful to you going forward?" rather than a retrospective.

All right, great. So feel free to comment or reach out to me, message me with any additional questions. So thank you for participating in our Impactful Projects and Planning series. Thanks!