We’ve all done it. Walked into a fast food burger joint, looked up at the brightly lit photo menu and chosen in anticipation of something hearty, mouth-watering and good. What is dished up two minutes later is limp, mean and bad. We’ve all bought the dream and come away disappointed.
Good on all levels takes experience, craft and time particularly when it comes to projects.
These are some basic points to think about to ensure that the project delivery meets expectations.
What is it?
What is the project goal? This is not as easy as it sounds. In trying to define the “what” one encounters all the related questions.
What is it? We want to build a website for our organisation.
This is a good start, however in the example above there should be further steps before commissioning a design team. The next two questions should be about “who”.
Who are we?
For many organisations this can be a stumbling block. A neat description for the “who are we” may have been written for the business plan and repeated in pitches and bids but not seriously considered and revised. This is frequently the cause of a disparagement between the published organisation offer and the customer experience.
Who are they?
Who are the people that the organisation needs to reach for its very reason of existence? The service users, clients, customers, members and associates. They all have needs. They all want a good deal. They all need to feel that they have benefited from an encounter with an organisation. They, What and We form the trinity of project expectation management.
In project terms we are discussing the relationships between the senior user, the senior stakeholder and the project its self.
As a good friend of mine says when a brief hit the mat, “They’re looking for the moon on a stick.” A little attention to They, What and We will save a project plenty of time and money leaving the project delivery team open to get on with making everything gorgeous safe in the knowledge that the project is owned and has definite purpose.
As an aside, I made the burgers pictured on July 4th 2009. They were as good as they look.
The moon on a stick
Good on all levels takes experience, craft and time particularly when it comes to projects.
These are some basic points to think about to ensure that the project delivery meets expectations.
What is it?
What is the project goal? This is not as easy as it sounds. In trying to define the “what” one encounters all the related questions.
What is it? We want to build a website for our organisation.
This is a good start, however in the example above there should be further steps before commissioning a design team. The next two questions should be about “who”.
Who are we?
For many organisations this can be a stumbling block. A neat description for the “who are we” may have been written for the business plan and repeated in pitches and bids but not seriously considered and revised. This is frequently the cause of a disparagement between the published organisation offer and the customer experience.
Who are they?
Who are the people that the organisation needs to reach for its very reason of existence? The service users, clients, customers, members and associates. They all have needs. They all want a good deal. They all need to feel that they have benefited from an encounter with an organisation. They, What and We form the trinity of project expectation management.
In project terms we are discussing the relationships between the senior user, the senior stakeholder and the project its self.
As a good friend of mine says when a brief hit the mat, “They’re looking for the moon on a stick.” A little attention to They, What and We will save a project plenty of time and money leaving the project delivery team open to get on with making everything gorgeous safe in the knowledge that the project is owned and has definite purpose.
As an aside, I made the burgers pictured on July 4th 2009. They were as good as they look.
Leave a Comment
Filed under Comment
Tagged as Comment, expectation management, moon an a stick, they, we, what