With the holiday season quickly upon us, we are beginning to hear Christmas carols in our sleep. Whether it’s on the bus ride to work or studying at a coffee shop, I have been showered with holiday cheer in all corners of my life.
The consistent cheer and singing when I leave the house got me thinking of how to honor this special holiday season. While the traditional way of decking the halls does not involve work, I want to offer a spin on this idea and come up with 12 steps to deck the halls on your next project. During my three months at Communiqué PR I’ve learned there are crucial steps that are incredibly helpful in positioning yourself to successfully manage and complete a project. In honor of the holiday season, I developed a 12-step process to successfully completing a project.
Step 1: Define the Objective
Before diving head first into your project, define the goal. Ask yourself, what are we trying to achieve? What does success look like for this project? A clearly defined objective should serve as the foundation of every project.
Step 2: Establish Expectations
Understating the expectations of the team, and more specifically your role on a project, will ensure the team works effectively and understands how to support the project. Having the support and intelligence of your team will establish a strong sense of motivation to create a successful project. When everyone understands how their contributions will lead to a successful project, each team member will be excited about the work they’re going to provide.
Step 3: Understand the Audience
Who are you trying to reach with this project? Your target audience impacts everything from the type of research you conduct to the writing style. Brush up on key terms that you may need to define for your audience to allow them to fully grasp your content.
Step 4: Clarify the Deadline and Budget
A critical aspect of any project is the deadline. Whether it’s an internal or external deadline, it’s important to ensure you’ll be able to meet the deadline. In addition to knowing when it’s due, in an agency, it’s important to know the time and/or budget allocated to this project and to be conscientious of the impacts your work will have on the budget.
Step 5: Define Responsibilities
If this is a collaborative project, clearly define what each person’s role will be. Avoid wasting time through repeated tasks. Ownership should be clear from the onset.
Step 6: Develop a List of Achievable Tasks
Break down your overarching responsibility into smaller, achievable tasks. Not only does this make your life easier, but also allows you to critically analyze each step.
Step 7: Create a Personal Workback Schedule
After breaking down the responsibility into tasks, it’s time to make a schedule. The benefit to creating a schedule is the ability to see the project in the big picture and where you stand in the project in relation to the final deadline. It’s rare to enjoy the luxury of working on one project at time and this step helps balance multiple projects at once.
Step 8: Build in Additional Time
While you are creating the schedule, it’s important to space out your work. Give yourself extra time in case the project is harder than you think or you run into roadblocks. It’s better to have extra time on your hands than to leave things to the last minute. As Benjamin Franklin once said, “You may delay, but time will not.”
Step 9: Review Your Work
In order to reflect attention to detail in your work, be sure to review everything. This is critical before asking anyone to look at your work to ensure you are delivering a high-quality product. If time allows, set the project aside for a day to give yourself a fresh perspective when you look at the content again.
Step 10: Secure Outside Perspective
Seeking feedback from individuals beyond your account team allows your work to rise to a higher level of quality. They may raise questions or perspectives that you and your team members had not considered.
Step 11: Review Again
When you’ve received feedback from outsiders, review their notes and incorporate the helpful advice they’ve provided. Make sure that the new additions flow in your project and continue to address the key objectives.
Step 12: Submit Project
Now comes the exciting part, submitting the project! Whether the project is going to a client, manager, list of reporters, or a colleague – take a deep breath. All the hard work and dedication you’ve put into the project will shine through as it gets shared.
Bonus Step: Constructive Feedback
Ask for constructive feedback after finishing a project because it will help you succeed in future projects. Although it might be hard to get the courage to ask, it is extremely beneficial and will demonstrate your willingness to learn.
By following these 12 steps, the hope is to put you at ease when the next project comes your way. Although there are always hurdles in each project you complete, it can be useful to follow a guideline that helps you stay on track.