9. Why Process? Why Project Management?
Without defined processes that are
project managed:
− misaligned expectations and actions
(gaps & redundancies)
− teams work in an ad hoc manner &
struggle to cooperate
− course-corrections & inefficiency
− low satisfaction & performance
This is not a sustainable
collaboration or business model
With defined processes that are
project managed:
− Stakeholders’ expectations & actions
in sync & aligned
− collaborate predictably, efficiently &
effectively
− course-setting & efficiency
− create win / win situations
This is a scalable model that
improves over time.
vs
Welcome to Automotive Communications Council (ACC) webinar: Project Management for Marketers. Hosted by ACC Member and Board Chair, Tamra Ayers from Performance Technician magazine. University of the Aftermarket offers 0.1 CEU. This webinar is being recorded and will be available on the ACC website. Visit acc-online.org.
Today’s speakers are Jeff Thaler and Bill Hewson. Jeff is a Consultant in Project Management, Service Delivery Process and Operations, for B2B and B2C companies of various sizes. He has over 15 years of experience leading Project Management Departments and Digital Marketing groups in a number of fields, including financial, pharmaceutical, and automotive industries (with clients such as Hyundai). Bill, principal operator of Hewson Group, is a Marketing Strategist and agency leader with 20+ years in digital and interactive marketing. Bill’s clients have included some of the world’s leading brands, such as Philips and General Motors. Hewson Group is a digital marketing solutions company, focused on developing big business expertise solutions for small and medium-sized businesses.
This image (“comic strip”) demonstrates the various misconceptions that can occur within the group of people involved in a project – including your customer.
In this webinar we intend to cover: 1.) What is Project Management, 2.) Project Management Planning & Process, 3.) Elements of Project Management (i.e. Tools and different areas of Focus). Lastly, we will walk through a Real World project example and address any remaining questions you may have.
What we want you to take away is: 1.) How Project Management is defined, 2.) Why it is important to success, 3.) How to get better results, and 4.) Tools and methods you can begin to use immediately.
It’s tough to tell what the future holds. Project Management can give you an edge in shaping outcomes.
“What is Project Management?” First, a project is a temporary endeavor that has a defined timeline, scope, and resources. Project Management is the application of knowledge, tools, and techniques to meet project requirements.
Without defined processes that are project managed, a number of things can happen, including: misaligned expectations & actions, team struggle to be on the same page, constant course-correction (& inefficiency). With defined processes that are project managed: people’s expectations are aligned, efficient and effective collaboration occurs, and goals are achieved. This model can even improve over time.
Project Management is a mature discipline that can offer a rigid structure to the ad hoc nature of Marketing.
Know what kind of project is in front of you. Is your project small and simple? Is it large and complex?
Success is a moving target – a continuous “dance” of cost, speed, and scope. Have you ever had a client who wanted a large scope done quickly and at low cost? Project management offers tools to manage this triple constraint.
Marketing is complex by nature. There are many components including traditional (print) & digital advertising, social media, public relations, email marketing, etc. It can involve many stakeholders and various platforms.
It can be expressed with complexity….
And it can be expressed with simplicity. Here we express marketing/project in a six phase approach: Initiate, Discover/Define, Design, Develop & Quality Assurance (QA), Deploy, and Diagnose (measure and analyze).
This six standard phase approach provides framework (& flexibility), drives alignment, establishes governance, and a clear exit/success criteria. Each phase in this process has its own outcome (which enables movement to the next phase). In “Initiate”, for example, the outcome is agreed-upon project requirements; the “Discover” phase yields a roadmap/blueprint, and so on.
You probably have heard the prudent advice: “Measure twice, cut once.” This also applies to Project Management – upfront planning is the first step to success.
Upfront planning ensures project alignment to company objectives, reduces amount of surprise to stakeholders, identifies necessary resources upfront, improves the likelihood of meeting strategic objectives, creates transparency (important to management), and allows identification of steps and issues that need improvement.
Using a standardized process for your project planning and execution (with clear “exit” and “success” criteria) can go a long way to ensuring a project’s success.
This slide has a lot of great information on developing a project’s strategic foundation. You can think of this project foundation as being four “pillars” – around which we suggest resources to support each pillar. These four pillars to a creating a project strategy/plan are: audit (knowing what to listen for and capture); interrogate (asking the right questions of the right people/data), concept (considering different use/user scenarios), and consensus (creating alignment for the project).
Using both process and tools for continuity helps keep the team/project on track and ensure project success.
You can think of any project broken down by focusing on these five areas of management: schedule, budget, engagement (stakeholder management), risk/quality, and process/change management (i.e. manage the project process, including standardized steps to take when a change to scope, etc. occurs during a project). Focusing on these areas of management is an efficient way to break down projects of any size and (your success in doing so) directly affects the quality (profit) and risk (cost) of a project.
Here we begin to discuss tools / methods for each area of focus. You can see the area(s) of focus that are relevant to the tool are highlighted in the upper right-hand corner of the slide. The six standard phases can be used to manage process / change management.
There are many tools that can be used for process and schedule management. Here is an example of a Gantt Chart [which shows each phase of the project with dates and requirements (i.e. predecessors)]. Additional options include Microsoft Project and SmartSheet (very user friendly). See capterra.com or tinyurl.com/12ogjfu for many others.
Here is process and schedule management – even more simplified. A preferred tool for this simplified approach is an Agile (or Kanban Board), which, depicted here, shows color-coded tasks per type of activity (or person), in various categories: To Do, In-Progress and Done. Other options for this simplified approach are JIRA and Trello.
A status report is a great tool for both Process and Engagement (stakeholder) management. It lists each project task, status (1-3, 3 being “needs attention”), key dates and owner.
A status report can be further broken down – specifically the “status” column – to show the status of Timing, Budget, and Output.
Budget can be expressed in a variety of ways. For example, it can be expressed as a Total Fee/ cost.
Or broken down into hours and cost per hour.
Further yet, budget can be expressed as rate, hours, and cost per resource. This tool applies to budget and engagement management.
Here is an example of budget expressed per phase. This can be an effective tool for engagement management, as it gives management a full view of the budget – per resource, throughout each phase of the project.
Another tool for engagement management is the “RACI” (ra-s-ee) chart – which shows the party (person / people) Responsible for the task, the party Accountable for the task, the party that is Consulted about the task, and the party that is Informed about the task.
Here is a RACI chart. You can see it defines the party / person(s) responsible, accountable, consulted and informed per phase of the project.
Risk / Quality management can be managed by a Risk Matrix. A Risk Matrix shows the Category (timing pressure, 3rd party reliance, budget constraints, etc.), with comments and mitigation approach and risk rank (1-3).
By focusing on each core area of management, using the tools we have discussed, you can effectively manage a project in a way that will help increase quality (profit) and reduce risk (cost), ensuring project success.
Now that we have explained what Project Management is, discussed Planning & Process, and helpful Tools, we will walk through a real-world example.
We will use the example of enabling a new email program / email campaign.
Your marketing program may be complex. Nonetheless, the six standard phase approach can be used for each tactic.
Here is situation. A new product is being launched; Marketing wants to reach existing customers (create awareness, drive use, generate feedback, promote premium upgrades). Given the goals and the audience, email has determined to be the lead communications channel. You have been named the Project Manager. Go!
Using the six phased-approach, consider the tasks involved in the “Initiate” phase: Who are the stakeholders? Who are the customers and their needs?...Goal setting & metrics, and assets needed. The outcome of this phase will be approved requirements and parameters.
The next phase in planning is “Discover/Define”. In this phase, you want to define the project in detail, including: stakeholder Q&A (who wants what?), asset evaluation, customer target, user experience design, budget planning and executive sell-in. The outcome is an approved plan and budget.
The next phase is “Design” the project. This includes content strategy, calendar, data sourcing, email design, personalization rules development, message and segment testing methodology. The outcome is approved deliverables.
This next phase in Execution is “Develop” – which includes tech system setup, customer data integration, content & creative execution, template integration, messaging schedule, and quality testing. The outcome is approval for launch.
The final phase in execution is “Deploy.” In this phase a project manager: initiates workflow, alerts stakeholders, and monitors for issues. The outcome of the “Deploy” phase is the program is in market.
As you may know, as a savvy marketer, the project is not complete with deployment. The next phase is very important: “Diagnose” (measure & analyze). In this phase, the project manager can: track results, analyze opportunities to improve, report to stakeholders, and implement improvements. The outcome is program evaluation. This evaluation can then be used as a resource in the Initiate phase of the next email campaign!
What we hope you took away from this discussion is: how project management is defined, why project management is important and helpful for doing your work, how to get better results in your projects, and tools and methods you can start applying immediately in your day to day.
We welcome you to ask any questions you may have. For your reference, we show on this slide, the 5 core areas of focus and the 6-phase process of project management.
Thank you for your attendance, questions, and interest in the webinar: Project Management for Marketers! We hope you enjoyed and found it helpful for approaching your next project. Please feel free to reach out to Bill and Jeff directly at anytime. Any questions that have not yet been answered, due to time constraint, will be shared with our speakers and made available to you. Be sure to look out for the follow-up email after this webinar for further information, including how to obtain CEU credit. Thank you and have a great day!