What makes a project successful? This presentation examines different ways of measuring the success of a project.

1. COMM LEAD
CAPSTONE
WEEK 7:
PROJECT EXPERIENCE
Suna Gurol
Senior Digital Director, WE Communications
May 11, 2023

2. AGENDA
A little about me
Successful Projects
Top Projects Tips
Unsuccessful Projects
Keep in Mind
Extra advice
Questions
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3. A little about me –
career in 20 years
MAY 11 20223 PM AND MORE 3
Corbis
(stock photography agency)
Producer/Photo Editor
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research
Center
(science research & treatment)
Sr. Digital Producer
Metia
(digital agency)
Sr. Program Manager – Microsoft,
Amazon, Kony
NOW - WE Communications
(PR agency)
Sr. Digital Director
Manage digital/design teams,
ownership websites, social, tools &
analytics
Also experience with
- Startups
- Nonprofit online comms
- Help Desk

4. A little
more
about
me –
one lie
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Bitten by an octopus
Marched in the Rose Bowl Parade
Worked for adult entertainment company
Was a cheerleader
Taught a class on horror films
Attended to two Olympics

5. MAY 11, 2023 5

6. SUCCESSFUL
PROJECTS
Yay
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7. Successful Project
• What makes a project successful? YOUR THOUGHTS.
• 1) meet business requirements,
• 2) on time and on schedule,
• 3) on budget,
• 4) deliver what the client wanted.
Sometimes you have to look for the majority of these to be a
success.
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8. Successful Projects
And how you measure success…
• BI@Microsoft – Program: Example of a program that was so
successful we lost the business.
• Rebrand of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center: Example
of a project where only part of the project was considered
successful.
• Chinese-language website: Example of complex project that
needed approval by another government.
• AI research paper: Example successful piece of a project which
influenced

9. Successful Project #1 – Lost the job
• Project was to
increase internal
consumption and
enablement of
Power BI at
Microsoft.
• WE did it! Yay! Use
increased to 60%
across the
company.
• Lost the program!
Boo. Because it
was a success, the
program ended.
• Measure of
success – hit all of
them but lost too. 9

10. Successful Project #2 - Internally
unpopular
• Rebrand project was very
unpopular with staff and
scientists, they loved the
old tagline.
• Part of the rebrand was
redesign the website –
was very successful – on
time, on budget,
reorganized, very usable.
• Measure of success -
satisfied all the tenets of
success, except it was
disliked.
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11. Successful Project #3 - Mercy of a
foreign government
• Complicated project
• Previous website hosted in US
was regularly blocked in China
• To have it be available in China
Had to have it hosted in China,
have get special Chinese
registration numbers. No
control.
• Had to regularly explain this to
senior leadership
• Measure of success -- On
budget, business requirements
met, client loves it. Not on time.
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12. Successful Project #4 – There are
no small parts
• Another large project that
includes several department.
• My design team created the
design direction/strategy.
• Design is now a part of every
piece of collateral and
communications.
• Measure of success: Owned
the branding and led the
strategy just for this area.
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13. PROJECT
MANAGEMENT TIPS
How to make project
management a wee bit easier

14. Top Tips for
Project
Management
1. Active Listening skills *
2. Understand your
customers’ needs
3. Be responsive to clients
and have regular
touchpoints
4. Be open to feedback
5. Try to keep scope creep
to a minimum
6. Creative/Project Brief *
7. Do awesome work

15. Deep Dive -
Active Listening
Active listening is a way to really
show that you are engaged with
what someone else is saying.
Action Listening Tenets
• Being neutral and nonjudgmental when
someone is speaking
• Being patient – having periods of silence are
not filled up
• Giving verbal and nonverbal feedback to
show signs of listening (e.g., smiling, eye
contact, leaning in, mirroring) (NOTE:
Nonverbal is sometimes hard in the time of
online meetings or mask-wearing so important
to be on camera and looking at camera when
you can.)
• Ask questions and asking for clarification from
the speaker
• Summarize the conversation and reflect back
to the person what’s been said
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16. Deep Dive –
The Brief
• Project Brief is vital to
success of project
• Includes the audience,
goals, creative
considerations, list of
stakeholders, even basic
workback schedule
• Provide a place of
agreement and a tool for
communication
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17. UNSUCCESSFU
L PROJECTS
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Boo

18. Unsuccessful
Project #1 – Got
discouraged
• Idea – People tossing a ball around the
Fred Hutch campus / Mariners / around
the city.
• Lots of work done, footage shot, training
on video software… but just couldn’t pull
it all off.
• Ran into music rights issues
• Need more support of stakeholders
• Nothing can just be ‘viral’
• Learnings: Just… get ‘er done. Don’t
overthink, don’t let other people’s doubts
make you doubt your good idea, always
keep moving like a shark.
• Contrast: Needed photos for a magazine
and arranged a quick photo shoot of
office people at work – photos were used
in projects for 2 years.
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19. Unsuccessful Project #2 –
Wrong place, wrong time
Nadella tells the story about his
first round of interviews at
Microsoft about 25 years ago.
An up-and-coming Microsoft
manager named Richard
Tait asked Nadella a question.
The question had nothing to do
with coding or solving an
engineering problem. Instead,
Tait asked:
"Imagine you see a baby laying
on the street, and the baby is
crying. What do you do?"
Nadella quickly replied, "You
call 911."
As Tait walked Nadella out of his
office, he put his arm around
Nadella and said, "You need
some empathy. If a baby is
laying on the street crying, you
pick up the baby."
Nadella still got the job and
learned a valuable lesson that he
would take with him throughout
his career at Microsoft.
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Brilliant marketing concept
centered around Nadella’s
experience with empathy.
Wrong place, wrong
time – MSFT internal
marketing team focused
on tips & tricks, not able to
use the concept.

20. Unsuccessful Project #3?? –
Pandemic Pivot
But things are happening, just not from a
strategic place per se.
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Plan for Digital
Transformation to update
website, applicant tracking
system, Intranet, CRM.
Put on hold because
pandemic $.
Separate workstreams
now happening without an
all-up plan.

21. BEST ADVICE
Keep in mind as you go through projects

22. The way to get
started is to quit
talking and begin
doing.
Walt Disney
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23. Focus on outcomes
not on process
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24. Recognize that you
don’t have always
have control
Every project manager ever
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25. CAREER ADVICE
A little extra advice while we are talking about advice

26. Network is vital to getting your
next job.
Last two jobs came directly
from networking
Strangest place I had a
networking discussion
A funeral
Networking

27. Know your audience – have a
couple different ones
Be open to chatting with
anyone
Practice practice practice
Don’t take it personally
Elevator Pitch

28. QUESTIONS?
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29. NOW
LET’S
TALK
ABOUT
YOU
Enough about me.

30. THANK YOU
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Suna Gurol, Senior Digital Director,
WE Communicaitons
suna@sunagurol.com
sgurol@we-worldewide.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sunagurol/