Start Your Next Project or Launch Successfully

Have you had a launch or project recently that didn’t go well? About to start a new project or launch? Have some projects coming up in the future? Then you’ll want to check out this post.

For launches and projects to run as smoothly as possible you’ve got to have the right foundation. This starts before you even plan and execute. Initiating a project is a whole effort by itself! This phase includes:​​​​​​​​
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✨ Understanding the business case & goals​​​​​​​​
✨ Assessing high-level impacts and dependencies​​​​​​​​
✨ Identifying resources needs​​​​​​​​
✨ Establishing project structure and core team​​​​​​​​
✨ Developing project plan​​​​​​​​

Let's break each one down further...

1. Understand Business Case & Goals: Setting the foundation upfront for the project, its purpose, viability and alignment will properly guide you through planning & implementation.  Take time to analyze:  

• What outcomes do you want to achieve?
• Is there a market for it?
• What problem are you solving?
• Who is your target audience?
• Do your business goals align?
• How will you measure success?

2. Assess High Level Impacts & Dependencies:  Determine impacts internally to your business (time, capacity, cost, etc.) as well as externally to those that would be consumers of the offer.  This assessment determines how best to move forward with the project - if the impacts will result in benefits or if you're willing to accept any risk associated with them.  Identify & assess dependencies for the project - what is needed to get it done, are they items you control, do others need to be involved, etc.

3.  Identify Resource Needs:  Look at the scope of the project and the anticipated outcomes to determine what resources are needed to make it happen.  Here's some core resources to identify:

• People - who do you need? are they already on your team or need to hire?
• Technology - what systems re needed? do you have it all or need to purchase?
• Budget - estimated cost for implementation of project - is this cost you're prepared to spend?
• Materials - if product based do you have inventory currently? Need to purchase additional items? Special orders/needs?

4.  Establish Project Structure & Core Project Team:  Create a baseline structure for how the project will run during its implementation and identify primary team members for execution.  Things to consider:

• What roles and responsibilities are needed?
• How will you track and manage the project?
• How often do you want to meet with the team?
• Do you need temp support to focus on specific tasks?
• Who is the ultimate authority and decision maker?
• How will the team communicate among each other, give updates, discuss issues?

5. Develop Project Documentation:  I know, who likes writing documentation right? But it is necessary to seamlessly move into the planning stage.  Taking information from earlier steps, create a project plan that includes:

• Project description
• Project objectives/goals
• Project scope (what's included, what's not)
• Success criteria
• High level milestones
• Project team
• List of systems & resources needed

Do these things and the next phase will go a lot smoother....set up everything adequately and your implementation should be a non-stress event 😉​​​​​​​​
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How you start sets the tone for the whole launch, Start Right!💫​​​​​​​​
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➡️If you have a launch planned, let's chat - send me a message or book a call for launch management support.