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project management

Safe not Sorry: A Guide to Project Problem Planning

April 23, 2014 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

Come to Me with Solutions, Not Problems

I know, I know, I’ve mentioned proactively planning before. So why bother project problem planning when you can just tag an “I’ll deal with that if it happens,” or a “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it” onto your risk assessments? While the answer might seem obvious, upper management will appreciate it when you present them with how you solved the problem instead of the problem itself. Check out some of the following examples and solutions of problems that may arise for your team:

Jane Doe Doesn’t Work Here Anymore

It’s never a fun situation, but it happens: Jane Doe missed one too many deadlines, decided to move to Wisconsin, or married her lifelong Antarctic-dwelling scientist boyfriend and now her desk is empty—now what? Step one-make sure everyone on your team (including part-timers and interns) knows. There’s nothing quite as frustrating as not finding out a co-worker has moved on until two weeks after the rest of the office. Step two-tell your clients. Neither your team nor your clients need specific details—just let them know that Jane Doe is no longer with Company X and that all communication can be directed to John Smith until otherwise instructed. When the time is right, the third and final step is introducing Jane’s replacement to the client. Don’t do this until her replacement is ready for the influx of communication that will surely fill their inbox.

Client X Still Hasn’t Gotten Back to Me

It’s quite possible that one of the reasons your client hired your agency is because they don’t have the time/resources to do the work internally, so is it much of a surprise when they don’t have the time to respond to you every waking moment? Nope. Don’t be discouraged—chances are high they have an email open 24/7 that they’re consistently responding to you in and that perhaps someday they’ll send. In the interim, create a process (as exemplified in the flowchart below) for following up:

Create a process for following up with unresponsive clients.
Create a process for following up with unresponsive clients.

If your main form of client communication (your PM system in this example) doesn’t receive a response, follow up with a weekly email (either via the PM system or standard email) and a bi-weekly phone call until you get a response (it’ll happen eventually, I promise!). If you get a response, carry on!

This Project is Already Over-Budget

It’s Friday afternoon and everyone is caught up logging their hours to the appropriate project when, dun dun dun—you see the budget turn from green to red. What’s next? Unfortunately, there are really only two options (both of which require you to pull up the statement of work): let the client know you’re over budget and will begin billing for all incremental work, or let the client know you’re over budget and eat the cost for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Planning is Important

The long and short of it–expecting the best but planning for the worst is a great way to maintain your team’s sanity (and upper management’s happiness) and uphold the tenets of Project Management: on-task, on time, and on budget.

Do you plan for problems? Have you experienced a problem you hadn’t planned for? Tell us your story in the comments!

Filed Under: Marketing Strategy Tagged With: guide, problem planning, project management

Tips for Choosing Cloud-Based Project Management Software

March 5, 2014 by Dabrian Marketing Group 1 Comment

So You’re Moving to the Cloud--Now What?

You put in the time to research the idea of cloud-based project management solutions—you know they are secure, provide amazing accessibility, and give you the ability to work from home on snow days—so now what? As impatient as you may be to dive in head first, remember your first project management best practice – proactively plan – and follow these tips:

Determine Your Budget

Whether you have an annual budget to work with or you’re lucky enough for a special circumstances budget to move to the cloud, you have to know how much money you have to work with. All cloud services are not created equally, and you need to be prepared to field some standard questions:

1. Is it better for you to pay monthly by user or space limits?

2. Are you committed enough to pay annually to get the discount they’ll surely offer you?

3. Does your budget have any wiggle room or is it set in stone?

Determine Your Needs

Regardless of whether you’re managing a team of 10 or 100, there are suitable options for cloud-based software. Important questions to answer before reaching out to any company are:


1. How many users (team) do you need logins for?

2. Will your clients need access? If so, what all do they need to be able to do (file upload, communication streams, approval functionality, etc)?

3. Do you need integration with any other platforms (Google Apps, Salesforce, Quickbooks, Office, etc)?
The cloud is a competitive space—being up front and clear about your needs will ensure you get the best software to fit them.

Do the Demonstrations

Alright, you’ve narrowed it down to some potential companies to work with…I know, I know—you’re busy. But this part is super-important: make time available to do demos of the software you’re looking into. You’ll gain not only a better understanding of the company’s offerings, but also their company culture, and how responsive they’ll be to your needs. The ultimate factor in what led to me choosing Mavenlink as our cloud-based project management solution was not how great of a solution it is (which it is, and no, they’re not endorsing me) but how great they are—I felt confident starting a partnership with them based on how they held themselves during the demo (and of course the meetings after) I made time for.

Go Forth and Research!

Now that you’re armed with some useful tips to get the ball rolling, you’ll soon be able to tack a closed sign on your traditional project management software and officially change your address to the cloud. Determine your budget so you don’t get caught up in wanting something you can’t afford. Determine your needs so you have all your bases covered and hunker down for some software demos (you won’t regret it when you find the perfect solution). Just remember to let your team know you’re diving into Research Land and try to have some fun along the way!

Have a question on cloud-based project management or a tip we missed? Fire away in the comments!

Filed Under: Marketing Strategy Tagged With: cloud, project management, tips

The Recipe for Better Team Meetings

July 3, 2013 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

We’ve all had at least one poor team meeting experience…you know the ones I mean—you leave the conference room and have no idea what just happened or why you were forced to experience it. Though it might seem far-fetched, it is possible to have a great meeting experience! The recipe for better team meetings is easy to follow and doesn’t even require a mixing bowl.

Step One: Send a Thorough Invitation

Regardless of how you’re sending your meeting invitations, it is important to include as many details about the meeting as possible. Time, date, and location might be a given, but what else would it be useful for attendees to know?

What is the point of this meeting?

Are you strategizing a website content overhaul? Going over the latest client offering? Letting the team know why they are coming to the meeting is just as important as where the meeting will be held.

How should attendees prepare?

Do they need to do research? Gather ideas for brainstorming? Making sure that attendees are prepared for the meeting will keep everything running smoothly and, as a bonus, help prevent you from getting annoyed about under-prepared attendees (c’mon, you know it’s annoying…).

What should attendees bring with them?

Pen and paper? Laptop? It might sound silly, but if you don’t tell people to bring a notebook and pen, they probably won’t.

Step Two: Prepare to Present

Speaking of preparation, you too should come prepared to your own meetings. Similar principles apply:

Research and brainstorm

Regardless of your industry or meeting topic, times are always a-changin’. What research and brainstorming can you do to make sure you’re up-to-date on your industry’s best practices?

Write an agenda

Agendas and efficient meetings are best friends. An agenda allows you to setup the complete structure of how you will run the meeting, start to finish.
Agendas also allow you a constant method for pulling the meeting back in from potential tangents/sidebars.

Bring what you need

Nothing is more painful to the ego then showing up at your own meeting without your laptop/notebook and pens/etc. Even in a flurry of busy-ness, make sure to remember your own things!

Step Three: Notes, Notes, Notes

You’ll want to use that laptop/notebook and pens/etc to keep track of what happens during the meeting.

Keep record of the meeting

Not only will record keeping help you remember what was established for action items (see Step 4) but also make recapping (see Step 5) much easier.

Delegate the tasks

If you’ll be presenting for the entirety of the meeting, it might be easier to assign note-taking to an attendee (or utilize a staff member who often takes on this responsibility). Make sure that whoever is taking notes writes legibly or types logically.
As a bonus, some really great ideas can be generated when you re-read your notes. You never know what you might come up with!

notes clear and legible
Whether you take hand-written or digital notes, make sure they are clear and can be shared with others (image courtesy of Johan Larsson)

Step Four: Develop a Plan of Action

All good meetings end with a plan of action. A great way to organize your plan of action is with action items. Examples include:

  • The team will send me their notes from the meeting
  • I will send out tasks to persons x, y, and z
  • Our next meeting on this topic will be scheduled for “date”

Note: In addition to notes, action items should also be included in Step 5.

Step Five: Recap

If you’re constantly on the go (which we can safely assume you are), the chances of remembering your meeting last Tuesdays are just as unlikely as remembering what what you had for breakfast. Recapping is a team meeting best practice and is useful for a few reasons:

Collecting the notes from the team

You’ll want to read through everyone’s notes and recapping gives you the time to do it.

Generate meeting highlights

High-level highlights can include main topics of conversation, decisions that were made, and action items

The next meeting scheduled for the topic, if there is one

Even though this is included in the action items, it’s important enough to mention twice. Get the date/time hammered out and then proceed back to step one!

Note: The meeting recap should occur the same day the meeting takes place and be made available to everyone at the meeting.

Even the greatest of leaders can’t have total control over meetings, but being prepared with a great recipe is definitely a great way to plan better team meetings. Have tips or tricks for having better team meetings? Share them in the comments below!

Filed Under: Marketing Strategy Tagged With: meetings, project management

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