The Project Communications Game

Projects can feel like a game: Deliver a winning idea and take two steps forward. Miss a deadline and suddenly you’re back to square one. Sometimes it’s the luck of the draw, but in the game of projects you mostly you have to be a motivated team player with excellent communication skills to win.

Brett’s session will explore the game-like steps of a digital project and the communication wins and pitfalls that come with being positioned in the center of an internal and client team. Roll the dice to see what comes next in the project game as Brett takes on awkward conversations, team conflict, poorly written project updates, unhappy clients, and more. Everyone will win with a series of tips, exercises, and tactics on how to navigate your own Game of Project.

Transcript

1. The Project Communications 
 GAME Brett Harned @brettharned 2014 Digital PM Summit
2. HOWDY!
3. COMMUNICATE Project Managers for a Living
4. Credit: @brennaheaps, @omniplan
5. Credit: @jennasteckel
6. Credit: @allisin
7. Credit: @arethachoi
8. PLANS CHANGE …and each day brings a new challenge
9. The Project Communications 
 GAME
10. LEAD HAPPY TRAILS You’re working with a new set of stakeholders who have never worked on a digital project. It’s up to you to help them understand your team’s work. Get going, partner!
11. CLIENTS Understanding
12. The First Meeting • Set the tone for the project • Discuss preferred modes of communication • Review your scope together • Talk about your teams and roles and responsibilities • Always communicate next steps
13. Who Are the Stakeholders? • Project Owner/Core Team • Primary Stakeholders • Secondary Stakeholders • Management • Executive
14. Grab This Resource theprojectgame.com
15. PROJECT RESEARCH Isn’t Just About Design
16. Stakeholder Interviews • Attend them and take notes • Suggest questions to be included • Dig deeper on: • Project goals • Team dynamics • Potential issues and risks
17. Grab This Resource theprojectgame.com
18. WELL DONE! You did your research, so you now know your project stakeholders. Now try keeping them wrangled…
19. The Project Communications 
 GAME
20. SCORE! You took great meeting notes and the team thanked you for them.
21. Quick Note-taking Tips • Stick to keywords and phrases • Write notes in your own words (not verbatim) • Record key points, decisions, action items • Use the tool that is right for you • Text Expansion • Evernote • Post notes to all attendees and make them editable
22. The Project Communications 
 GAME
23. FIX THIS ONE! Aw shucks! Your team abandoned Basecamp for Google Drive. It feels like you’re missing project details. Sort that out, partner.
24. STANDARDS Set Team Communication
25. – Joseph Priestley “The more elaborate our means of communication, the less we communicate." 18th century chemist and clergyman
26. 1. Everyone Must Be Aware of Project Goals and Deadlines
27. 2. The Team Must Be Clear On Project Responsibilities
28. R. A. C. I. (Responsible Accountable Consulted Informed) Project 
 Manager Designer Developer Content 
 Strategist Creative Brief A R I C HTML Wireframes I A R C Style Tiles I R C A Content Recommendations I A C R
29. 3. Establish Team Preferences on Meeting Time vs. Solitary Time
30. – The New Science of Building Great Teams by Alex “Sandy” Pentland, Harvard Business Review, April 2012 “If we look at our evolutionary history, we can see that language is a relatively recent development and was most likely layered upon older signals that communicated dominance, interest, and emotions among humans. Today these ancient patterns of communication still shape how we make decisions and coordinate work among ourselves.”
31. 4. Promise Transparent and Honest Communications (No side conversations) (No backchannel conversations)
32. – Greg Hoy, The Backchannel Consumes Us All
 https://the-pastry-box-project.net/greg-hoy/ 2014-september-17 “The backchannel can all-too-easily erode trust and compromise relationships.”
33. 5. Consensus on Tools
34. NICE ROUND UP! Team communications can be challenging to round up. If you keep cool, set basic guidelines, and adapt your style accordingly, you’ll ride off into the sunset.
35. The Project Communications 
 GAME
36. BONUS! Your team is a tight-knit pack, just like The Young Guns.
37. "The best predictors of productivity were a team’s energy and engagement outside formal meetings.” – The New Science of Building Great Teams by Alex “Sandy” Pentland, Harvard Business Review, April 2012
38. The Project Communications 
 GAME
39. GIT YER LASSO OUT! You just received written feedback from the clients.
 •5 stakeholders love the design. •3 hate it. •2 haven’t weighed in yet. ! Your team is upset and your clients are confused.
40. MODERATE (GOOD) FEEDBACK
41. 1. Prepare Everyone for a Good Presentation
42. 2. Observe and Take Good Notes
43. 3. Set Ground Rules on How You Accept Feedback
44. 4. Be Clear About Your 
 Feedback/Revision Plan
45. 5. Facilitate Healthy Conversation
46. MOVIN’ ON Project decision making can get tough, If you set boundaries and communicate clearly, you’ll meet deadline and budgets,
47. The Project Communications 
 GAME
48. MEETING MASSACRE! You tried Skype, but the audio failed. You moved to Google Hangouts and that quit on you. Twice. So you went to the phone, but by that point, half the attendees gave up. Your meeting was a Ghost Town.
49. MEETINGS: Good Guy or Organizational Outlaw?
50. How To Decide if You Need a Meeting • Goals of the meeting • Attendees • Success factors • Timing: today, tomorrow, next week? • Length of the meeting • Agenda
51. MEETING Design a Successful
52. 1. Find the Right Meeting Place
53. 2. Create and Follow an Agenda
54. 3. Determine Meeting Roles
55. Leader Recorder Facilitator Timekeeper
56. PROJECT MANAGER
57. 4. Be All-Inclusive
58. 5. Encourage Meeting Productivity
59. SAVED! Meetings can be a challenge! If handled improperly, they can halt project progress. You can make them GREAT if you lasso in all of the details and make it worth while.
60. The Project Communications 
 GAME
61. GOOD MOVE! Your team and clients give you bonus points for being honest and holding off on answering a question suited for a developer.
62. TRUE GRIT It Takes to Be a Good PM
63. – John Wayne “Courage is being scared to death…and saddling up anyway”
64. The Project Communications 
 GAME
65. BOOT THE SCOPE CREEP You’ve delivered the site and the client says, “This feature is not working the way we expected.” ! What they want is going to take 2 additional weeks to complete and the scope is questionable.
66. Wrangle Documents! • Scope • Strategy Brief • Requirements • Project Plan • Status Reports
67. Articulate Effort • Dissect the issue or feature • Discuss goals • Determine impacts • Budget • Timeline • Show your estimates, be transparent
68. Work Breakdown Structure Source: http://edge.rit.edu/content/P10205/public/basestation_prelim_WBS.png
69. Work Breakdown Structure: 
 Wireframes Brainstorm Internal Meeting Personal Brainstorming Design
 Create Wireframes Internal Team Review Internal Iteration
 Present Prep presentation Review with Client Collect Feedback (x3) Iterate (x2) Total Time: 2 days Total Time: 10 days Total Time: 15 days
70. BOOTED! Last minute changes and requests are common in projects. Sometimes you’ll let them slip, but you’ll always want to think it through and discuss it with your team and clients.
71. The Project Communications 
 GAME
72. KEEP IT MOVIN’ Almost done! But before you finish things up, a new stakeholder joins the client team. How can you onboard a new client, keep the project in track, and stay on time and under budget? Good luck!
73. HOWDY (NEW) PARTNER
74. Let’s Get Acquainted
75. Grab This Resource theprojectgame.com
76. BANDIT BEWARE!
77. NEW ALLY MADE If you carve trails for new stakeholders and lead them and their horse to water, you’ll make a life-long partner. If you handle it really well, they’ll come back to you for the next project showdown.
78. The Project Communications 
 GAME
79. WINNER! …but you knew it was an ace in the hole.
80. THANKS! Brett Harned @brettharned 
 theprojectgame.com brettharned.com