6 stages for fast-paced project management

One of the most practical training sessions I run is about Project Management. It may not be the most exciting, but I have always insisted that if you manage projects effectively then there is less to keep you awake at night! What greater incentive can there be eh?

Before I moved into Learning and Development, I was responsible for managing creative advertising projects. I’ve worked on some great campaigns that were fun as well as a lot of hard work! But often when I looked at training in Project Management, I’d find lots of structures that were suited to other industries, mainly construction, where longer lead times and more definitive outcomes were the norm. When I compared the admin involved to control these projects to the campaigns I was working on I couldn’t see how it would work. We would often have days not months to make a project a success. Deadlines in media are also pretty tight. Once a magazine issue has gone to print it’s too late and the chance has gone. This is where creative industries, like advertising, can find managing projects a little haphazard. Structures used elsewhere just don’t work in this fast-paced environment, or at least not in my experience.

But without some kind of structure projects do fall apart, and due to that fast pace, they unravel at speed! So there needs to be a balance. We need to avoid anything that plots out processes to such a degree that we’re simply working to update the admin rather than working on the project, and we need to put a robust safety net in place to keep the project on track.

In their book ‘Project Skills’, Elbeik and Thomas put forward a model that I feel is a sensible approach. I like describing it as sensible as it’s rooted in the real world. Nobody becomes a Project Manager (especially not in a creative industry) for their love of spreadsheets, process, and forms. This approach is practical and can be applied to any project regardless of genre. Like all good models, it’s also easy to remember and can quickly translate into meaningful actions.

Split into 6 stages they suggest we start with the basics. Define the project. It might sound so simple that it’s a stage that just ends up getting skipped, but it’s even more important on creative projects to really think about what we are setting out to achieve. Successful projects start by being thought-through. What will and won’t the project achieve? What should the timescale be? What does success look like? When we are short on time we can skip over these questions, and often make assumptions that everyone around us is on the same page. Taking time to define the project and communicate it thoroughly is the best possible foundation for successful project management.

The reason we skip this stage is because we’re keen to move onto the next one and actually start to plan the project. Most project managers are at home in this stage as they start to plot out tasks, timelines and start to communicate with everyone else involved. It’s obvious that careful planning will link to better results, but planning can be a difficult thing to do in fast-paced industries. Timelining every activity and assuming that the deadlines will be strictly adhered to is almost wishful thinking. In creative industries planning for movement should feature strongly. Considering buffer times, identifying critical tasks, and minimising the biggest risks should all be much higher priorities when working at pace. When working on this stage there is a significant blur with another of Elbeik and Thomas’s model: the control stage. It’s not enough to just identify a roadmap to project completion. Project Managers need to put in place checks and frameworks to monitor progress throughout. Again, the better defined the project is at the start the easier it is to identify the critical areas of focus. If we know there will be a lot of movement, where are the dealbreakers need to be protected and as many risks as possible mitigated?

I always stress that to manage a project you need to show that you are in control, and for this to be perceived by others too, leadership skills are a must. But often the project manager is not the line manager of everyone on the project team. So rather than focus on 121 development they should focus on using their leadership skills to team-build and motivate all who work on the project. To do this, stakeholders must be identified. Stakeholders can seem a fancy term, but I like to think of it as everyone who is affected. Some people will be keen to work on the projects, others not. Some people will be largely impacted by the project, others not. And some people are key to ensuring the project goes according to plan. Just thinking about everyone involved will help start identifying the right focuses to ensuring the people side of project management is just as strong as the processes.

Communication is the next stage, and it’s a pretty obvious one really isn’t it? Or is it? Project Managers can sometimes neglect communication, especially when working at pace, and a lack of clarity can create significant project hiccups. When you’re a project manager the project features really strongly in your world, but others on the team may engage only briefly. We need to make sure our communication is super clear and easy to understand. There also needs to be an acknowledgement that often we are asking other people to do some work to help the project progress. This may mean more to us than it does to them! Consider all modes of communication from 121s to emails to shared project files and consciously select the right approach for every scenario.

The end of the project is often a natural sense of closure and relief that all went well (assuming it did of course!), but for truly efficient project management the completion of activities is not the end of the project. We should resist the urge to simply move on to the next project and instead carve out time to review how the project ran. This should include the same metrics scoped out in the define stage, but also consider the wider impact on resource, budget, and time. The reality is that most projects don’t have a true review stage. In Advertising a post-campaign analysis fulfils some of this stage in looking at results but rarely explores the process. Whilst I do feel that this is an important step, I can also see a need to move on quickly to the next project when working in a fast-paced environment. I try and counter this by writing down 3 key takeaways per project. This is a job that takes minutes (sometimes even seconds!) and helps focus my mind for the next project I work on. Over time, I can spot trends and then carve out more dedicated time to look into what needs to happen to improve in the future.

Project Management can be as complex as you want to make it, but I like the Elbeik and Thomas model for its simplicity. In following all 6 stages we are encouraged to think more widely about the project management process and make good common-sense decisions about what is best to do next.