Paying attention to the right stuff, and learning how to sacrifice
Last week in my MBA class (Management Control Systems) I had a case-study about “Balanced Scorecard” and how it was implemented in a particular company in the banking industry. Obviously the company had a lot of challenges and issues during the BSC implementation.
One of the lessons from the case was, for the BSC to be implemented successfully and fully, you need to keep improving it as the implementation phase moves along. One of the reasons cited for BSC implementation failure was because some companies want a perfect BSC - from the start. But that’s not possible, since BSC is a continuous thing, which has to be improved, changed, and adjusted over time.
Relating it to web-projects
This case-study reminded me of few occasions where I noticed how some people want everything to be perfect. They pay attention to the wrong (or shall we say less important) parts of the project. Every project consists of different parts, if it is a web project for example, then it could be divided into design, development, choosing hosting, choosing domain name, marketing, advertising etc.
However in order for the work to begin, you only need design and development (i.e scope of work) first. So don’t waste your time thinking how you will promote the website after its completion. Similarly, if you just want to test the waters whether the project will work or not, then don’t delve too much on the design of the interface. Just get a functional user interface that will do the job fairly and see if your project will stand the test. Because I noticed that some people will spend so much time perfecting the design of the website that they delay the launch of the project, or even worse the project gets not launched at all.
Because in most cases, it’s not the user interface that determines if the project will work or not. It’s the IDEA that determines the fate of your project. If your idea is good, then even if your website is not that “good looking” - it will still work! But not vice versa. You might have the best designed website, but still fail.
Lessons to be learned
So, in conclusion; first prioritize your tasks, identify the parts that are most important for the project to be completed. Once you have identified, work on those important parts first. Don’t waste your time on the tasks that will follow after the project has been completed.
Secondly, try to learn how to sacrifice on the design. Yes great logo is important for the brand, but don’t search for it 6 months until you delay the project. Same goes with the design of the website, some people spend so much time on the design that the real objective of the project gets forgotten. If your site supposed to be an auction site, once it has all the features developed and can do the job fairly well - just launch it! Don’t kill the web designer with small insignificant adjustments that won’t contribute to the overall objective of the project.
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By Carrie on May 10, 2008
This is so true! It really is essential to a project to recognize your core requirements and move forward daily towards their completion. One thing I like to ask myself about new projects is “Is this needed to make my first sale?” Because if it is an extra needed to make my second sale I should not be working on it yet!
By Eva White on May 11, 2008
While all of us are aware of these things at one level its nice to be reminded of it in such a well articulated manner.
By wii guy on May 11, 2008
You hit the nail right on the head there. People should always plan what they’re going to do so they don’t waste time doing jobs which have littlr impact on the success of a project.
I’m not sure I totally agree with what you’re saying about launching a website before it’s ready. Doing this may lower conversions and cause your site to have a bad reputation even before it’s really got going.
John
By Recliners on May 11, 2008
Spot on there, when you talk about what are the unimportant things, which we should not give too much weightage to. You know what they say: dont sweat the small stuff!
By Television on May 11, 2008
Nice post. I totally agree, if you want to be successful than you have to prioritize your tasks and to complete the most important ones first.
By Ades on May 12, 2008
wii guy, incomplete projects must not be launched. i am not saying that. i am saying sometimes people work on some other things that are not crucial for projects success, project might be ready to go but they might not like the user interface for example, or the logo, or some other things…
By shawal on May 12, 2008
Systematic is the key….. Relax and enjoy the trip….
By David Marx on May 12, 2008
We’ve got a client progress document, where we painstakingly map out the process of getting their website online, from paying a deposit through to the final product being put live. Going through a set sequence of events and appovals is the only way to get a project out on time.
By Ades on May 12, 2008
David, usually clients are the ones that slow down the design approval. Being a web designer myself, I know this too well. This happens especially when the project is too big (costs too much), and when there is a team (not one individual) that is responsible for the approval process.
Usually this team will consist of 5-10 people, most of which will be head of departments (marketing, advertising, various product heads, IT etc.).
And you know when there is too many people - they can’t agree on one thing. Since design is very subjective, if someone likes one thing the others don’t like it. And thus, the process slows down… and they start to destroy the nice design that you initially designed.
Our solution for this was to get a higher level executive, usually VPs. To get one individual that will be responsible for the design approval. Usually once boss say “I like it” the rest keeps quite ;)
By PS3 on May 13, 2008
Do you also find it is a problem that the client struggles to truly convey the message of what they are after, then can’t understand why the result is not what they hoped for?
By Josh on May 13, 2008
Thanks for this post. I need to be reminded.