Frank Patrick

Innovation Is About Arguing, Not Brainstorming.

2. SAY “NO, BECAUSE” It’s widely evangelized that successful brainstorms rely on acceptance of all ideas and judgment of none. Many refer to the cardinal rule of improv saying “Yes, AND”—for building on others’ ideas. As a former actor, I’m a major proponent of “Yes AND.”

But I’m also a fan of “no, BECAUSE.” No is a critical part of our process, but if you’re going to say no, you better be able to say why. Backing up an argument is integral in any deliberative discourse. And that “because” should be grounded in real people other than ourselves.

“No, because…” without the “ethnographic research” talked about in the article can be based on one of three “becauses”…

1. Because I don’t see how the idea solves the problem. This is likely a question of clarity, that might require a couple more ideas to address. A collection of ideas (aka tactics) strung together forms…wait for it…a strategy (in either the general or specific sense).
    
2. Because I foresee some negative side-effects associated with the idea. Opening these up and addressing them will allow the team to fully flesh out a complete solution - a complete strategy - that gets the benefits of the idea without the unwanted side-effects.
    
3. Because while it sounds worthwhile, we’ll never be able to make it happen because “we don’t have…”, “we don’t know…”, or some other obstacle. This is where breaking the idea down into a set of dependent tasks and sub-tasks come in. (AKA the planning phase of project management laying out the steps to implement the tactics and accomplish the strategy.)

On Reporting Project Task Progress

Percent complete is meaningless.

PM Link: A Daily Project Execution Plan

The piece I’ve linked to today offers up a framework for focusing project communications on immediate tasks at hand. The author - Atul Gaur - thinks of it as a “daily execution plan”, but it bears very close resemblence to what I like to do on a weekly basis. The nature of the big single-project work domain that he works in probably makes daily worthwhile, but in the multi-project marketing agency and IT environments that I’m most familiar with, weekly seems appropriate.

Gaur lists a set of task data as the core of the immediate plan - things like current active tasks, tasks schedule to start, and issues or risks associated with them. What I like to do to gather these items is make use of an easy 1- or 2- week date range filter on incomplete tasks in MS Project to eliminate the distraction of the future stuff that’s going to change anyhow. In most cases, this ends up with a short list of current and up-coming tasks that are worth talking about.

The only additional further out tasks worth talking about are those that require an “alarm clock” to reserve or assign specific resources ahead of time. When the near term view includes a warning that this reservation might need to be made, it comes up at the appropriate time - far enough in advance to be useful, but hopefully close in enough to be confident about actually needing them when the [religiously updated] schedule say so.

In environments that accept the idea of buffered schedules, the status of the buffer - particularly whether it’s been consumed to the point that it might not protect the project promises - should be sufficient to account for the full health of the total project without overwhelming the team’s necessary focus on the immediate tasks at hand.

Since an active project is an evolving thing, the schedule needs to evolve as well. Focusing on the sequence of short-term needs makes the larger effort manageable.

[Previously shared with my Project Management “Circle” on Google Plus. Join it by putting me into one of your G+ circles and sharing a 1-to-1 post with me asking to be included.]

PM Link: The Client's Responsibility for Project Success

I’ve been known to suggest that the toughest resources to manage in a project are your boss and the project’s client. This link offers some thoughts about what it takes to maximize the latter’s contribution.

Bottom line…if you’re a project client, try to help the project team help you accomplish what you’re looking for from the project.

PM Link: On Priorities

Reblogged from idealgentleman:

A gentleman always knows what matters. He always knows what’s most important.

People talk about “priorities” and “priority lists”; they talk about “top ten priorities” and something being “a high priority”.

The truth is, you can only ever have one priority. Something is either your priority, or…[go read the rest]

PM Link: Value of Project Managers

A study reported in The Economist suggests that a case could be made for value in game software revenues that’s more attributable to project managers (producers in the game world) than designers.

…some 30% of differences in revenue between games could be attributed to the producer and the designer alone; and that the lion’s share of this variation was due to the producer. The boring project manager, in other words, meant more to the success or failure of the project than did the flashy designer. Moreover, the effect seemed to persist even as the individuals moved on to other projects, so more than one game could benefit from the same competent producer.

This makes sense in a business that thrives on time-to-market. Get the game into the stores sooner, and you get more time to sell it before competition arrives. And who keeps the design/development projects moving? Project Managers.

…having a thoughtful producer on board, able to curb (or indulge) the designer’s wilder impulses and make sure that deadlines are met. Rather than being interchangeable, suggests the research, managers, and their talents, matter a great deal to the success or failure of their projects.

Of course a creative game design attracts customers. Of course quality development assures desirable game play. But a few more weeks, or months, in the market, an effective producer project manager provides more opportunity for earlier revenues. If revenues are linked to product launches, then time-to-market, shepherded by your PM, is key to achieving your goals. [linkage via Scott Berkun]

In other environments - interactive agencies, for instance - in addition to the contribution to the top line from timely delivery, project managers are also instrumental in predicting costs, which, in the hands of smart management, informs pricing of services and assures company profitability.

Productivity Link: Save Our Inboxes! Adopt the Email Charter!

We’re drowning in email. And the many hours we spend on it are generating ever more work for our friends and colleagues. We can reverse this spiral only by mutual agreement. Hence this Charter…