Every Friday I book coffee 🍵 time with my team and we talk about innovation and solving problems.
Earlier this week, I shared how Iterative Planning is the key to successful Tech Projects.
Why it works:
Iterative Planning produces a detailed, reliable plan. With an iterative plan, build is far more likely to be smooth and swift and lead to a successful project.
It works for innovation, start-ups, tech projects and streamlining business process.
Here’s a summary of the process we follow:
- Idea Sheet: Define the problem, how to solve it and design the future. Tell people why it’s needed and who it helps. How we can improve the situation. Who is involved, create a high level estimate of cost.
- Review: Questions and feedback from peers and senior leaders. Providing support without undermining authority of the project team.
- Design: Flesh-out the solution design. Build the team, add experts, consult with others. Ask Why? Iterate and brainstorm the idea. Create a timeline and roadmap for delivery.
- Review: Questions and feedback from peers and senior leaders without undermining authority. Prioritize the work. Integrated the work into the portfolio of projects.
- Test: Build an MVP or PoC. Validate the idea. Create mock-ups. Share with users. Get feedback. Iterate the idea and update the delivery roadmap and budget. Mitigate risks. Get the right people on the bus.
- Finalize: Review with peers and senior leaders. Confirm support for the solution, tasks, people, timeline, and budget. Agreement to proceed.
- Build: With the right people on the right bus in the right seats, we build it!
NOTE: Throughout Iterative Planning we’re assessing the teams’ social dynamics, teamwork and how the teams are solving problems and making progress. A great idea with a mediocre team won’t be successful. A bad idea with a great team will fix it or find a new solution.
