The Most Overlooked Step In Project Execution

You and your team have planned, worked, adjusted, worked some more, pulled a few all nighters, and now you’ve hit the big red launch button. Congrats!

Completing a project is often one part relief that it’s over, one part excitement to see your sweat equity pay off, and a dash of breath-hitching nervousness on how it will truly perform in the market. And usually we’re on to the next 10 (or 50) projects backed up like a traffic jam waiting for our attention. So not only do we not fully enjoy the moment of satisfaction, but in our rush to move on we often skip an important step – REVIEW!

Missing this step in your project could mean your next step is a misstep! Tweet this!

So what does Review entail?

1. Analytics. This could be reporting for sales, social media likes or engagement, leads, calls, etc. For example you could compare reporting you have from website analytics prior to your new site launch with 1 week and 30 days after your launch.

2. Project flow. Any opportunity you have to refine your project flow, especially with a team that will be working together again on future projects, is one you shouldn’t pass up. Each key team member will likely have valuable feedback and insight into how to improve the process, tools and timelines to make the next project run more smoothly – a.k.a. save time, money and Advil for those headaches.

3. Communication review. Were there gaps in communication? In 90% of projects communication could have been clearer at the start and during major milestones. If challenges or major direction changes arose during the project, how could they be handled better, communicated to the team more cohesively, or possibly avoided altogether in future. Hindsight is 20/20, so take a moment to see the project without the misty fog of in-the-moment madness.

4. Sub-projects and new ideas. Often during the planning or project execution phase new ideas or ‘ops we didn’t plan or think about that yet’ arise. Yet veering off mid project to handle them isn’t always the best solution. You don’t want to forget about these ideas or branch projects – they’re important! Spend time after your project launch figuring out how to put them into process or address them as they usually end up enhancing or adding value to your original project.

Plus, you may discover that some of the next projects you already have in the kitty now need to be revised or are even obsolete. You don’t want to waste time on moving on to the ‘wrong’ next step regardless of how certain you were prior that it was the right one.

5. Open-forum. This is my favorite review process. Just meeting with the team and asking what they thought about the process AND the project. Do they think it added the expected value? Did it meet their expectations? Do they have suggestions or ideas for improvement?

Be a great listener during this process – without judgement! If you create a safe environment to share thought in, then you could walk away with some time-saving, money-making gems. And some happy team members too. Not a bad way to kick of the next project, right.

Share your gems in the comments below. What review steps have helped you add value or avoid challenges for future projects?