“Revolutionize Project Management: The Startup Approach Every Project Manager Needs”
In many organizations, Project Management are temporary endeavors aimed at achieving specific goals, such as implementing systems, launching products, or resolving customer issues. Project managers are tasked with leading teams to accomplish these goals within designated timeframes and budgets. While their training primarily focuses on planning and execution, the reality is that large-scale projects, especially those involving significant uncertainty, seldom follow a linear path. As former boxer Mike Tyson once famously remarked, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” When this happens, the meticulously laid plans fall apart, necessitating a reassessment of assumptions and on-the-fly adjustments by the project manager.
READ: America’s Favorite Foodmakers Offering Spooky Good Deals for Halloween
Table of Contents
Project Management
In my capacity as an advisor to major organizations handling complex projects with multiple unknowns, I’ve observed that successful managers of such projects continually adapt. They don’t merely wait for the next setback; instead, they embrace the idea that project goals are often achieved through continuous discovery and iteration, rather than rigidly sticking to a predefined work plan. This article delves into the incorporation of several valuable tools from the startup world into project management, enabling project managers to anticipate changes and minimize the need for constant pivoting.
When You Don’t Think Like a Startup
Let’s examine how a project can encounter difficulties when the project manager solely focuses on execution without adopting a startup mindset. Several years ago, I consulted with a fast-growing consumer-packaged food company that was acquiring numerous brands. The CEO and CFO tasked a senior IT leader with implementing an enterprise financial reporting system to consolidate data from all the brands and present an overall company performance overview. Despite successful software implementation, the lack of standardized measures and definitions across brands rendered the reporting system ineffective, necessitating extensive manual intervention.
A Startup Approach to Project Management
In essence, the project manager should have approached the project with a startup leader’s mindset, emphasizing the importance of discovery, facilitation, negotiation, and the creation of a shared vision. Implementing the systems should have been a relatively small aspect of the overall project. Embracing this approach from the outset is key, as demonstrated in the case of a global pharmaceutical company that sought to maximize revenue from underutilized products. By employing tools such as the project management canvas, customer development process, minimum viable project, and scale-up strategy, the project manager enabled iterative progress towards the project’s overarching goal, resulting in a substantial increase in sales within a year.
Embracing a startup mentality may not be suitable for all projects, especially those with well-defined parameters. However, for projects riddled with ambiguity and uncertainty, adopting a startup approach can prove pivotal. While it demands continuous iteration and discovery, it ultimately safeguards against unforeseen challenges.
