How to define a project the right way: 6 critical pieces of info
Whenever you give anyone a project to do, you’ll get the best results if you provide these 6 pieces of information:
1. What do you want done?
Describe the project and list the process you want them to follow.
2. What else is needed?
Provide whatever materials they are going to need to do the work. This might include a contact database or some files or a list of websites to visit. Whatever it is, list what you are providing them and where to find it or how you are getting it to them.
3. Your deadline
When should the project be finished? If it is a bigger project and there are sub-deadlines, such as you want to see a first draft by a certain date or you want a status report by a certain date, include those.
Don’t assume that you have the same understanding of what “I need it as soon as possible” means, particularly not when you are just starting to work with someone. For some people that means “drop everything and do it immediately.” For others it means “do it within the next couple days or as soon as you can reasonably get around to it.”
4. Your budget (time/money)
How much time are you willing to have them spend on this project?
If you have a pretty good idea of how long it should take, this will be easy. (Remember that no one can do the work as quickly as you can. Double or triple the time it takes you.)
If you are not certain, you might say to take 5 hours and then let’s stop and see where they are and decide if more time is needed.
How much do you want to spend? If there are other expenses involved, list what you think is reasonable. Or if they are doing research about a purchase for you, say how much you are willing to spend.
5. What do you want the results to look like?
What kind of output do you want (Word, Excel, email)?
If you think it doesn’t matter, think a step further… Are you going to want to be able to search in the results easily? Maybe it should go in an email message. Copy and paste out of it? Maybe a text file or Word. Do further manipulation? Maybe Excel.
Include information about the quality too. If you expect it to be error-free, say so. If neatness or proper spelling/grammar matters (and it should), say that too.
6. What is the goal for the project?
What do you want to happen as a result of doing this project? How will it impact your business? Why is it important?
Perhaps you want them to call 100 people and get 10 appointments. Or have 50 sign up to receive a free offer. Maybe you want to have a website that is free of typos. You want to have a standard that you can measure results against so you know if they did a good job. What would a good job look like?
People will do a better job if they understand why you are having this project done. Perhaps getting those 10 appointments will lead to 2 sales, which will allow you to afford to have this person work for you on a regular basis.
Or maybe you have had people complain about the grammar and mistakes on your website and you think you’re losing business as a result. You want to increase the conversion rate from your site. Or your goal is x increase in revenue…
The more clearly you articulate what you want, the more likely you are to get it. (There is a truism that you get what you measure – you also are more likely to get what you ask for.)
And if they understand what your goals are, they can contribute their knowledge and experience to give you advice on how to achieve that goal. There might be better ways to do things that they know about and can share with you.
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