We work with a lot of different size teams for website design, branding, and other projects. The questions we have aren’t about the size of the team that is doing the project. The main questions after a budget is the timeline.
The timeline is a legitimate concern with any project Everyone wants everything done as quickly as possible. The client wants the project complete so they can take advantage of the benefits and the agency wants the project complete so they can bill.
Here is how you can lower the timeline of any project. Get ready. It is some deep stuff.
- Plan
- Anticipate
- Respond
- Decide
That’s it. The big secret.
PARD. You know, like an old-school spaghetti western. Short for “partner”. You get it. Let’s dig in a bit and explain how these can help you with your website design or a marketing project.
The first is Plan. You need to have a plan of what you want to happen. Start with your overall goal and then build milestones that will lead to the success of your plan. Under the milestone,s you need to have the task to meet those milestones to eventually reach your goals.
In order to make the work flow as smooth as possible, I suggest the use of a project management software. We use teamwork. It works for us but there are a great number of project software that you can use. The important part is that everyone needs to use it.
Instead of anyone emailing, texting a project management software keeps everything contained.
Anticipate: You have the plan. Your goals and milestones are all laid out. In order to make the process even more effective, you need to anticipate the next move. For instance, let’s say you are the client and have a task “C” that is next for your marketing company if you anticipate them completing that next step and do what you can to get ready for your next task there will be less downtime.
Respond: This is pretty simple. If someone on the team sends you something you need to respond to it as quickly as possible. I know that sometimes you have to reflect on a question but try to minimize the reflection time as much as possible. The beauty of creating with a CMS is that you can always makes changes after launch.
Decide: You have a decision to make whether you are on the client side or the marketing side. Try to make a quick decision.
If you can’t decide without input call the meeting quickly to decide. If you know that you will have to make decisions, ANTICIPATE them and have set meetings on all of the decision makers calendar. A twice weekly meeting can make the entire process go a lot quicker.
Hours and days can quickly go past if you don’t make a habit of responding promptly.
Want to learn more about creating an effective website? Check out our guide here.