There’s something novel about taking on a brand new project and envisioning that clear or not so clear path to success that continues to pique my interest. Forming a team, setting up goals, mapping out a project plan and working your way through milestones poses as somewhat of an adventure to those who favor that predictable, yet unpredictable profession. Project management yields to leaders and creative decision makers at heart. Essential to leading a project is the foundation and the core responsibilities that come with initiating a project. The following are tips to help bring your project into liftoff:

Conduct discovery interviews. As you initiate a project, you’ll want to gather as much information as you can upstream to not only plan for the success of your project, but also account for any unexpected changes or risks associated with your project. Prepare a checklist and a set of questions to help guide your interviews with stakeholders. Your stakeholders will likely be both internal and external contributors who serve as key input into guiding the outcome of the project.

Size out your project. With the feedback that you gathered from stakeholders, some additional industry research and historical project data you should be able to put together a ballpark estimate to address the ‘triple constraint’ — scope, time and cost. If a ballpark estimate seems out of reach, try toning it down a notch to ‘t-shirt size estimates’ to get you in closer proximity.   

Put those requirements down on paper. While you may know the ins and outs of your projects, others may not be privy to the same level of detail and may enter or leave at different stages of the project. Detailing the requirements into a project plan will not only align the team, but it will also keep them tracking to the same goals and milestones. Some areas you should include in your project plan are the goals and objectives, audience, messaging and tone, schedule and budget. I’ve written and seen many project plans and creative briefs, and found that good project plan should be able to stand alone – even without a project manager.

Get your team on the same wavelength. Now that you’ve documented your project requirements, it’s important to communicate those expectations to the team. This usually happens at a kickoff meeting where the core team members come together to gain an understanding of the requirements, breakout of the roles and responsibilities and the overall game plan. When a team walks away understanding the objective, long-term goals and immediate next steps they can feel a vote of confidence in themselves, the team and the project itself.

Keep the lines of communications open. Depending on the scope of the project, you should have a regular cadence of meetings leading up to the the close of a project. These ongoing meetings can be in the form of daily stand-up meetings, weekly production syncs, bi-weekly milestone meetings, etc. Your goal is to continue the conversation, align and realign the team, answer any questions and keep the project moving.  

As a project manager, you’re juggling a multitude of projects and a myriad of team members, so getting your project started on the right foot is crucial for building momentum, connecting the team and receiving positive output. What are some tips you’d recommend to the fellow project management community that would help them take their project to the next level?