The 7 Questions you need to ask when starting a project

Have you ever struggled to get your project past the finish line?  Have you ever  felt a lack of support and commitment from other departments and clients?

The reason is not a missing tool or software or you not being certified. 

Project Management is  the art of asking questions in a systematic way to focus our energy on getting results in time and within budget. 

In this post, I am going to share with you the 7 Questions you need to ask in the very beginning before you dive into planning and action so that you can save money and time.  Just ask these questions before you dig into the goal-setting for your project and you will be fine.

If you want to listen to me  click here

Question 1: What do we want to achieve? What is the outcome of this  Project?

Have you ever been asked to describe your project vision? Do all participants in your project see the same picture?

the ability to communicate this outcome, to describe it in clear pictures so others can see it, feel it, imagine it.

Very often Projects are started with hustling and not clearly defined outcomes.

Example:  

• Changing a business process from analog to digital
• Building   the app XYZ
• Creating  a prototype for an automated car
• Building a Business
• Merging departments so that...
• Launching  a new product 
• Empowering the leadership team to grow sales
• Changing the Organizational Culture to be...
• developing a new market 
• a new methodology for coating
• Make a sales presentation that converts
• etc.

What is your current project about?

For demonstrating the power of these questions, I choose  an easy example, I want to use the mini-project "Get a Christmas tree" 

Now before we describe the bells and whistles how the Christmas tree should look like,  how it should be decorated and the height, type of tree and more details we need to ask:

Question 2: Why do we want to do this? What is the purpose?

 Do we do this to make our children happy? is it because we love it? is to for our office? For the Lobby of a Hotel?

The tree has for me a symbol of our family reunion, a symbol of beauty, happy family time, peacefulness, everything is alright, time to rest, sing songs and play with the kids under the warm lights of the Christmas tree.

Do we want to impress our neighbors or parents or is it just because of its a habit?

How important is this project for us? For me?

How motivated are you personally by this project?

Question 3: When do we need to be finished? What is the deadline -the date of delivery?

 Now, this is ca be confusing whenever you start this project the deadline can be assumed by everyone differently. depending on your culture and experience it os the beginning of December or the Christmas eve or the day before or whatever day it is in your family. I remember in our family it was the 24 morning that the tree was prepared and where not allowed to enter the living room as the present and wrapped gits were placed my parents next to the beautifully decorated tree.

The date was holy and my father took that very seriously, he cut the tree in the forest min a week before and the tree was standing outside waiting for the day to be decorated. In my family as a traveling consultant, we often bought it very last minute 23rd. But that was a must and we made a family team event ou of this by discussing the decoration and decorating the tree together.

Question 4: How many resources are available? What is the budget?

 Now the family CFO always said we need to save and not spend more than  XYZ on that tree.  Either we got it from the forest or we extended the budget and save on mote stuff as the beauty and height were very important.

But you know Christmas trees can be very expensive and you need a car for transportation and you need lights and glass figures.  I remember we transported the tree with a convertible.  we just opened the top of the car and a 3 m tree fitted easily inside. e, where luck is, was not snowing that day. A tree cost 60 Euro and sometimes we here to save and drove for 

How much do want to spend on the tree? how much on the decoration?

What is interesting despite the idea to save on the tree as they can be very expensive we always took the longer, higher one despite the cost as the risk having a high tree was more important than just to stay with an unrealistic budget.

Question 5: Who is the decision-maker? Who is financing the project?

This is very important. question.  Who can give us more funds? Who can we go to to get more budget for new decoration or new lights or higher tree? is the decisionmaker invested and happy or is the financial decisionmaker and the person who we want to nake happy is not the financial decision-maker?

Here begins our creativity as project managers.  If it touches our emotions and we are vested projects like the Christmas tree, we will find the budget to make it us happy. How interesting. so how invested are you in the outcome of your project?

Have you ever experience that you organize the tree and your spouse, children of a friend were not happy with the height or look?

The height of the tree was one of the key parameter sand t wh is deciding upon that?

Even as a student we had a high tree and saved on decoration a build pare stars or used natural candles to save money but the height and nature were more important than golden deco.

In the company with several departments or management board,  or charity organizations,  or when you are in political structures like municipalities with resort and silo thinking,  identifying the decisionmaker is really difficult. this is the most crucial point that if you overlook it will kill your project.

Question 6: Who are the users? What are their benefits?

 The users are we all, Our family, , friends, parents and

I want as well repace the top light for the room.

I do not want to clean the needles from the floor.

We need enough space around the piano and on our pathway to the kitchen.

I asked daddy please let's take the highest tree it si impressive to look up to the light up the room and the smell of fresh pine needles. 

Users are the most overseen and forgotten group in a project. Imagine you buy medical equipment for your hospital and the administration take the cheapest one without considering the opinion of the medical doctors who will use it for diagnosing the disease. 

Imagine your admin purchases the most expensive equipment but the doctor is too old to learn the new way of diagnostic and software application.

Question 7: Who are experts? Who has knowledge and expertise?

Who knows where to get a tree affordable?

Who knows how to make it stand stable

Who knows how place it put electrical who has very decorated who knows what the children or family wants?

Who knows the location of the people who you want to make happy?

If it so for children you may need to consider the age as 2 3-year-olds like to touch all decorations so you may not hang sensitive deco down in their reach or you consider to use electric light so to be safe?

In our city the made the lighting higher above 2 so that the drunken party teens cannot accidentally damage the lights.

Oh so many people do not ask experts  but ignorance can be very expensive 

If you want to try this exercise right away download the free workbook here so that you can save money and time in planning and executing your project.