Level2wo

On Fridays I like to have some fun with the topics that are important to you and to me, namely marketing, web design, content, project management, and the like. Today I thought I would throw up some project management jokes and truisms, as well as some coding, employment, and general work funnies in between. Hope you enjoy them!

Checkpoint Results Defined

Task force to review.
Seven people who are incompetent at their regular jobs have been loaned to the project

Serious but not insurmountable problems.
It’ll take a miracle…

Not well defined at this time.
Nobody’s even thought about it.

Risk is high, but within acceptable ranges of risk
100:1 odds, or with 10 times over budget using 10 times the people we said we’d employ.
Essentially complete
It’s half done.
Employee Appraisal

He has carried out each and every one of his duties to his entire satisfaction.

Works well when under constant supervision and cornered like a rat in a trap

This employee should go far – and the sooner he starts, the better.

Technically sound, but socially impossible.
Project Management Proverbs

If at first you don’t succeed, remove all evidence you ever tried.

There’s never enough time to do it right first time but there’s always enough time to go back and do it again.

Quantitative project management is for predicting cost and schedule overruns well in advance.

For a project manager overruns are as certain as death and taxes.

Warning: dates in a calendar are closer than they appear to be.

Managing IT people is like herding cats.

Good control reveals problems early – which only means you’ll have longer to worry about them.
Joke

A project manager, a computer programmer and a computer operator are driving down the road when the car they are in gets a flat tire. The three men try to solve the problem.
The project manager said: “Let’s catch a cab and in ten minutes we’ll reach our destination.”

The computer programmer said: “We have here the driver’s guide. I can easily replace the flat tire and continue our drive.”

The computer operator said: “First of all, let’s turn off the engine and turn it on again. Maybe it will fix the problem.”

Suddenly a Microsoft software engineer passed by and said: “Try to close all windows, get off the car, and then get in and try again.”

Project Management – Communication

There are a great many factors and inputs into managing a successful project, none more important than the communication aspect. Without clear, constant, effective communication with all stakeholders–internally and externally, the likelihood of project success will not be very good.

How do you achieve communication success while managing your project?
The first thing you want to do when managing your project, at least from a communications perspective, is draw up the communication plan, even if you’re not going to be sharing it with the project stakeholders in some form or fashion. The plan will help clarify your communication efforts for you; i.e., once you’re in the thick of the project, the communication plan will help ensure that you are getting the right information to the right stakeholders at the right time. The communication plan helps you ensure consistency–you’ll know when you’re to reach out to stakeholders, when they’re to respond back to you, and it will ensure you’re minimizing the opportunity for miscommunication.

While I won’t go into all of the documents that are part of the communication process–the project charter, the milestone chart, the SOW (Statement of Work), the project plan, project schedule, organization chart–these documents will normally be readily available for stakeholders, either on paper (less and less these days), or on a sharepoint site or soft copy somewhere.

Internal Communication
Communication with your project team is critical. Not only is it important to clearly assign what needs to be done, it communicates the WHO that needs to do the work, the With Who (meaning what team members should be coordinating their efforts, including alternative plans if ‘Plan A’ doesn’t work out quite as it should, the main internal project sponsor (likely You, the PM), the HOW–email, daily/weekly meetings, conference calls, etc., and a few other factors intrinsic to executing a successful project.

External Communication
External communication–that is, communication with your client, the project sponsor, and any other project stakeholder who is not part of your internal team, needs to be done consistently (not only in terms of timing but in terms of format–email, hard copy or soft copy, etc, professionally, and as often as needed. As long as external stakeholders believe they are being kept in the loop and appropriately informed of the project’s progress, the project will run smoother and the client will remain happy–given everything else is running smoothly.

I’ll be writing more in the coming months on all aspects of Project Management, but the above communication aspect of projects can’t be overlooked, ignored, or minimized. A project is not a project unless there is communication, and depending on the size of the project, it will be dead in the water unless the flow of communication is consistent, effective, and reaches all stakeholders–internal as well as external.

Email Marketing Tips for B2B

Not sure what to do when it comes to email marketing? Many of us do our email marketing in-house, but many of us don’t. We go through the process of getting our list, segmenting, breaking down by title, perhaps location, do some vetting to make sure we see what our email recipients see, get our in-house designer or vendor’s designer to create a pretty email–don’t forget the call to action!, etc.

And we all know why we use email–it’s cheaper than direct mail, you can track it better than direct mail, and you get the results in a lot faster than you would by using other marketing techniques. You just have to make sure you follow a few musts.

Make sure you segment. Figure out who your prospects are and who your customers are, and don’t email-bomb all of them with the same message–because they aren’t the same audience. You prospects may know who you are, but they don’t know as much as your current customers. Treat them like prospects, and you’re going to drop their opinion of your business fast.

Do some testing if you have a big enough email list. Some audiences respond to flashy, fun emails, while others respond to dry, factual information when it comes to business emails. Test different emails according to tone, and track the results so you can improve the next time around.

Focus on what’s important to customers–not to you! This is all about you providing what the customer and prospect want, not what you have and what you can provide. Get that across in your emails, and you’ll have a better chance of getting that business.

Remember, while the above is primarily about B2B, much of it also applies to B2C.

Level2wo can help answer any B2B email marketing campaign questions you may have, so feel free to drop us a line.

Interactive Marketing Blogs

The sun is out today in Seattle, and we’re going to reach the abnormally hot 80s and 90s. What does that mean for you and Level2wo’s blog entries? It means it’s list time. Today I thought I would provide you, dear consumers of everything marketing and web, with some resources on Interactive Marketing, in particular Interactive Marketing Blogs that I read (though, perhaps, not as often as I should). In either case, that shouldn’t stop you from checking them out, and brushing up on your Interactive Marketing skills.

Again, I try to incorporate a variety of blogs, perhaps not the big ones out there but rather ones that I either find interesting or that you might not find on your own.

• Rohit Bhargava’s Influential Marketing Blog
• Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association (http://blog.mima.org/)
• AdverBlog
• Mobile Marketing Blog (Punchkick Interactive)
• Diva Marketing Blog
• Interactive Marketing Trends
• Interactive Marketing Blog

Hope you have some sunshine in your neck of the woods like we’re having here. Happy blogging!