When crafting a strategic plan to launch a new program, two major considerations can make or break your success: goals and resources.
Goals & Resources Working in Tandem
A program lead must consider goals and resources together in order to ensure that a project is feasible. For example, you may want to have a goal of producing 8 million widgets in three months, but if you only have three workers, a tiny budget, AND competing priorities, then that goal, however impressive it may sound, doesn't make sense. Naming a goal without considering your resources is setting yourself up for failure.
Start with a high-level goal...
No program fabricates in mid-air and comes into being without a purpose. Programs come from ideas which can come from needs or solutions or maybe even inspiration from competitors. Chances are there is already a vague goal in mind when a program idea is formed. But this goal is also probably more strategic, higher-level, and qualitative than quantitative.
For example, a marketing team without an email program may want to start one. They could say their goal is to simply create an email program, but there's too much grey area there and not enough actionability. The marketing leader would need to see a clear need for such a program. What value would an email program add? You begin to discover a high-level goal, such as creating an email program to nurture cold prospects before handing warmed leads off to sales.
Explore your resources
Now that you have an idea for a program and a high-level vision around its purpose or value-add, you'll need to review your resources to ensure it makes sense to do this project. At this phase, you'll need to start with a list of things that you need, and transform it into a list of things that you have. Identify all of the things and people that will bring this project to fruition, then garner buy-in from the necessary parties and see which resources you have at your disposal. This turns your wish list into an action plan.
Things to consider:
Commitment - How much time do you need people to spend on this program? How many teams need to be involved? Which levels? How often do you need to meet?
Budget - How much money do you have to work with? How much money do you need?
Skills - What roles need to work on this project? What skills and positions are necessary to yield success?
Bandwidth - How busy are your team members? Can they handle the work this would require? Would this be a priority and if not, where would it fall on the hierarchy of their workload? If this is added to their plates, is anything else removed or delegated?
Timing - It may be a great idea, but is now the right time to add it to your team's plates? When does this program need to finish, and when does it need to start?
Answer these questions honestly. Being transparent up front will help you set up a program for realistic success.
Once you have a clear plan, figure out the best way to get your answers. For example, if you need several people from another department to work with you, you'll need to check their bandwidth and commitment before launching the program. Get buy-in from necessary stakeholders -- consider what they value and what they can add, then communicate your needs openly and clearly to them and ask their participation interest and availability before proceeding.
Whittle goals into specific KPIs
Now that you know how much money, time, and team members you have, you can match those resources to your high-level goal and devise clear, actionable KPIs that will help you measure success.
Following the email program example... Does success look like simply forming the process in the backend, or do you want to deploy an email first? How many? How often? Are you creating designed monthly newsletters or daily email templates for your sales team? How are you measuring the success of this program?
Document how you will measure success of the program, keeping in mind the resources you have that act as both guidelines and opportunities.
Your resources tell you what you have to play with, but they also may help you realize you can do something even better than you first imagined. Don't be limited by your resources - you won't want to exhaust your resources carelessly, but you also won't want to make them fit into your original plan. Things change, sometimes for the better, so play to your strengths and embrace opportunity.
Communicate your goals to your team
However intuitive you may think a program's intended outcome is, name it. Document it. Get everyone on the same page.
Option #1: Hold a meeting with the program's team leads to brainstorm the primary KPI (key performance indicator). In situations where you have control over the main goal and success metric, bringing project leaders together to strategize around the program goal will increase engagement and give everyone a voice before decisions are made around processes or structure. (Remember - Strategy before structure.) If you're working on a cross-team project, it would behoove you to have a member of each team represented to encourage diversity of perspectives but also to give a voice to everyone. Holding a controlled brainstorm will help everyone realize how many different opinions are in the room and therefore how important it is to get these differences out in the open then agree upon a shared goal everyone feels comfortable striving for.
Option #2: Hold a meeting with program contributors to communicate the goal you have decided upon. If possible, be open to feedback and ensure the KPIs you are setting for this team are realistic in their eyes, too. Garnering buy-in sometimes means listening to differing opinions, so keep an open mind to the opinions your team brings to the table. Hopefully they are communicating professionally and strategically so that you can explore additional avenues or opportunities you hadn't thought of before. Revise your goals as necessary, but set a date when they need to be solidified to keep your team on track. Listen to feedback, but if you have lots of strong and differing opinions, know when you need to make a decision and move on. Empathizing and project managing simultaneously can be challenging but will set up your program for success and let your colleagues know you're all on the same team and they can trust you as a leader who has their best interests - and the success of the program - at heart.
Measure and communicate progress...and change
Once you have a goal, resources, and KPIs solidified, documented, and communicated, things may still change. You may come across a roadblock you hadn't anticipated, or you may find someone had a more urgent need or even a better idea that took the project in a different direction. Embrace it. Measure progress against your strategic vision, communicate it with the team in regular meetings, and encourage feedback throughout so you can stay agile and be both effective and efficient.
Make changes as needed, and communicate them clearly to the team altogether. Be a unifying presence for your team - consider other perspectives then make the most strategic decision that brings the most value to your intended audience. You can't do everything, so sometimes you'll have to make difficult decisions. Get buy-in and feedback whenever you can, then make a clear decision and communicate it to your team clearly and openly. Highlight what changed and why, and what other items (dependencies) may change as a result. Be prepared - if you are using a spreadsheet to track progress, show your team you've already considered various outcomes and this one makes the most sense because of xyz. Keep your KPIs in a central location so everyone can refer back to them as needed, especially if they change. Use a visual if possible to convey progress, and celebrate wins throughout. At the end, either set the program up for continued operation for the future or coordinate a final launch or completion date with your team. Debrief on what went well and what you could do better next time, and thank your team for their hard work - you're all human and no one should be above a bit of kindness - and fun.
In summary...
Goals and resources are two of the most important things to consider when organizing a new program. Whittling down your goals and resources in tandem will help you form a strategic, realistic, and actionable plan. Garner buy-in, measure progress, make tweaks as necessary, encourage feedback, and communicate frequently, openly, and honestly throughout. Employing these techniques will help take you one step closer to success. Best of luck!
