Have you ever been on a date that was moving faster than you’d like? 😖
Or worked with a team mate whose pace is quicker than yours?
Well, that’s one of the biggest reasons why projects go awry.
#SalesforcePartners do projects for a living.
It’s our bread and butter, and we do it every day. ☀🌙
You’re likely to get really good at something you do all the time, especially if you care about doing it properly.
We understand the best way to approach certain problems.
We’ve learnt from past mistakes (and have scars to show for it).
We’re speedy.
We’re efficient.
(Not every partners are like this, but there are a few who take pride in their work and do it well).
And clients often don’t realise that when they sign up to work with a partner, there are expectations that they be speedy and efficient too.
To be honest: what we really want to do is to implement your project as quickly and as amazingly (as we normally do) and then move onto the next exciting and fun project. 😁
Why?
Well because we need to be constantly doing projects so that we can get paid for delivering amazing #Salesforce systems.
However, on the client side, organisational culture can sometimes get in the way. Here, change may be something that moves at its own pace. 🐌
When delays happen, most of the time it is because
🍩 decisions and approvals take time
🍩 stakeholders change their mind because ‘well – it’s agile, innit?’
In short, the partner hasn’t impressed upon the client where timeliness of certain decisions might have a big impact on timeline (Jodi Hrbek remember our engagement / marital therapy session at Midwest Dreamin’ 🤭)
It’s the job of a #RealProjectManager on the partner side to make sure the client understands this.
When you’ve told us your desired go-live date, we will have provisioned the right resources to do the work so that we hit that date, and we kinda expect you to keep up.
Like a bad record (ok, who’s old enough to understand this reference?!), I will make sure to re-iterate these expectations from project kick-off, right through to each and every project status meeting (and often in between as well).
If you’re a #ProjectManager from the client-side, you need to have an understanding of how things work internally within your organisation.
Your ability to manage stakeholders within the internal culture will impact how well and quickly you’ll be able to work with your Salesforce Partner.
Too often, we’ll get into a situation where delays will add additional cost to the project, and that’s when conflict and stress will start building up.
There’s no shame in being a tortoise 🐢.
After all, slow and steady wins the race.
But try to put on roller skates to keep up with the hare 🐇, and you might just crash in a spectacular fashion!
If you’re a tortoise – own it! 💪🏻
That’s the only way to win.
Do you have experience of this happening on your projects?
Tell me in the comments! 👇🏻
#OnThePeiroll
#ProjectManagement
