EP086 Building Strong Projects from Day One: An Ecommerce Approach === [00:00:00] [00:00:06] DARIN NEWBOLD: All right, well, good day and welcome to Commerce Today. My name is Darin Newbold, and I'm excited to be here with you all, and I have a wonderful, very, very special guest, Cornelia Machecha, [00:00:17] DARIN NEWBOLD: Welcome to Commerce Today. We're very happy to have you, and we've got an exciting topic for today, all about setting that solid. [00:00:27] DARIN NEWBOLD: Successful foundation for projects for your e commerce projects and setting them up. Cornelia is one of our excellent, [00:00:35] DARIN NEWBOLD: project managers and We're excited to, uh, to hear all about establishing that strong foundation. So Cornelia, tell us about that. [00:00:45] Kornelia Maciesza: Um, hello, Darin. Hello, everyone. Thank you for invitation. [00:00:49] Kornelia Maciesza: I am excited because, [00:00:52] Kornelia Maciesza: I love talking about managing projects. [00:00:57] Kornelia Maciesza: because this is lots of things that [00:01:00] project managers skip because they know how to do that. They think they know, they become a little bit blind sometimes. It's important to remind Ourselves and to other managers that there is still something to learn about our clients, not every single client and project is the same. [00:01:22] Kornelia Maciesza: So don't do it the same way. And I hope today we will navigate a little bit to everyone how to do this even better. Excellent. [00:01:34] DARIN NEWBOLD: Well, let's talk about that, uh, strong foundation. I mean, what, uh, what does it take to, to really set the stage and, and get a project rolling the right way? [00:01:46] Kornelia Maciesza: So a lot of [00:01:46] Kornelia Maciesza: of [00:01:47] Kornelia Maciesza: projects starts with kickoff meeting. [00:01:50] Kornelia Maciesza: This is how we call it. And, um, basically this is a meeting where. Agencies show how they will [00:02:00] conduct the project. They present timelines, uh, [00:02:05] Kornelia Maciesza: they show the success path or a happy path. [00:02:09] Kornelia Maciesza: the trouble is that it is impossible to just present the timeline without the client's contribution in it. So, let me give you an example, the client may think that, okay, he will have like weekly statuses with us, he will make some decisions, he will be, um, creating tasks for us and will be just bringing the portion of work, but when we just sit with a client and we ask, okay, so let's discuss your resources. [00:02:49] Kornelia Maciesza: Who is the most skilled at your team testing, or who will be your internal client? So someone [00:03:00] on a client end saying, okay, this demo that you presented is okay. Or UAT. [00:03:08] DARIN NEWBOLD: you, you used a, an acronym UAT. So in case people are not familiar with that, what, what does UAT mean? [00:03:15] Kornelia Maciesza: It's a kind of acceptance testing, done by a business. So it's, uh, it is a different to a testing, the quality assurance that we do, [00:03:27] Kornelia Maciesza: do, [00:03:28] Kornelia Maciesza: uh, on our end. So, the clients knows. his business best so he knows who will be the end user so he can conduct the kind of test that he can say us, okay, tell us, okay, it works the way that I imagined that, uh, it meets our requirements. [00:03:50] Kornelia Maciesza: and trust me, not everyone is going to do that. so by asking these questions, We come to the moment that [00:04:00] the client may think like, okay, so I will need extra person in my team or the client may discover. Okay. So by what I've just said, it means that if I have someone who is able to test and is available in my department only for five hours, I'm not, I'm not going to do testing on my end. [00:04:27] Kornelia Maciesza: So that all impacts timeline. [00:04:32] DARIN NEWBOLD: as we're doing this kickoff. Cause you're really, there's so many different aspects to look at, making sure that we set the right expectations. And we understand their goals. They understand our goals and how best we can work together. A little bit of that timeline, as you talked about, and then definitely the overall scope. [00:04:55] DARIN NEWBOLD: I know as you were going into this and as we're looking at it, [00:05:00] You're really getting into how do you define those clear roles and understand that the UAT, user acceptance, acceptance, uh, testing, you got to have somebody that knows what the client's going to be doing and how they're going to behave, correct? [00:05:15] DARIN NEWBOLD: And, and as well as the other roles and the responsibilities. [00:05:18] Kornelia Maciesza: Yes, and sometimes we are in a situation that the client doesn't feel strong enough in testing and we support that. We're ready for that as well. so what I'm trying to say is that at the very beginning, the timeline that we are presenting is only a simulation, uh, because there is lots of things that will influence it. [00:05:46] Kornelia Maciesza: the client just needs to understand how his part impacts the timeline as well. also, this is a good moment to discuss the goals. Because as agencies, sometimes we [00:06:00] think, so the goal is to deliver on time and budget. As simple as that. Um, and I can tell you about that by my experience, it's not always only that or not mainly that clients go maybe. [00:06:16] Kornelia Maciesza: Let's think that the client had a very bad experience with the previous agency with no transparency or any other problems. And maybe the main goal for this client is to not staring at every single invoice statement looking if, um, the logging was correct. Because they are fed up with that. And this is the biggest value for this client. [00:06:45] Kornelia Maciesza: So, my role as a project manager is to say, I hear you. And to make sure that I obviously deliver on time and budget. But I make sure that I [00:07:00] set the work the way that they really reach this goal. Um, and we can do it together. Like they will not do it themselves, but I can do much without them. [00:07:09] DARIN NEWBOLD: It's one of those very important things of, of gaining the buy in so that both, parties in this case, the client and the agency are really bought in on the process and what you as the project manager are bringing to the process. And to make sure that everybody has clear expectations. [00:07:31] Kornelia Maciesza: Yes. And, um, when I think about it, the times when we put ourselves in business position that, the client is, um, the task giver and we are just the tasks taker and we are doers. [00:07:50] Kornelia Maciesza: it's not here anymore. The modern project manage, uh, managing and modern agencies like Creatuity, they [00:08:00] treat clients as a part of a team. We are experts, but we consider clients as experts as well, because they know their business best. But we are, we are, a commerce experts. We are tech experts. We work with many different clients. [00:08:23] Kornelia Maciesza: So we have that experience that together we can do a lot. But, to fill as a team, we need to trust what I find difficult with a client that it needs time to grow this trust. It's, it's not easy, uh, but it is possible. It is possible. And I tell you that the most, the biggest project, the most difficult projects, uh, we're based on. [00:08:53] Kornelia Maciesza: That's truth I am talking about. [00:08:55] DARIN NEWBOLD: Mm hmm. So what is, one of the things that I know you had mentioned to [00:09:00] me as we were preparing for this that I wanted to hear more about was around the mitigating of risks. And you had mentioned something a risk register. Can you tell, can you tell us a little bit more about that? [00:09:12] Kornelia Maciesza: Absolutely. Risk register is, is nothing new for project management. but it depends how you conduct that. We made it very simple at Creatuity. It's open to our clients. It's made in Jira. and it's one of the touch points that we have with our clients. So it's not something that I just keep on my desk. [00:09:37] Kornelia Maciesza: and no one can look at it because [00:09:40] Kornelia Maciesza: when we [00:09:41] Kornelia Maciesza: create risks, we want everyone in a team, especially client, To be involved in mitigating, to be involved in rating. Uh, we rate the risk inherent, inherent and residual [00:10:00] risk, which means that we try to measure the risk when it comes, when we, it occurs and we observe it. [00:10:08] Kornelia Maciesza: and then after the action we decided to take, we measure it again, to see if what was applied really helped. [00:10:18] Kornelia Maciesza: in mitigating. [00:10:19] Kornelia Maciesza: think is very new to clients and they haven't experienced that with other agencies and I'm proud of that because they are a part of, a part of the most important thing in a project. [00:10:36] Kornelia Maciesza: Managing risks. even the risk happens because of, let's say our mistake is good to involve the client and cooperate. Absolutely. [00:10:50] DARIN NEWBOLD: And a lot of that really revolves around our, our, your desire as a project manager and Is on having that transparency [00:11:00] and using Jira. Jira is a software product that basically we use from a development standpoint to manage tasks and their, and their completion. [00:11:08] DARIN NEWBOLD: And we share that with our clients so that, so that everybody sees it's transparent, everybody sees what's being worked on, where their things are blocked or what might be happening. So as we kind of get closer to the end here, I wanted, I know you have some stories. Some, uh, some real world examples, some success that, that you've had, maybe even some challenges that we've had to work through. [00:11:33] DARIN NEWBOLD: Cornelia, I'd love to hear a little bit more about maybe some of those real world examples. [00:11:38] Kornelia Maciesza: Oh, um, yeah, there is a lot of things worth sharing, but when I think about an example that shows that building this transparency and building this such poise. Uh, in JIRA and having client involved would be the example [00:12:00] where, uh, we have more than one agency involved in a project. [00:12:04] Kornelia Maciesza: So it's creativity and it's like, uh, integrator provider or provider or any other modules. These projects, become complicated. at the stage where we have, [00:12:20] Kornelia Maciesza: when [00:12:21] Kornelia Maciesza: client discovers that there is actually no one responsible for all of it. and, uh, in my real story, the client had, For the long time, the client had kind of impression that the person responsible for all of all integration is one of the project managers who had the strongest personality, so acts a lot at the meetings, had always lots to say. [00:12:54] Kornelia Maciesza: But that became that this project manager, uh, [00:13:00] considered himself as facilitator of the conversations, of the meetings that were just weekly status. [00:13:07] Kornelia Maciesza: but [00:13:08] Kornelia Maciesza: But he didn't move any work. He didn't ask questions. There was no timeline gathering all of the parties, all of the actors. [00:13:17] Kornelia Maciesza: So [00:13:19] Kornelia Maciesza: what I always say to my colleagues, because we as PMs discuss situations in all projects, um, at Creatuity, I say, if you have a feeling, even a little one that it's out of control and there is no one accountable or no one responsible, just say it. [00:13:38] Kornelia Maciesza: and take it, take this responsibility because you can actually speak for the client. And in my example, the client afterwards said, thank you for speaking for me because I went to the conference. I wasn't able to check all of the decisions for nearly a [00:14:00] week. And I didn't know that there was no one to look at it to make sure that the things were going. [00:14:07] Kornelia Maciesza: There was no one place with, uh, the tickets were the box were sharing between tester and all of the agencies. So the creativity was the one thing like, Hey, something. It's something wrong in here. Let's do it. And that worked. and obviously that worked also because the other agencies were like, okay, okay, that was comfortable for them that at least creativity, uh, conducted all of it. [00:14:39] Kornelia Maciesza: but I think that, That shows to our clients that they can rely on us a lot, and even they, if they are not able or they just don't want to do a project manager role for more complicated projects, we can do it. We are fine doing it. We know what questions to [00:15:00] ask. [00:15:00] DARIN NEWBOLD: And I think that's great. That's such a valuable piece. [00:15:04] DARIN NEWBOLD: It earns trust with our clients and really does show that a lot of times it's not the loudest voice in the room that is actually leading anything. And [00:15:19] building_strong_projects_from_day_one__an_ecommerce_approach_22_Aug_2024_restream: And [00:15:20] DARIN NEWBOLD: really love what you said. And that's so important that in the absence of leadership, we're going to step up because if somebody is not leading it, we will, and that is so important. [00:15:30] DARIN NEWBOLD: I'm so glad you do that. I'm so glad you drive that type of, uh, type of results for our PMs. Well, we're kind of at our, at the end of our time here, uh, Cornelia, but is there, What's maybe one or two things that you want to make sure people know about project management and, and really setting the stage for projects? [00:15:50] DARIN NEWBOLD: What's one or two things you'd like to like everyone to be left with here? [00:15:54] Kornelia Maciesza: Okay. So especially for agencies, for project managers, I know [00:16:00] that the whole world is excited about Scrum and wants to do everything in Scrum, but do not put the label on every single client and every single project that is Scrum [00:16:13] Kornelia Maciesza: friendly [00:16:14] Kornelia Maciesza: because Lots of clients and organizations are not ready for that or just project is not suitable for agile is, is a big bucket of different methodologies. [00:16:29] Kornelia Maciesza: So pick the one that is good for the client, for the team, for the specific of the project. listen to the client, ask difficult questions. The client. doesn't always know what is the best. technology, but knows his business best. [00:16:53] DARIN NEWBOLD: Right. [00:16:53] Kornelia Maciesza: So that's for project managers, for agencies, sorry, for clients that would [00:17:00] be invest, trust. [00:17:03] Kornelia Maciesza: And time and grow that trust or let your project managers and let, uh, the agency to grow this trust with you, become a part of the team. Don't be afraid of being part of the team and calling your, your, uh, team, your agency partners, because we are happy to be [00:17:26] DARIN NEWBOLD: ones. Excellent. Cornelia, that was fantastic. [00:17:29] DARIN NEWBOLD: The reminders of, of building that trust. Uh, making sure you've, you, you're flexible in the methodology and how you want to approach the project and, and really keep the client's needs there and their, uh, desires and goals first and foremost. So, Bonita, I can't thank you enough. So great to have you on here. [00:17:49] DARIN NEWBOLD: This has been a bunch of fun and I'm guessing we only scratched the surface on project management. So, uh, maybe we have you back another time, but until then we're out of time [00:18:00] here. Again, I appreciate you. I think everyone, please, uh, if you have questions or comments, we'd love to hear from you. and we also definitely want to, yeah, definitely want to see you again next time. [00:18:10] DARIN NEWBOLD: So thanks a bunch Cornelia. Take care. ​