This article explores 5 challenging questions that project managers and teams should consider before starting a new project.
By answering these questions, they can gain clarity and a better understanding of the project’s objectives, requirements, risks, and success factors.
My Personal Experience And Story
When it comes to new projects like a new blog or a website. You could say that I’m a commitment phobic and my biggest advice for you is to be one.
For a long time, I was more interested in the ideas behind a new project than the execution, leading to a long trail of half-finished projects and some that never made it out of my notebook.
I found my mind wandering as I was trying to sleep a few days ago and hit upon a project idea that excited me. I could run it alongside my other project.
It would only be a hobby thing — nothing serious. My neurons started firing as I began to plan what I’d do when I woke up (ensuring it would be another hour or so before I finally drifted off).
One moderating influence I’m grateful for — in hindsight — was being unable to get online the next day.
When I finally sat down to think about this new project, I noticed that something had changed since I started working with this blog because I was well-known for the new core updates and I need to work differently now.
5 Major Questions To Ask Yourself
Instead of leaping into the process of choosing a domain name and making the project a reality, I started to ask myself some hard questions.
They’re not fun to answer — particularly when you’re feeling inspired and excited — but they have the potential to save you a lot of time and, potentially, a lot of money.
(A note: I’m deliberately avoiding specifics about my idea so you might be better able to see yourself in the process. My apologies to the curious!)
1. What are My End Goals with The Project?
If you don’t know where you want the journey to end, you can’t do anything except wander around in circles. The first step in starting any new project is to work out where you want to end up. You can then start to reverse-engineer everything else from that point.
I decided that my goals for the project — the point where I’d be satisfied with it — were to build an active niche forum with a blog off-shoot. I would be catering to a really small niche, so grand aspirations didn’t figure into it.
This question is probably the easiest of the five because it allows you to stay firmly in that comfortable realm where you’re thinking about the end product in ignorance of the ‘How‘ question. What’s involved in getting there?
The Honeymoon didn’t last for long!
2. What will I Have to Do to Reach Those Goals?
Like any strong structure, worthy goals tend to have more than one foundation. I split my goals into two:
- Build a thriving forum to serve a very small niche.
- Create a blog offshoot to convert blog readers into forum members (and vice versa).
As I considered both these necessary steps, some difficulties began to spring up immediately.
- I don’t know how to promote a forum — though I could probably learn.
- The niche I’m targeting is already partially served by a few different forums. How could I move them to leave — or participate in more than one forum?
- There’s little opportunity for off-blog promotion because there are very few active sites in the niche. In other words, there’s nowhere to guest post or comment *gulp*.
- I’ll have to create blog content on a topic I’m not an expert on.
- I’ll have to moderate the forums or get others to do so. In my previous experiences being a forum admin, this hasn’t been fun!
While none of these challenges are insurmountable, they did start to cause me some worry. Which was a good thing. It meant that I was starting to take the ‘How’ question into account.
At this stage, it’s important to break up your goals into the separate chunks required to achieve them. Then comes the difficult task of identifying the necessary steps you’ll need to take — and the potential problems with each step.
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3. Do I Have Enough Ideas and Inspiration?
Ideas are the fuel behind any new project. While two or three good ideas can be enough to get you excited, a successful project requires a lot of good ideas over an extended period of time.
I’ve started many projects only to find that I ran out of steam after a month or so. I wasn’t inspired and the content started to bore me. The finished product I had in mind seemed far removed from the regular drudge of creating the content required to get there.
It’s not quite enough to be passionate about something. You also need to be passionate about writing about it. That’s an ugly sentence, but it’s the truth.
There are a lot of topics I’m passionate about — topics I thought would make the perfect subject of a blog or website — only to find that my passion didn’t extend quite so far as to enjoy writing about it semi-daily.
The process for answering this question is simple, but it’s a step many of us (myself included) have been reluctant to take. Essentially, you need to start before you start.
- You should be able to brainstorm 20-30 ideas for content. If you can’t make it, that’s a warning sign.
- You should aim to write five or so content items for the project before you start thinking about a name. If you can’t make it, that’s a warning sign. If you make it but didn’t enjoy it, that’s another sign you might be running into trouble.
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4. Do I Have Enough Time?
This is one question that seems to be a recurring theme in most of our lives.
The short of it is this: if you’re not juggling any other projects, you can make enough time. You may just have to pace yourself. If your goals are attached to a time frame, then you run into a problem.
If you’re adding a new project on top of an existing one, this question becomes even more important. If you’re dedicating all your available web time to your existing blog or website, then you’re either going to have to make more time or redistribute the time between the two sites.
Between my personal blog and freelancing, I simply couldn’t make more time without stealing it from one of my other projects. At the moment, I’m not willing to do that.
5. Will It Impact my Other Projects?
An offshoot of the previous question, and the final one you need to consider. A new project often requires you to sacrifice some part of your old project — unless you take time from elsewhere.
Unless you spend large swathes of time doing absolutely nothing, something will have to be sacrificed. This is another oft-overlooked factor in the ‘Eureka!’ moment behind a new project idea.
You need to be sure the project will be worth the sacrifice, whether it’s less time with the PlayStation or less time working on your magnum opus.
Wrapping Up The Loose Ends
I hope this list of hard questions will be useful to those of you flirting with the idea of starting a new project or running two or more projects at the same time. It might also be a resource you return to if the desire strikes in the future.
It’ll also be interesting to see whether any of you feel this list could be applied to projects in other fields — from a new business venture to a new novel.
To wrap up my personal story, the new project I’ve been thinking about working on amazon affiliate website. Before I start, I need to figure out how to make it work without taking time away from the things that are most important to me.
Pro Tips:
People Also Ask
What is the best thing to do before making a project?
The Steps include:
Identifying the goals and objectives of the project: What are you trying to achieve with this project? Researching the target audience: Who will be using or consuming the project? What are their needs and preferences?
Identifying potential challenges or roadblocks: What obstacles may arise during the project, and how can they be overcome? Creating a detailed project plan: Outline the tasks and milestones that need to be completed, and assign responsibilities and deadlines.
Budgeting and Resource Allocation: Identify the resources (financial, human, technical, etc.) required for the project and plan accordingly.
Identifying and mitigating risks: Identify the potential risks that may affect the project and plan accordingly By thoroughly researching and planning, you can ensure that your project is well-structured and that you have a clear understanding of the resources and steps required to complete it successfully.
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