Is Everything Can be Managed as a Project?

Original

In my previous article, I discussed how to manage issues from a product perspective. Similarly, everything can be approached as a project. With the mindsets of product management and project management, even the most complex endeavors can be simplified and accomplished step by step.

There are assumptions and realities underlying these two perspectives. The assumption is that continuous improvement can enhance everything. Based on this assumption, we can unleash our creativity from the product management perspective and make daring, imaginative designs that challenge the status quo. However, the reality is that resources are always limited, so a project management approach is required to achieve our goals gradually over time.

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What is the difference between the product perspective and the project perspective?

• The product perspective focuses on the "what" level, defining the product's goals, scope, and the final state to be achieved. 
• The project perspective is concerned with the "how" level, and deals with the management of priorities, time, resources, and scheduling necessary to bring the product to completion.

The interests and focuses represented by the two perspectives are distinct. The product perspective prioritizes the interests of the users, with a desire for more features, faster delivery, lower costs, and high quality. In contrast, the project perspective prioritizes the interests of the execution team, with a focus on minimizing changes, lowering costs, allowing for more time, and promoting stability. As a result, the two perspectives may inherently conflict with one another.

Based on feedback from ZenTao users, most teams do not have a concept of product management and only focus on project management. Project managers are often required to do both product and project management, which can be challenging. This "dual role" is a significant factor in the problems that many teams experience during a project. To achieve sustained growth and improvement, we need to strengthen our product management mindset and combine it with project management.

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To achieve this, the first step is to define everything as a product, whether it is a software product or a department within the company. For example, we can view our Content department as a product and then organize all the things that need to be done as user stories. These could include organizing ten events in 2023, publishing a certain number of books, writing specific articles, and designing particular posters. By defining everything as a product, we can break down the company's strategic goals into achievable small targets.

Next, prioritize the user stories and develop an execution plan. Based on the limitations of resources, the team needs to ensure that they are always working on the highest-priority tasks. Therefore, it is important to dynamically sort and select the highest-priority user stoties for each iteration, which can be a month or a week, depending on the team's circumstances. For example, the ZenTao team iterates on a weekly basis for each department. Once the priorities are set, a corresponding execution plan can be developed that outlines what needs to be done in each iteration. This process guides us to think about the mid-to-long-term future while executing the current plan.

After prioritizing the user stories, the next step is to develop an execution plan using project management techniques. Each project has a list of user stories to be completed, which are the project goals; and every project comes with a fixed timeline and specific personnel configuration. The process of breaking down user stories into specific tasks involves identifying all necessary steps required to accomplish the requirement, estimating the workload for each task, and clearly assigning ownership to the appropriate personnel. This allows for daily work and follow-up to begin until the project is completed. Finally, an acceptance review is conducted, and lessons learned are documented before beginning the next project.

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In our ZenTao team, the development department has been utilizing the product+project management approach for quite some time. Last year, we expanded this approach to all departments. The aforementioned example pertains to our Content department. However, our HR department also utilizes product and project management for work follow-up. The user stories are the breakdown of the company's annual strategy regarding talent development goals, which is then followed up by specific tasks for each week. As a result, we have been highly successful in achieving our objectives.

Our management approach involves using product management to define all the things to be done at the company level, and drive towards achieving them by employing project management. The things need to be done include business goals, talent development plans, corporate culture building, product development, process improvement, personal growth, and more. They are derived from various management frameworks such as Amoeba's strategic objectives, OKR, customized requirements from clients, product self-requirements, departmental plans, and individual goals. At the end of the day, every individual is responsible for completing a set of assigned tasks within their designated timeframe. By integrating these tasks into a comprehensive management framework, we are able to track and oversee progress smoothly and efficiently.

This approach has been successfully applied by the ZenTao team over the years, integrating Amoeba, OKR, project management, points management, organizational development, and corporate culture. By defining target user stories and implementing them through projects, we have achieved excellent results. With product management and project management combined, we can overcome any obstacle and achieve success.