Delivery Approach Health Check

Client projects not always going to plan. Some feeling like a rollercoaster of unpredictability. Overruns and delays impacting your team, your clients and your bottom line.

One project might run smoothly, but the next is a mess. Instead of consistent, repeatable success, you’re regularly thrown into firefighting mode, supporting where others should be in charge.

Leading projects, you’ll have experienced it yourself, whether while running an agency, managing client work, or as part of a delivery team.

You’re not alone

These experiences are backed up by data. A recent survey of more than 200 agencies showed that five of the top six project management challenges they face were specific to delivery.

  1. Poorly trained Project Managers
  2. Attempting to run too many projects
  3. Poor resource management
  4. Inconsistency in approach
  5. Frequent changes to scope

Only 45% of agencies reported that they had a track-record of project success. Less than half. That means all the other agencies who took part ran projects that were challenged or failing.

66% of agencies said they were late with delivery of the majority of projects. The same number, 66%, were often overspending. These two failures are certainly related, but equally surprising.

Based on these results, project success, on-time delivery, and hitting profit targets is for the minority of agencies. But we can improve that.

This workshop surfaces the details of your agency’s delivery challenges in a way that offers immediate opportunities for action and resolution.

Learn, Adapt, Measure

The specific delivery challenges will be very personal to your agency. Commonly shared solution may be right for others, but didn’t work when you tried them.

Step one is for us to understand what’s going wrong. We’ll review your project delivery approach. Gathering insights from your team members, and map those to help you visualise the priorities.

Mapping is a great option for triggering discussions. It always surfaces new pain points and challenges. Any map or assets we create are yours to keep. We may return to them together at a later date, or you could build on the insights yourself.

The beginnings of a delivery approach map

While we’re mapping, we’ll touch on some key elements of successful delivery approaches. The session will be an opportunity for learning as well as sharing.

The four project focuses of Tactical Delivery Habits:

  • Align – before a project, lay the foundations for project success
  • Define – agree what we’re creating and what the priorities are
  • Deliver – master the creation, releases and delivery
  • Adapt – regularly inspect our ways of working and improve

We’ll touch on those, and the building blocks for consistent success:

  • Stakeholder mapping
  • Value definition
  • Kick-off
  • Outcomes or outputs
  • Delight
  • Retrospection
  • … and more

Progress not perfection

You’ll be able to see the potential for improvement. And that there is light at the end of the tunnel. It’s highly likely you’ll come away with more actionable insights than you can immediately implement.

You’ll also take away:

  • Any approach map, opportunity map, or other mapping we do
  • A list of challenges and priorities for improvement
  • Insights on how you might approach each of those
  • Newly found faith that you can consistently deliver successful client projects
  • An excited, aligned team, ready to take on the challenge

All this from £750, starting with a discovery call and followed up with an Insight Report

Ready to book your Delivery Approach Health Check?

Send me an email ( hello@harrybailey.com ) or Find me on LinkedIn and let’s discuss your situation.

Testimonials

Harry’s approach allows agency owners and teams, deep in the trenches of day-to-day project work, to step out for a much-needed bird’s-eye view.

It’s helped me feel confident about delivering client projects consistently and with self-assurance. Highly recommended!

– Frank Staiger

I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Harry to agency teams looking to build team cohesion, improve productivity and develop a commercial mindset throughout a team.

Tom Parson, Huddle Digital

FAQ

Can I run it again for the same agency?

It’s an iterative session which you will benefit from repeating regularly. So yes, you could run it again. We can discuss various options.

Does it matter if our agency focuses on Marketing, Design or Software?

Not at all. It’s valuable for any agency which runs projects for clients which have a start, a middle and an end. Especially if the end results in a sign-off. More so if there is knowledge work being done and the ‘What’ is often unclear to begin with.


Let’s discuss your situation… Send me an email ( hello@harrybailey.com ) or Find me on LinkedIn.