Making better plans
Hi there,
Hope you had a great weekend! Today’s edition will help you improve your plans and proposals—so you can put more of your ideas into action.
Ask people to come up with a plan, and they’ll often write up what has to happen and why they themselves think it’s important. (Often without putting much thought into it.) That’s a good start, but there’s still plenty of room for improvement.
Today: Five things that are missing from most plans I see. Include these top 5, and you’ll be well on your way to making better plans. And if it’s you that people pitch to, make clear you want plans to include these 5 points. It makes evaluating proposals far easier.
1. What does your plan do for the person you’re pitching?
Anyone you’re pitching a plan to inhabits their own world. And in that world, something is of key importance. Maybe it’s sales. Maybe it’s time. New subscribers. Or the number of active users.
Whatever it is, think about who you’re pitching to and what that person wants to achieve. Do this before you write the plan. That benefit needs to be clear from the opening paragraph.
Link your proposal to what it generates—preferably in concrete, quantitative terms—and you’ll make many a manager happy.
2. Why do you want to get where you’re proposing we go?
In addition to resonating with a specific reader you’re trying to convince, a good plan makes clear what you want to do and why. How does this proposal fit in with a broader purpose? That takes time because you have to really think to produce a good story. Don’t just jot something down, but work to clearly convey what you have in mind.
3. What’s the first step?
The #1 most irritating problem: a plan without an actual plan. What if you started today or this week? What would you do? What’s the first step? That’s often missing from proposals, and the reader is left with a vague, empty feeling.
If you include the first steps, you show that you’ve not only thought about an abstract end goal, but also the concrete actions to get you there.
4. How do you intend to measure success?
Another aspect that’s often missing: When can you say your plan worked? It’s great to be able to cross a project off your to-do list, but good project plans also describe when your proposal can be considered a success. That’s also a good way to see if your assumptions were correct. (Spoiler: They usually need adjusting.)
Clarify when you can speak of a successful project, and your expectations will be more realistic. That, in turn, means you’ll make even better plans in the future.
5. How much time or money will it take?
Maybe you’re thinking: Sorry Rick, but I work agile and don’t do time estimates. I’m happy to work as long as needed to get things done and done well. Well, the problem with that approach is that you’ll almost never get the chance to carry out your own ideas. (Unless you work for yourself, of course).
Want to be granted time for your project? Then you’ll have to estimate both the benefits (points 1-4) and the costs. And costs are about time, money, or a combination of the two. Even if you’re your own boss, it’s not a bad idea to force yourself to sit down and figure out what an idea will cost. After all, you can only spend time once.
Getting a better handle on these two components, the costs and the benefits, is the key to making better choices about what you spend your time on.
Are you finding it difficult to estimate hours? Then you could try estimating how many weeks (or months) your idea will take. If that’s not possible, then try focusing on the first step. How much time do you think that will take? If that doesn’t work either, then odds are your first step is too big. Back up and start small.
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So tell me, how do you make great plans? Plans you’re proud of. Plans that get the reader excited and on board. Plans that get met with a “Yes! Let’s do this.”
Let me know! I’d love to hear what you could add to this list.
Have a good week,
Rick