It’s always about priorities

It's always about priorities

No matter the size or type of technology project, you will always be faced with choosing priorities. What gets done first, what gets done second, what will be saved for Phase 2 (or "phase later" as I like to call it). Every project requires you to determine your priorities.

So how do you choose? Here are some suggestions:

  1. Are there political priorities? That is, are there things that mustget done because your board or your members or your BOSS expect them to get done?
  2. Does the priority have tremendous value? In other words, if we make this a priority, will it return higher value than that other priority?
  3. Is it low-hanging fruit/will it demonstrate a quick win? This is similar to a political priority. Often with very large projects, in order to demonstrate real progress, it's helpful to prioritize small but significant "wins" in order to earn goodwill from important audiences (these could be your staff, your board, and/or your members/customers).

These are just a couple of suggestions. You may have other ways of identifying priorities (e.g., we have the money/budget for this priority but not that one). But regardless of how you get there, you're going to have to prioritize how things get done. If you don't prioritize, the loudest or most insistent voice will set the priority. And that's unlikely to give you the best results.

Wes's Wednesday Wisdom Archives

How you respond matters

March 23, 2022

How you respond matters Very recently I wrote that I measure customer service by how […]

Your one non-renewable resource

March 16, 2022

Your one non-renewable resource For any project, the three primary resources are time, money, and […]

No system is perfect

March 9, 2022

No system is perfect When working with my clients on the selection of a new […]

Ask your members to update their info

March 2, 2022

Ask your members to update their info One of the greatest data management challenges any association […]

Customer vs. staff

February 23, 2022

Customer vs. staff In a properly designed AMS, when the customer goes online to your […]

Measuring customer service

February 16, 2022

Measuring customer service When I work with clients on AMS selection, one question that often […]

Iterate or innovate?

February 9, 2022

Iterate or innovate? When moving to a new association management system, there is often an implicit […]

Who is in control?

February 2, 2022

Who is in control? Speaking with a client once about their database project, the client […]

Sometimes Staff Has to do the Work

January 26, 2022

Sometimes staff has to do the work… As a child, I was attracted to computers […]

Documentation and the Great Resignation

January 19, 2022

Documentation and the Great Resignation Unless you’ve been living under the proverbial rock, you’ve heard […]

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top