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:
- 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?
- Does the priority have tremendous value? In other words, if we make this a priority, will it return higher value than that other priority?
- 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
Start small
Start small When I work with my clients on projects that involve measuring member engagement, […]
Some context, please
Some context, please A pet peeve of mine: A report about associations (e.g., marketing benchmarks report) where […]
Eventually automated emails get ignored
Eventually automated emails get ignored During the discovery and development phase of implementing a new […]
The challenge the AMS providers see
The challenge the AMS providers see Over the years I’ve asked AMS providers what they […]
Be careful about “solutioning” too quickly
Be careful about “solutioning” too quickly One of the great things about software developers is […]
What’s our next action?
What’s our next action? As you can imagine, I spend a lot of time in […]
Don’t automate for the sake of automation
Don’t automate for the sake of automation I’m the laziest person in the world. I […]
Don’t forget about what got better
Don’t forget about what got better Negativity bias is the tendency to focus on only […]
Give a little at a time rather than taking away
Give a little at a time rather than taking away I’m sure there’s research somewhere […]
First, you gotta have the data
First, you gotta have the data When I work with clients on a new AMS […]
