Whether you're tackling a digital transformation project such as a new marketing platform or website relaunch--or something simpler like a refreshed email onboarding program or welcome series--the key to success is having a solid plan. Consider your last project. Looking back, what would you have done differently? And most importantly, how can you apply those learnings to going forward?

Typically project managers, product managers, and marketing managers alike wish for more time, more resources, and no scope creep. But we live in the real world...so how can we best work around these lacking areas? The answer is to put on your coaching hat and build a living and breathing playbook for your team! Whether the project is large or small, try the following tips to pull everything together and guide your team to big wins.

"There is not enough time in meeting rooms or on the field to teach everything a player needs to know. The reason our playbook is so thorough is because I feel that's the best way to teach a complex offense." - Al Saunders, NFL Offensive Coordinator

CHALLENGE: Too many plays and not enough time to work through them.

PLAY: In today's agile world, we are used to having projects trickle in and build through refinement and planning sessions. But when a project is quite large and has many tasks that require a team to review, discuss, and deliberate, managing alignment is a challenge. A great solution is affinity planning. This process allows the team to discuss and organize information quickly and effectively. There are a lot of great resources on affinity planning and you can adapt your own process once you have introduced a session to your team. Make it fun with post-its and make everyone stand up to a project wall to keep technology distractions at bay and give you 100% focus. This is your locker room and you want them to get ready for the game!

CHALLENGE: There are many unknowns that a project owner cannot identify or see coming.

PLAY: In order to estimate tasks and plan for a project, you have to include some room for the unexpected. But how does a project owner know where these fail points or challenges may lie? Host live, working sessions with critical team members to work together on tougher assignments, identify potential fail points, document what to do, and what resources may be needed to be ready for any play that comes your way.

CHALLENGE: Large teams with varying responsibility can become bench-warmers.

PLAY: Know your players and make sure your team knows each other as well. Create a point of contact list with names, responsibilities, departments, partners, and quick access to phone and email. Share this with the team and if new players are added during the project, keep the list up to date. Ensure updates are shared throughout so that everyone feels a part of the process, even if they are sitting on the bench at the moment.

CHALLENGE: You don't want anything to hit the fan.

PLAY: Issues and challenges arise in any project. If they don't ever for you, please write a blog post on your success so we can all learn from it! But until then, seek leadership assistance early. Keep them informed of potential concerns and escalate early if you have a sensitive matter that may require their attention. Bring in your offensive coordinator as soon as possible so that if your team is about to take a hit, you have a strategy to resolve in advance of the play.

CHALLENGE: There are many invested in your project and team. Play-by-play is your best friend.

PLAY: With so many stakeholders invested in a large project, communication is key. Don't assume no one cares for updates...nobody wants to skip the football game and just get the score at the end.Make sure to provide checkpoints and communicate statuses and challenges for awareness. Build your stakeholder lists so you can quickly apply the right message to the right group. And provide demos and the like for visuals when applicable so that you can receive feedback early on and not when it is too late.

CHALLENGE: Your star quarterback ran the wrong direction because his dog ate his playbook.

PLAY: Don't you hate when that happens? The best way to avoid confusion is to create one central place for all information including everything we discussed above.

• Point of contacts including team members, stakeholders, vendors, partners
• Project objectives and task checklists
• Open issues
• Escalation plans
• Links to critical information

CHALLENGE: You want to celebrate but you can't dance and showboating is illegal anyways.

PLAY: Let's face it...we do not have an NFL budget with pre-made shirts, trophies, and free cars to give away to our teams for their accomplishments. But there are ways to share wins and identify winners. For your immediate team, have a project wall (whatever you used for affinity planning will work!) to display the projects or tasks so they can see what is in play and what is next. But most importantly, use this to show a countdown (days, weeks, sprints, etc.) and as work is done, display work completed as well. There is nothing more satisfying for your team than to see their accomplishments as they come. You can also take advantage of tools like Salesforce Chatter to communicate individual or team successes with badges and notes of thanks and copy team member leadership for recognition. Celebrate all accomplishments and wins and don't wait until the fans have gone home. Take each opportunity to share and drive a celebratory work environment.

Put your hat on. Grab your playbook. You are ready to take the field. Wave to the cameras and have confidence you have done all you can to prepare your team for success.

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