Who cares about your project?

At times, it can be challenging to understand who the project is for. Recipients can be at different seniority levels within a business as well as possess a range of technical capabilities. Determining who is involved in the project because you may uncover some internal frustrations.

Who cares?

Dashboards that are to be used by an analyst will have a much different design than a dashboard intended for a leadership team. While both could be looking at the same set of sales data or campaign metrics, the groups are interested in two different levels of detail. By understanding the persona of the recipient, we will remove the possibility of delivering an incorrect solution. Outside of determining their persona, it is valuable to conduct user interviews so that you understand why this project will benefit them.

Domain Expertise

Having knowledge of a specific area within any business is a valuable commodity. People can be domain experts, internal managers, or tenured team members. While domain experts are often knowledgeable about an area not just within their company, they are typically familiar with how their field is being practiced at other companies. An example of this person could be a member of the HR team who is well-versed with current industry trends and norms.

On the other hand, a routinely undervalued person is the tenured team member. Occasionally, they will also be your domain expert. This team member has vast experience within the company (sometimes multiple divisions) and may be familiar with what made a successful project or unsuccessful project. Their experience can be unmatched because they also know how to easily access other members of the corporation and who is the person to talk to.

Technical Knowledge

When designing your project, it is crucial to understand the technical capabilities of each person. You cannot expect non-technical people to learn to code overnight, your solution should take into account their background. On the other hand, if you are working with technical people their is no requirement to leverage technologies built for non-technical people. By differentiating these two parties, you will avoid the risk of the project going sideways.

Finding the Right Person

Using these general guidelines, you can begin to understand who the right people are to work with on your next project. Or, you could find yourself filling one of these much needed roles. Use the project questions to help guide your next project as well as other blogs in this series. Leave comments below with questions that you think should be added!

Are you having trouble understanding the purpose of a project? Or are you looking to refine your project so it can be made the priority? Reach out as I'd like to learn more about how I can help

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