Marissa Brassfield | The System to Turn Visionary Ideas Into Projects, Experiences & Businesses

Step 1: Gather the data and understand the ideal outcome.

• Gather enough information to distil down to the teams and have them integrate it in a way that will result in a usable outcome.
• Always capture recordings to refer to, to understand the project.
  • Suggestion: Use a tool like Zoom to capture the answers, use its feature to automatically transcribe everything.

• Use S.U.R.E. method – 4 questions to ask at the start of the project
  • S=Soon: How soon? What is the timeline?
    • The answer will help you mediate the quality control and what is feasible to do in that timeframe.
    • Clarify with  the entrepreneur:
      • How often do they want to hear updates?
      • Do they want to feel involved and be briefed in every project communication?
      • Or prefer to have hands-off experience and receive updates every few weeks as things evolve.

• • U=Urgent: How urgent?
    • Urgency is about the prioritisation against the current activities.
    • Within that timeframe how urgent is this project? Is this a project that is going to become a cornerstone business unit for the company so it’s got to be profitable very soon?

• • R=Resources
    • Who can you work with on this as a sounding board? Someone whose opinion is trusted or someone with particular technical expertise as an advisor.
    • Is there a budget, what kind of resources does the entrepreneur have?
    • Who can you delegate to or work alongside?

• • E=Expectations
    • It’s all about standards, how does this thing look like.
    • How involved the entrepreneur will be in the process from start to finish. Do they want to approve every single detail, or you can use your best judgement.
    • Authority and autonomy – how much leeway do you have for creative interpretations and decisions about the product or project.
    • Find what are the most important pieces that the entrepreneur is going to look for to determine if the project is done and done adequately and producing that ideal result.

• Once you have a really crisp vision of what it should be when you are done, and how much creative authority you have in the process to make your own improvements and fill in the blanks on your own, and who is the advisor to consult with, then you can start translating that to the team.

Step 2: Design your Justice League. 

• It is okay to do things on your own, but at some point, there are others who can do it better, faster and cheaper.
• Create a  team of 2-5 people with superpowers.
  • What capabilities do you need to have to pull into this project?
  • Use freelancers, use sources like Fiverr and 99Designs.
  • How can your superheroes help you make this vision come true?
  • What level of information each team member needs to get involved and excited about the project?
  • Ask them if something is missing and what will help them feel more confident to start this project?
  • Explain what is your role in the project and how you can help your team.
  • Explain what is their role and what they are doing to support the ideal result.

• Divide the project into chunks, give a rough deadline and ask the team members to set their specific deadlines.
  • Use the 80/20 approach:
    • When can you get 80% of the work done – what are the most important 80% to make the project real.
    • What single improvement will make these 80% better?

• • Compile the timelines from the different team members and calibrate them against the entrepreneur’s expectations.

Step 3: Create a Dashboard.

• Use a Google sheet. List the directly responsible individual, what the thing is, what the area is, what the specific deliverable is, the date you are supposed to see it and the date it will be actually “done-done”.
• Use the Green-Yellow-Red colour coding system to make sure that is on track.
• Share a link with the entrepreneur to approve and to check the latest status of the project in-between the scheduled tie-gaps.
• After you get the entrepreneur’s approval, get the team to start to work on their tasks.
  • If you don’t have a regular cadence with a team member, check in with them 1-2 days before their tasks are due, to ensure they are on track and going to meet the deadlines.

Step 4: Proactively communicate changes.

• Set up an agreement with the entrepreneur that if you slip on a timeline or a deadline, or you are at risk of missing one, you’ll let them know as soon as you can. That way you can adjust and see what needs to happen.
• Create the same environment with the team members. The moment they are having trouble or thinking they cannot make something, reach out to you. You can dive in and identify the biggest piece that’s holding them up and negotiate with the entrepreneur what’s needed (extra time, extra budget to get freelance support with the task.
• Schedule sessions with the entrepreneur.
  • These sessions show them the deliverables when 80% ready.
  • Use Zoom to record these sessions and use the recordings as a trail for the changes.
  • When showing them the deliverable, always ask for innovation: What’s missing? What can we do to make this even better?
    • The feedback can dramatically change the scope of the project and you may need to agree with the entrepreneur to push back the deadline,
      In the end, the outcome will be better as a result of that innovation.
    • Reframe that to the team – how the decision happened and how that will really help. Team members are hesitant to do work twice, but they want to contribute to a successful result and they want to be a part of that ideal outcome.

Step 5: Create a dashboard for recurring updates.

• Depending on the project, list the specific measurable results that will make the ideal outcome of the original project true.
• Check back with the entrepreneur what are the most important metrics and numbers that you can put together for them, to assess the success of what you are doing.
  • Example: If it is an event, look at ticket sales, sponsorship sales, percentage of deliverables completed, what is the projected profitability. If it is an online event – what is the traffic, all sorts of analytics.

• Start collecting real-time data before the project is over or complete, to show momentum or velocity.

Step 6: Manage the final.

• This is where deadlines are made or broken.
• Jump on specific project teams, support and help accelerate things.
• Manage the new ideas that the entrepreneur has, that maybe are a bit close to the deadline to be implemented.

Step 7: The experience transformer.

• Ask the team members: If you are going to go through this again, what worked and what didn’t. What will you do differently?
  • Ask these questions while it is still fresh and people are frazzled from racing to the finish. While they are frustrated and got angst in them, that’s when you get some really good ideas.

• Put these questions in a Google Doc or other type of publicly shared document where people can add to it at the same time from different places and it is auto-saved.
• Send this to the different teams and team members, for their improvement ideas and things that were great for them.
• Use that feedback to change and continuously improve your systems and processes.

Step 8: Celebrate the result.

• Have a fabulous celebration together, where there is public recognition of the hard work that everyone did, specifically calling out moments.
• Highlight team members who went above and beyond to produce that result.