Pipeline & Workflow
Key question
How do you keep track of everything?
Projects involve numerous tasks, stakeholders and deadlines. Simple methods help you keep track of progress, set priorities and identify bottlenecks early on.
Learning objective: You can structure tasks, set priorities, and maintain a simple Kanban board.
Out of sight, out of mind.
2.1 / Structuring tasks
Break it down big, tackle it small.
Large tasks such as 'design website' are broken down into small, manageable steps. Each task has a clear outcome, an assigned person, and a deadline.
01
Task
Small, concrete, lockable.
02
Responsibility
One person per task.
03
Milestone
An important milestone with a date.
Milestones mark key interim targets, such as presenting the concept or signing off print files.
Every task has an outcome, an owner and a deadline.
2.2 / Kanban
Make work visible.
A Kanban board displays tasks in columns such as 'Backlog', 'In progress', 'Review', and 'Done'. This allows the entire team to see the status of a project at a glance.
Limiting concurrently running tasks, known as the WIP (Work in Progress) limit, helps to finish things rather than starting multiple tasks at the same time.
Finish first, then make a fresh start.
2.3 / Prioritising
Important is not the same as urgent.
The Eisenhower Matrix categorises tasks by importance and urgency: deal with urgent and important tasks immediately, schedule important ones, delegate urgent ones, and eliminate what is unimportant.
Constant interruptions can be reduced by using dedicated time blocks for focused work.
Plan the important things before the urgent arises.
Exercise
A board for the team
Task: Maintain a Kanban board for a group project for one week.
STEP 1
Breaks the project down into tasks with an outcome, assignee, and deadline.
STEP 2
Create a board, either on paper or digitally.
STEP 3
Meet at the board for ten minutes each day.
STEP 4
At the end of the week, note down what went well and what didn't.
Evaluation: Where did tasks get stuck, and why?