08 Do we have the authority to make necessary changes, or will bureaucracy get in our way?
Let’s start with a basic question: are you or anyone on your project team able to make all relevant decisions, or are you depending on others?
Bureaucracy is the silent killer of successful projects. When partnering with an agency, the clash between their often agile, fast-paced work style and your company’s established processes can lead to frustration, delays, and even project failure. Getting the most out of the relationship and benefiting from their approach while adhering to your tried and tested processes will require a proactive approach.
Step 01
Before the project kicks off, you’ll have to clearly define the extent of your team’s decision-making power.
Ask yourself: Do we have the authority to make quick decisions, or do we need multiple levels of approval?
You might also want to discuss with your agency: What kinds of decisions typically need to be made quickly in projects like ours?
Step 02
Consider the types of decisions you’ll have to make throughout the project and try to categorize them (for example minor UI changes, feature prioritization, or budget allocation). Unless your team is very large, there’s no need to create a complex framework – just spending 30 minutes with pen and paper will help you down the road. For each decision, try to figure out who has the authority to make the final call.
Step 03
You might also want to try and set timeframes for different types of decisions. When will you need to have clarity for any given type of decision to avoid delays?
Step 04
Once you gain clarity on the types of decisions you’ll face and who will make them, it’ll be easier to foresee potential bottlenecks. Here a good agency should prove to be an invaluable resource, as they will have plenty of experience to draw on.
Ask your agency: “Based on your experience, where do you foresee potential delays in our processes?”
Be honest about your company’s pain points: “Here’s where we typically get held up…”
Step 05
If you find yourself expecting significant delays throughout the process, you might want to consider setting up a fast-track process: Work with relevant departments (legal, IT, finance) to create streamlined approval processes for your project. Not every company and every department will be able to support such an approach, but you'll be surprised by how much support you’ll find around you regardless.
Step 06
Consider adding buffers. If something can go wrong, it almost certainly will. Adding buffers for your most important two resources – time and budget – might just make the difference between success and failure. Pro-tip: buffers work better the less people know about them.
Step 07
Consider dependencies outside of your project’s immediate scope. Is your team depending on the delivery of another project? Who’s deadlines will impact yours? Which integrations is your product depending on?
Step 08
Consider adding a “bureaucratic bouncer” to your team or taking up the role yourself. Assign a person to handle all communications with external parties who are not directly involved with the project (say, finance, management, the board of directors, …). The right “bouncer” can save your team countless hours of expensive meetings and enable them to focus on getting things done.
Step 09
Add a steering group. The need for oversight tends to grow with the size of an organization. By adding a steering committee with decision-making power between your project team and the rest of the company, you might be able to maintain the flexibility of a more agile setup while satisfying management and board. But beware: the makeup and expertise of your steering group matters. If you find yourself re-briefing the committee every few weeks on, say, the purpose of your project, you might face diminishing returns quickly. A good steering group should represent the right mix of substance matter expertise and decision making power. A great steering committee will even go as far as actively supporting the project by e.g. handling external communications and talking to other parts of the organization on your behalf.
Example
We put a lot of work into our status updates.
Our customer engagements usually last at least 3–6 months, often years, and span multiple projects. The folks paying our bills rightfully expect to be kept in the loop, even if the individuals don’t interact with our team on a daily basis. This is what status updates are for – weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly sessions designed to get everyone on the same page.
Especially when working with new customers, we make sure to not only give a dry update of where we are and maybe throw in a demo. Instead we try to tell a story that helps the audience understand how our joint team arrived at the conclusions it did. This story might discuss the data we have collected, the research we have conducted, or our process, but also the benchmark, cultural influences – the zeitgeist – that provides the backdrop for our work.
It’s usually time well spent.
Our take
Grace Hopper is famously quoted to have said “Ask forgiveness, not permission.”
We’re not suggesting that you should do whatever you want, but most large companies tend to optimize for processes and compliance rather than initiative. In the spirit of Grace Hopper’s words, we propose rather to do what you know is right, whether the greater organization around you is aware of it or not. Do what your team and your company needs to get done in order to succeed.
The visibility of the management and leadership layers in any large organization is often very limited. In turn, teams are often separated from the overarching vision by multiple layers of communication and oversight. Sometimes it requires smart, autonomous decisions to keep moving toward the agreed-upon goals with substantial velocity.
