Beginnings

If you want to predict how a client project will end, look no further than how it begins. Just about everything you do during the sales process and in the initial days of a project sets the stage for how it will wrap up.

Until both sides commit to a project, you might let minor assumptions about scope or outcomes slide. Once you have commitment, or so the reasoning goes, you and the client can hammer out the remaining details.

Sometimes, that approach makes sense. During the sales process, for example, you don’t have to nail down the precise schedule for the client team’s participation in every task of the project. It may be that neither side is ready to make some decisions until a project ramps up, so it seems natural to table some matters for a later time.

Sadly for some consultants, that later time never comes, and the client’s initial expectations for how the project will unfold become the operating assumptions. Then, you have to try to bridge the gap between those expectations and the reality of what you can deliver. Consultants get stuck with that unenviable task more often than they want to admit.

One way to flush out unresolved issues is to plan for a detailed walkthrough with the client before you start the work. Review the project plan, schedule, and the roles and responsibilities of each team member. Clear up those lingering questions and get everyone aligned around a common set of expectations.

That may seem obvious. But, what often happens, especially on smaller projects, is that everyone agrees to do the work, establishes an end date, and you start the project, sorting out unresolved issues as you go. Too often, this approach leads to difficult conversations with the client and the need to rework project tasks.

Lots of consultants miss the opportunity to shape the endings of their projects by taking some basic steps at the outset. If you’ve ever had a project that didn’t finish well, you can probably trace the root of the trouble to the beginning, not the end, of the project.