Tuesday Tips- From Dreams to Reality: Planning Your Next Big Project
Join Us for Tips/Tech Tuesday!
Today, Heather Masters emphasizes the importance of clear objectives and thorough planning when investing in technology or making significant life decisions.
Many people rush into purchasing software or making choices without fully understanding their specific needs and desires, which can lead to disappointment.
Using relatable analogies, Heather illustrates how critical it is to identify both what you want and what you don’t want, whether it's for a holiday, a home purchase, or a software solution. She encourages listeners to gather requirements from all stakeholders, ensuring that everyone's values and expectations are considered for a successful outcome.
Tune in to discover practical strategies for aligning your goals and making informed decisions that lead to greater satisfaction.
About this Episode
The essence of strategic planning is brought to life in this insightful podcast episode hosted by Heather Masters. She adeptly navigates the intricacies of decision-making, particularly in the realm of technology investments, and draws compelling parallels to everyday life events.
Heather opens the conversation by candidly discussing her experiences with clients who have rushed into software purchases without taking the time to articulate their specific needs, resulting in frustration and unmet expectations.
This serves as a springboard for a broader discussion about the importance of clarity and preparation in achieving desired outcomes in both business and personal matters.
Heather’s storytelling approach invites listeners to reflect on their own planning processes. She beautifully illustrates how significant life decisions—such as buying a house, planning a holiday, or even moving to a new city—often lack the detailed preparation they deserve.
By encouraging her audience to define their objectives and gather input from all involved parties, she highlights the value of collaboration and shared vision.
The episode is peppered with practical advice, including the creation of visual roadmaps and checklists, making the planning process not only efficient but also engaging. Heather's playful humor infuses the narrative with warmth, making her insights accessible to a broad audience.
As she concludes, Heather reinforces the critical takeaway: whether it’s a major software acquisition, a family vacation, or a pivotal life change, success hinges on well-defined goals and thorough planning.
By encouraging her listeners to consider both their wants and needs, as well as their non-negotiables, she empowers them to make informed choices that resonate with their core values.
This episode is a treasure trove of insights for anyone looking to refine their approach to planning, offering a blend of humour, relatability, and actionable strategies that can transform the way we tackle decision-making in all aspects of life.
Takeaways:
- It's crucial to clearly define your objectives before investing in any software solution.
- Planning for any major life event, like buying a house or going on holiday, is essential.
- Gathering input from all stakeholders can ensure that everyone's needs are met effectively.
- Understanding both your needs and your non-negotiables will streamline your decision-making process.
- Regular check-ins and feedback loops can help keep everyone involved and aligned on goals.
- Documenting your requirements and simplifying your planning process helps avoid future disappointments.
Chapters:
- 00:03 - Introduction to Heather Masters
- 01:00 - Planning for Success: The Importance of Clarity in Goals
- 02:43 - Establishing Clear Objectives
- 06:28 - Mapping Out the Journey: Project Planning Essentials
- 08:38 - Planning for Major Life Events and Software Solutions
- 10:25 - Wrapping Up the Challenge
Let me know your biggest takeaways from this episode!
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Heather Masters
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Companies mentioned in this episode:
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Transcript
And welcome to Tuesday Tip and Tuesday Tech.
Heather Masters:It's day nine of my ten day going live challenge and it's much later than usual.
Heather Masters:It's just been a busy day.
Heather Masters:I hope you're having a magnificent day.
Heather Masters:And if you don't know who I am, I'm Heather Masters.
Heather Masters:I'm a business coach at Techie and also a life and happiness coach.
Heather Masters:Today I wanted to us some tech because it is something that I've seen with a couple of clients that I'm working with at the moment that they want to invest in software to help their business and automations but they haven't taken the time to plan out specifically what they're looking for.
Heather Masters:And it's easy then to be disappointed and have invested heavily in software without realizing what you actually really wanted it to do.
Heather Masters:And that one that you've chosen may not be a fit.
Heather Masters:So today I want to cover that, but I also want to work with it in the analogy of life as well.
Heather Masters:How often do the big projects end up having the less preparation?
Heather Masters:For instance, buying a house, how often, you know, it's a big life decision.
Heather Masters:We might only buy a house once every 20 or so years.
Heather Masters:And how much effort do we put into planning what we want right down to the bedrooms, bathrooms, sinks and really working out what's important to us.
Heather Masters:You know, we've covered values and it's really useful when you're working on a big project.
Heather Masters:Maybe you're looking to go on a holiday of a lifetime and you do all the intellectual planning but you haven't really checked in with your values of what would make this the best thing ever and also what would what other things you really don't want.
Heather Masters:Sometimes we overlook what we don't want and we don't check that those don't wants aren't there, if that makes sense.
Heather Masters:So for instance, we can want to go in a villa by the sea, but we maybe haven't checked that.
Heather Masters:There's a huge group of hotels right next door and it's, it's not quite as quiet as we'd anticipated.
Heather Masters:So there's of that sort of thing that we, we need to look at.
Heather Masters:But let's dive in and go into some of the nitty gritty.
Heather Masters:The first thing as I say, is to get clear objectives.
Heather Masters:And this is whether you're looking at a technical project or whether you're looking at a wedding planning, a holiday planning, your kids next school, whatever it is, what are you trying to achieve?
Heather Masters:That's the first thing to really yourself and what are the problems that you're solving?
Heather Masters:And how will you know when you've got the results that you want?
Heather Masters:How will your success be measured?
Heather Masters:Keeping clear objectives helps everyone stay aligned and focused on the end result, on the end goal that you actually want.
Heather Masters:So, for instance, if there are five of you going on holiday, checking in with each of you to find out exactly what would make the difference for that holiday to be amazing.
Heather Masters:And, you know, trying to tick as many boxes as possible, sometimes it's not always to tick, ever able to tick every box, but as many as possible.
Heather Masters:And this is also good for teamwork as well.
Heather Masters:If you've got a team working on a project, really understanding, again, from a values perspective what's important to them, that they will feel that they've succeeded on the project.
Heather Masters:And it's not always money, you know, at work we tend to think it, it's always income driven, but that's not necessarily true.
Heather Masters:So someone might just want a little bit more empowerment, you know, a little bit more freedom to make decisions within the project.
Heather Masters:And you could probably negotiate that and include them in different ways and probably uncover a different skill as well.
Heather Masters:So gather the requirements, talk to everyone, work out what's important, conduct surveys or interviews if it's a project or even if it's your kids, sit them down one at a time.
Heather Masters:Because sometimes if you're talking around the family table, they might not be willing to say what they really want and write it down, document it all.
Heather Masters:And the main thing is to keep it all simple, get that plan in place, but as simple as possible.
Heather Masters:Whether it's checklists, whether it's diagrams, whether it's a board for your family so that you know that you're achieving each goal and you're ticking it off as you go, and map out the journey as part of that.
Heather Masters:So you've got your objectives and your requirements.
Heather Masters:So you can map out the journey by creating a visual roadmap that outlines each step of the process.
Heather Masters:So this could be a project plan, it could be something in Trello, or if it's something at home, it can literally be a whiteboard looking at, you know, the steps towards your holiday, you know, like the nativity calendar of your project, counting down the days and making sure that each task under each day is complete before you set off for your wonderful holiday.
Heather Masters:And doing something like that helps everyone understand where they fit and what's expected at each stage, especially for teams.
Heather Masters:If you're working with teams, it's key for them to know where they fit and what happens next.
Heather Masters:And of course there's various project management software to be able to do that.
Heather Masters:And if you're specifically looking, you know, this was right at the beginning about looking for a software package, knowing the expectations of that software package, maybe mapping out the journey to include testing and evaluation.
Heather Masters:And that's really the next step is the evaluating potential solutions.
Heather Masters:Once you've got that plan, you know how are you going to implement it?
Heather Masters:You've got your key objectives, you've mapped out the journey, you've got options.
Heather Masters:So for instance, if you're off to Disney World, you've got different ways of getting there, There are loads of different packages, different hotels, different holiday companies and you can look at all of the options against the list of requirements that you have.
Heather Masters:And it's a much safer place to be able to tick off what you want.
Heather Masters:Also as I said before, including what you don't want.
Heather Masters:And for software that's as crucial.
Heather Masters:So really focusing in on what you do want and also the things that you don't want.
Heather Masters:For instance, if security is important, you might not want a fairly open, relaxed system.
Heather Masters:You might want something that is more secure and has different rules and ability to navigate security in a more professional way.
Heather Masters:So you can look at what you want, what you don't want, and tick your list as you go through the process in order to make sure that your solution, whether it's software, whether it's a holiday, is meeting the requirements of the team members or your family, whatever it is.
Heather Masters:So throughout the process, process, you're keeping them involved.
Heather Masters:You've got the diagrams, you've got the tick lists, you got regular check ins and feedback sessions making sure everyone's feeling heard and valued.
Heather Masters:And also that you know that there aren't changes or big shifts within your family or team where someone decides they don't want to go to Disney World anymore.
Heather Masters:But keeping everyone involved leads to a better final decision.
Heather Masters:So pre planning for major life events or holidays, but especially around a software solution is really, really important.
Heather Masters:I've seen too many people buy software based on something that they think is a fit because at high level it looks like it and but when deep down they want something much more.
Heather Masters:Now a really simple example of this is someone who wants a calendar booking system.
Heather Masters:I worked for a software company who designed specific requirements and it's amazing how many specific requirements companies have for a booking system.
Heather Masters:Whether they want invoicing with that, whether they want automatic emails with it, whether they want again security and prevention of random and people book in meetings.
Heather Masters:It's all really crucial to know right down to the nth degree what those details are before you go and buy a system.
Heather Masters:Because you can buy the system and find out that actually it doesn't do half of what you really wanted to do.
Heather Masters:So get clear on your requirements before you buy a house, a software system holiday, or get your kids into the next school.
Heather Masters:Whatever it is for you.
Heather Masters:Thank you for joining me today on this Tips and Tech Tuesday, and if you found it helpful, please like and share this video to your network.
Heather Masters:It really helps me and my channel.
Heather Masters:And please don't forget to subscribe for more insights and more videos.
Heather Masters:And I shall see you tomorrow for Wednesday.
Heather Masters:Woo.
Heather Masters:And it's also day 10 of the challenge, so this will be the last of seeing me every day.
Heather Masters:Okay, bye for now.
Heather Masters:Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to this week's episode.
Heather Masters:If you enjoyed it or think it would be valuable to others, please do share.
Heather Masters:And if you really enjoyed it, please leave me a review.
Heather Masters:It really helps the podcast.
Heather Masters:All of the links are in the show notes and I look forward to seeing you next week on the Choosing Happy Podcast.
