What Are You Optimizing For?

We don't lead projects. We lead people.

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A lot of people think they can have it all.

But the reality, you can’t make a baby in 1 month with 9 mothers - no matter how much money you throw at it.

We’ve spoken about the 4 constraints of projects before - time, money, scope, and quality. But most stakeholders think like the famous Queen song: “I want it all, and I want it now!”

You can’t blame them. But if you want your project to succeed you need to know what you’re optimizing for. All 4 constraints are important, but which one is leading? Where is the wiggle room, and what is off-limits?

The better you understand this during the definition of your project, the more successful your project will be.

Average is not sexy

If everything is a priority, nothing is. And if there are no priorities, you end up in the grey middle ground. The average.

Average is rarely what excites people.

You’re much better off optimizing for 1-2 constraints and using the others as wiggle room. Let me explain…

Let’s say that while you’re executing your project, you discover a few obstacles. This is completely normal because projects are one-off things. They contain unknowns. And the only way to discover those is to make progress.

I digress… that’s a topic for another week.

You hit an obstacle, and now you have to choose. Will you solve it? Or ignore it? And if so, how? These questions pop up in every project, and if you don’t know what you’re optimizing for, you can’t answer them.

In reality, the 4 constraints act as dials you can turn:

1. You can use more time

2. You can use more money

3. You can reduce the scope

4. You can reduce the quality

If you can’t touch the deadline or use more money, you’ll have to choose between reducing the scope or lowering the quality.

Now try deciding what to do if all 4 constraints are equally important.

I’ll wait…

What to do instead

During the definition of your project, push your client & sponsor to find what’s most important to them.

What does real success look like?

Is the budget absolutely final, or is there some wiggle room for the right reasons? And if so, what are those reasons?

Is the deadline announced publicly and therefore there’s no way around it? (Talking to you Elon - where’s that cybertruck?)

If you push for it, you’ll discover that everything is important but some things are even more importanter. Get that into your project definition and align your stakeholders & team around it.

It’ll act like a filter for decision-making. If everyone knows the deadline is non-negotiable, the decision to skip that nice-to-have feature is easy.

Or if the budget is final and the contract is on the line, you’ll be surprised to see how good your team can negotiate with suppliers.

Best of all: it will eliminate many decisions too. No one will suggest cutting corners if they know you have an external quality audit to pass. Imagine how much time, energy, and communication this would save you…

What you should do today

Look at your current projects, and ask yourself: if shit hit the fan, what would I do? More time? More budget? Skip a piece, or cut a corner?

If you can’t answer that, you’ve got work to do. Bring it up with your sponsor & client, and see if you can get some guidelines. It might be a big question mark for you, but it’s often crystal clear for them.

And knowing that makes your life a lot easier…

Cheers,
Jasper

PS: a small group is joining me tomorrow for a unique live training. Think of it as a year of newsletters delivered in an easy-to-digest format with templates and 1:1 guidance. There are 3 seats left. Reply “training” to claim one of them before it’s sold out.