Insights

Exceeding Expectations: Mastering Customer-Centric Planning

Written by Jemimah Rose Antallan | May 22, 2024 3:35:21 PM

In this article, we will delve into how we manage and meet our clients' expectations. We'll explore understanding their priorities, recognizing our team's capabilities, assigning tasks to the right individuals, executing effectively, and ensuring seamless team coordination. 

  • Understanding Priorities  

Understanding our customers’ priorities gives our team a significant advantage in determining what to address first. This not only impacts the clients' goals but also fosters strong relationships with them. We are always eager to understand our customers' goals and capabilities.  

In some cases, customers outline all the tasks they want us to accomplish. However, it is always crucial to first determine their goals to set proper expectations and alignment for both parties. Once we understand their goals and align our priorities with them, we can establish and meet proper expectations.  

 

Once priorities and expectations are completed, we will need to align them with our team’s capabilities. 

 

  • Understanding the team’s capabilities 

It is essential for us to understand the team's capabilities to execute the project effectively. Assigning specific tasks to the right individuals ensures that outputs are delivered on time and meet the client's standards and expectations. 

 

At Biarri Networks, we have several key team members involved in each project: 

Project Manager: 
  • Defining and managing the scope of the project 
  • Managing the project team  
  • Managing customer and stakeholders 
  • Maintaining internal and external communication 
  • Overall project success and delivery  
Program Manager: 
  • Manage project managers and provide support on projects 
  • Oversee all activities and projects within the group to ensure the projects achieve its goal 
Project Coordinator: 
  • Coordinating the project team  
  • Assisting the Project Manager when it comes to scheduling, internal communications, and project reporting  
Consultant:
  • Responsible for all technical set up within the project 
  • Technical point contact of the project team  
Design Lead: 
  • Assisting the Consultant with technical tasks 
  • Training the designers with the process 
  • Maintaining the project process and documentation 
Quality Assurance Lead:
  • Responsible for keeping the quality of the deliverables  
Designer: 
  • Perform the design with the QA and Design Lead’s help and guidance 

It's essential to understand each team member's capabilities to ensure tasks align with customer priorities and expectations. We continuously aim for team growth by supporting members in taking on more advanced tasks, allowing them to gain new experiences and knowledge. This helps them achieve more at their current level of expertise. 

  • Allocation of task 

As we define the responsibilities of each project team member, we can now start to distribute the tasks and kick off the project process to deliver in line with the customer’s priorities and expectations.  

We ensure that each team member's improvement is consistent throughout the project. By encouraging them to learn beyond their assigned tasks, we create a win-win scenario. This approach allows team members to acquire new skills while enabling core members to delegate tasks, fostering growth and experience for everyone involved. 

As soon as task allocation is clear, we will continue to execute, plan, and coordinate with the team.  

  • Planning, Execution and Coordination 

In this stage of the project, we can now start to work on the planning, priorities, and timeline that we originally set with the customers' expectations in mind. 

It's crucial to plan and coordinate with the team before executing tasks to ensure everyone is aligned and working towards a common goal. 

This key point can provide harmony across both teams. Take note that it is always important to coordinate with the customer and stakeholders to make sure that we are aligned with everyone’s goals. Keeping both the customer and key stakeholders informed about the project's status, along with providing plans and goals throughout the process, is crucial. 

Key takeaways;  

  • Understanding Priorities 
  • Knowing the team’s capabilities 
  • Allocation of task 
  • Planning, Execution and Coordination 

The key takeaways outlined here can help the project team achieve effective planning and meet customer expectations. Our organization is always open to learning new methods and ideas to better fulfill those expectations.