Community Consulting Club Training #1: Foundations

1. Community Consulting ClubTraining #1: Foundations September 25, 2007

2. Training #1: Foundations Project Initiation 101 • Project Scope • Developing a Workplan • Data Gathering • Q&A

3. Develop the Project Scope • How to get started? • Define the scope of the project • Utilize key tools to refine and develop into work steps • Develop engagement letter to formalize project signed by team and client to formalize commitment from both sides • Impact/benefit of the project to the client • Basic Work plan/approach to the project • Prerequisites for successful project (assumptions and constraints) • Team members (client/consultant)

4. First Meeting with the Client • Be prepared • If possible, know who you are meeting and their position • Research the industry and potential issues • Develop an interview guide to ensure no topics are missed • Take notes • If multiple people are at the interview, can designate one person to focus on taking notes • Have an easy tool to consolidate answers and feedback • Ask questions • Minimize the need to follow up

5. Project Definition • When meeting with the client: • Define Issue / Problem • Context: Why is this an issue at this time? Are there other issues bearing on the problem? • Constraints: What is not in scope? What solutions are not acceptable? • Client: Who is the real client? To whom will we make the presentation? Who will make the decision? • Define Deliverables • Form: What type of deliverable will be the most beneficial to the client? What type of deliverable will NOT be useful to the client?

6. Refining the Issue • After the meeting, begin refining the issues • The Red Cross does not know what its educational courses are costing • What costing systems can the Red Cross put in place to find cost of courses? • Build a simple and quick system that the Red Cross can put in place in order to better price its courses and manage its course mix Fact Too General Specific, Focused on Action

7. Scope Definition • Develop accurate estimates of project activities by breaking them down into smaller sub-tasks • Costs • Time • Resources • Example: In designing a new car, it is much easier to develop accurate plans for the components (drive train, suspension) than the entire car • Develop a baseline for project measurement • Clarifies performance expectations • What is expected from the consulting team • What is expected from the client • What are the roles of the team members • Identifies areas where additional oversight / resources / time will be required • Example: Manufacturing Plant Evaluation – how much data will be provided by the company will determine the number of resources and required time visiting the site

8. Completing the Engagement Letter • Documented basis for making future project decisions • Develops a common understanding among project stakeholders • Includes: • Project Justification: Why is this happening? • Project Objectives: What is the goal? • Project Deliverables: What will the outputs/results be? • Project Assumptions: What is expected from all parties? • Project Constraints: What are the limitations to the teams? • Project Resources: Who will be the team members from the client side and which consultants will be utilized?

9. Things to Remember • You don’t have the answer yet • Set the tone of a good partner • Revisit, revisit, revisit the engagement letter

10. Training #1: Foundations Project Initiation 101 • Project Scope • Developing a Workplan • Data Gathering • Q&A

11. Breaking down deliverables into work elements • Collect all deliverables and goals from the engagement letter • Identify detailed work steps for each major activity • Determine the time and cost for all the work elements

12. Verifying the Work Element Breakdown • Determine if the lower level items are sufficient for completing the task • Ensuring each item is clearly defined • Too vague: Does everyone understand what the activity requires? • Too broad: Are there too many tasks with diverging work streams that need to be separated? • Verifying each item can be scheduled and budgeted

13. Developing a Workplan • Collect all of the major work elements into a single document (i.e. Microsoft Project, Excel) • Develop time, cost, and resources required for each task • Identify key dependencies and linkages between tasks • Ensure time required for completion is in line with both the client and team’s availability • Verify completion date is in line with scope definition and timing in the engagement letter • This becomes a living document, revise the timeline and activities as they are completed

14. Sample Timeline • Every project will have its own distinct timeline • Do what makes sense for your client

15. Example Workplan

16. Training #1: Foundations • Project Initiation 101 • Project Scope • Developing a Workplan • Data Gathering • Q&A

17. Data Gathering Framework • Define the problem • Are we trying to solve a problem or prove a hypothesis? • Brainstorm Ideas • Design Structure • Mutually Exclusive / Collectively Exhaustive • Create Research Plan • Identify the data you will require to prove or disprove your hypothesis • Conduct Analysis • Based on your data gathering, determine if you need to refine the structure, identify gaps, and support the plan • Communicate Findings

18. Brainstorm Ideas • Identify key analyses • What is our initial hypothesis for a solution? • What analysis do we need to perform to test the hypothesis? • What data is available? What data is required? How can we fill the data gaps? • What are the end products for each analysis? • Create an Issue Tree: • Two types of Issue trees: • Data Driven: Starts with a problem/issue and try to find the cause • Hypothesis Driven: starts with a solution and develops sufficient rational to validate or disprove it

19. Analyzing the Issues • Data Driven Issue Tree Example Change pricing? Change nature of collection? How can the Art Center increase revenues? Increase attendance at given pricing level? Explore alternate marketing channels to broaden audience Explore alternate revenue streams? Sub-idea 3

20. Analyzing the Issues • Prioritize and focus on issues based on impact, team interests, ease of analysis Change pricing? Change nature of collection? How can the Art Center increase revenues? Increase attendance at given pricing level? Explore alternate marketing channels to broaden audience Explore alternate revenue streams? Sub-idea 3

21. Analyzing the Issues • Why bother with the darn tree? • Helps divide project • Road map for analysis and data collection • Ensures completeness (prevents blindsiding) • Will help you with case interviews

22. Data Gathering • Identify potential data sources • Client • Public Data • Customers • Determine preferred collection methods • Direct Interviews • Data collection of process / output results • Estimate collection timeline • Create a tracking mechanism • Keep it simple and flexible because the data requirements may change

23. Other Tools for Data Gathering • Voice of the Customer Analysis • Gather information through direct interviews, focus groups, observations, customer surveys, etc… • Benchmark analysis • Identify best practices within the industry or similar field to identify performance gaps of the client • Provides a standard for the solution to be measured against • Process Map (See Example) • Understanding the existing process will help identify areas for improvement • Becomes the baseline and starting point for developing a solution

24. Process Map

25. But once you get the data . . . • Rule #1: Always distrust the data: • It was developed for a different purpose than you will use it • Don’t assume you know what the data is until you discuss it with somebody that put it together • Unless you can confirm the data from another source, always be careful • Rule #2: If you get data from two different sources and they tie exactly, they’re actually from the same source, and rule #1 applies. • Rule #3: If you get data from different sources and they don’t tie, then you have the ability to learn something and create insight

26. But once you get the data . . . • Rule #4: Once you receive the data, look at it immediately. You’ll normally have questions about it: • If you call whoever sent you the data immediately, they will feel valuable and glad they hustled to get the data to you • If you call the person a week later, they will wonder why they took time out of their busy schedule to get it to you. You will have trouble gaining additional data. • Rule #5: Information from interviews is also data – but also must be confirmed from other sources.

27. Having Trouble? • Revisit engagement letter to verify level of support from the client • Ensure data being collected will address the hypothesis being tested • More data is not necessarily better

28. Training #1: Foundations • Project Initiation 101 • Project Scope • Developing a Workplan • Data Gathering • Q&A