Question

THREE-PART PLAN

Select a real or hypothetical work project that you’ve managed or would like to manage someday. Think about your project’s audience and identify at least two drivers, two supporters, and two observes for your project. Draft a basic audience involvement plan with one specific thing you can expect from each audience segment during the conceive, define, start, perform, close phases of the project.

Answer 1

This is a real work project of starting a women's casualwear brand. The project involves conception from designing, product development, trial sessions, demos, promos and launching the brand. The project audience are the stakeholders including the company's senior management team , investors, managers, creative heads, consultants, influencers and marketing team.

Drivers - These are the people who define the final results or outcome of a project. For this project the directors of the company and CEO of the company are the main drivers of the project. They are responsible for defining the objectives and goals of the project.

Supporters - People who assist in the execution of the project by providing resources and assistance are the supporters. For this project, the supporters are the Managers and the Creative heads. These are the people who provide main inputs like designs, planning and coordination of the project.

Observers - Those people who have interest in the project but do not involve them actively into it are observers. They can provide inputs in terms of guidance and observations for succesful completion of the project. In this project, consultants and marketing team are the observers who monitor the project execution at various stages and the developments.

The audience for the project is divided into drivers, supporters and observers. The audience involvement plan can be drafted as given below with involvement of audiences at various stages.

Drivers and Supporters need to be involved at the conception stage for assessing the potential of the project and availability of resources for execution of the project. Drivers are also responsible for allocation of budgets and giving objectives for the project like target customers, competitors, pricing and promotions along with Supporters who have the key roles of planning and defining the roles and responsibilities of the project team members. The managers and creative heads work together determining the various stages in the project, the important decisions required to be taken and communication of the plan of action to various team members. The start stage involves the supporters and the other project team members who put the resources to use as per the plan of action. The performance is measured of the supporters including managers and key project members by assessing the project timeline and completion of goals at various stages of the plan including production, trials and starting marketing activities. Observers are also involved at this stage to give their opinions on developments and feedback for improvements. The close stages of the project have the drivers who are senior management team and directors of the company reviewing the project of casualwear brand launch and the goal achievement of timely production and supplying to the markets. The targets like profit margins, pricing and presentation are assessed by drivers and supporters and checks are done with observers for any improvements to the project like eliminating or adding some elements to the product range or marketing initiatives.