Project management

When Mum and I started this project I didn’t think it was that big, and never in the world did I imagine project management to be a thing that I’d need to do. A couple of months later, I realised that our project was BIG! The scope was huge and there were so many moving parts - some that were dependant on one another, some that needed to happen in parallel, and some that needed to be planned in advance to successfully meet deadlines and achieve our milestones. When I came to this realisation I quickly realised that project management was crucial, especially since we made the decision to self-publish the cookbook. Project management essentially tied every part of the project together from managing tasks, setting time frames, making key decisions, researching & planning, navigating challenges, tracking budget, organising everything, and ensuring that the whole team were involved & aligned to the overall vision and goals of the cookbook. Without project management, we wouldn’t have been able to reach our goals, and the making of this cookbook and the small business wrapped around it would have probably fallen apart. There was no way I wanted that, so I took on the challenging yet satisfying role of project manager.

Tools and technology

It’s crazy reflecting back and seeing that the first tool I used was a spreadsheet to help manage and get my head around everything. I used it to document tasks, assign owners, define due dates, and list any other critical information. Sadly the life of this spreadsheet didn’t last very long, because to be honest, spreadsheets aren’t very user friendly and they aren’t the prettiest of tools to use (sorry spreadsheet lovers). It became really messy and hard to manage as the project grew, so to the bin it went while I moved to Trello.

Moving to Trello was a LIFESAVER, and best of all it’s free for the basic plan! Coming home to this cookbook project after work with a pretty fried brain meant the last thing I wanted to look at was a spreadsheet. I needed a tool where I could quickly check what needed to be done with all of the relevant details at my fingertips. Trello is:

• easy on the eye

• easy to track tasks

• easy to add due dates to keep yourself and the team accountable

• easy to filter cards to view specific information

• easy to move and edit the details on cards, because let’s face it, every project is subject to change!

• easy on the go with their mobile friendly app that lets you quickly check the board on the go - I used this heaps on the train travelling to and from work

Trello is easy. Here’s a sneak peak of what our board looks like: 

Not only has Trello been amazing for helping me to manage this project, but also to reflect back and see each and every task completed in this project. The last I counted was 400+ tasks, and there was no way I could remember all of those in my head or manage them on a spreadsheet!

Something important to point out is that Trello wasn’t the only thing that helped with project management. It’s one thing to have an effective tool that you can engage with and adopt well, but no piece of technology can fill in the other crucial parts of being a project manager...I could talk about lots of topics here, but I’ll focus on 3 that particularly stood out for me in the cookbook making journey:

1. Communication

2. Time management & adapting plans 

3. Being people focused

Communication

Knowing how to communicate with a range of different people in different timezones is tricky. Everyone that I was dealing with in this project had different needs and communication styles - everyone from our printing company in Hong Kong, our team of freelancers, retail stores, media, customers, the list goes on...It was so important that I spoke in their language, putting myself in their shoes to really understand what they want to hear and adapting messages to cater for these differences.

I mostly used emails, but where possible face to face chats were great! I was lucky to be able to have face to face meetings with Jess our designer when she was in Wellington, and also with our proofreader Kate. I also regularly called or had video meetings with the team or other stakeholders as I could usually reach outcomes faster this way. But no matter how I communicated, I always made sure that I documented key decisions and actions in an email immediately after - not only for accountability, but also so that I could remember and be on top of everything. This also built great relationships and trust with the people I was working with which is always the best!

Time management & adapting plans

This was another big one, and to be completely honest, probably the one I struggled with the most. It’s funny looking back when we said we’d have this project completed by December 2018. At that stage we were still writing recipes, testing, and doing the photography! Then we said we’d finish by Mother’s Day in May 2019. We missed that date too - at that point we had only just kicked off the social media while beginning the design phase. Then we said we’d have it ready by August 2019, and now we’re saying November 2019. Overall, 11 months of extra time from the intended release date was needed to get to the finish line.

Through this, I’ve learnt that everything takes time, and usually more than expected - even writing one email can take hours! A big challenge was coming home after work to continue working where my productivity levels weren't at their peak - a lot of the time working 16+ hour days to ensure we were trucking along and making good progress. It was pretty hard to find balance, but here I realised the importance of techniques such as mindfulness to clear space in the mind and improve focus. Managing the cookbook project also taught me how detailed the cookbook making process is. There are SO many steps involved, and my unawareness of some of these steps and the amount of time involved with them contributed to why the timeline had to continue to extend out. As I built awareness, it was so important that I embraced and expected change in the project plan. As much as I didn’t want to keep delaying the plan, I had to be open to regularly adapting it as I built more and more knowledge about what extra work was required to move forward. This was especially important since we didn’t want to compromise over quality.

Being people focused 

I wanted to make this project human focused and look after the amazing people in our team! Not only because our team are amazing, but also because they’re full of incredible talent and knowledge that were critical to the success of our cookbook. Yes of course being task focused and concentrating on areas such as time, budget and all of these other non-human things are so important, but so is our team. In fact, I’d say our team are more important than everything else. I think it’s so important for any project manager to be people oriented and not just focus on the non-human aspects. For me, this meant being mindful about what other things our team had on their to-do lists or on their weekends, sharing relevant information to support the team when necessary, giving them kudos on social channels, and generally building great relationships with them. This makes everyone happy and to me happiness = more success!

Project management was a crucial part to self-publishing our cookbook. I’m not sure what the cookbook and the business wrapped around it would look like without it, but I’m not sure I’d want to know! It’s been a challenging and full on experience, but I’ve had a lot of fun and made some great learnings that I look forward to carrying over to whatever I do next.

Keryn Kalyan