The Process of Developing a Project from a Marketing Standpoint
March 30th, 2017
There are numerous approaches to project development, but it all can be summed up in the services marketing triangle. It focuses on the Promise and communicating that Promise diligently to and from all sides.
What are the stages of the communicating the Promise according to the triangle?
- External (Setting the Promise)
- Internal (Enabling the Promise)
- Interactive (Delivering the Promise)
Understanding the triangle helps to understand who is responsible for what and what type of information you should be looking in this type of communication.
Let’s check them out in detail.
SETTING THE PROMISE
The initial stage of the project involves communication between the client and the project manager of the company.
Questions to discuss initially include:
- The desired result
- The desired timeframe
- The desired price range
This sets the promise, i.e. both parties come to the clear understanding of what is expected and when. This is one of the most important steps because it defines the further work of the team in general (including the management, client, and the employees.)
Tip: ask as many questions as you need to figure out what the client wants (if you’re on the management side) / share as much information as you can so that you convey the idea in your head to the team (if you are on the client side).
ENABLING THE PROMISE
Once the project requirements are set, it is the task of the project managers to convey the idea to the employees (in our case, the developers) and to “enable” them.
We can think of the process like that of a brain (PMs) sending the signals (information) to the hands (employees). The major difference here is that the developers, instead of simply doing what they are told, create a solution to the challenge set before them in a form of a project. Being “enabled” by the “brain” (PMs), the developers become the “brain.”
Again, an important thing here: share as much information as possible and don’t be afraid to clarify if you do not understand something.
DELIVERING THE PROMISE
The standard model of development (also known as “waterfall model”) usually has this grand moment of delivery at the end of the development. Agile models, however, offer smaller deliveries throughout the development process but offer a lot more flexibility.
(As you can see on the picture above, clarification and definition of requirements as well as sharing all the necessary information is quite an important step when you are talking about ideas and their implementation.)
Regardless which model is used, the interaction between the developers and the client is one of the key elements in customer satisfaction. While the PM can play the advocate for both the developers and the client, if the promise will end up undelivered, that would greatly affect further cooperation.
AS A CONCLUSION:
To sum up what we've talked about:
- Setting the promise - define what’s expected and when it is expected
- Enabling the promise - PMs should be the advocates for both the clients and their team, making sure that the requirements are met. In the meantime, developers should have all the information they need to create the best-fitting solution.
- Delivering the promise - the moments of interaction between the team and the client in form of the project.
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