Create
1. Modify
The world of Wow projects is built on modification. Any job or job is just a starting point. And your task is to turn this task into something memorable.
Find a case that you will remember even many years later. To see this perspective, you need to look at the problem from different angles. Mediocre work will not induce action, therefore, you need to do something really cool.
Reward yourself for excellent failures and punish for mediocre success. Do not do something mean, but do something meaningful.
If you want to turn your project into a Wow, turn it into a cool action. Describe your task, and then, together with a group of like-minded people, consider it from all sides, until you feel that your blood is boiling and desire appears, and you will not see that something brilliant comes out of this project.
2. Turn your daily tasks into cool work
Most of us have a lot of routine and unloved work. Why not look at it as a Wow project and treat it accordingly. When you begin to perceive the routine as part of something larger and unconditionally cool, the attitude towards it becomes respectful, and this helps to make it better and faster.
Become a fanatical observer and look for opportunities hidden around you. There are millions of these opportunities. To see them, you just need to get yourself a notebook and mark in it everything that “likes” and “doesn't like”. Any “dislike” can subsequently turn into a Wow project. Many businesses are built on what used to seem like an annoying little thing.
Write down whatever you think is convenient or inconvenient. This will help you find good ideas for other Wow projects, or modify what you already do. What you like, you can bring to your current work, what you don't like, you can change and establish something new and useful.
Collect cool experiences. Look for cool people who do cool things and communicate with them. Let them help you. You will be inspired by communicating with them and will be able to bring this inspiration to your work.
4. There are no small projects
It seems to us that undertaking small projects is not interesting. But such a thing as a "small project" does not exist. Any business can be turned into something big and significant. Immerse yourself in simple and uninteresting tasks and look for challenges and opportunities for growth in them.
Write down all the small things you don’t like, and try to turn them into part of a large and meaningful project. You will learn to look at routine tasks from a different angle, and this will help you deal with them faster.
5. Do not betray Wow
Maintain your wow state. Reconfigure yourself to your project every week.
Support your team. Send them messages about cool events on the project. You must always keep yourself in good shape and maintain the internal fire of the project.
6. The world is driven by love!
If you do not like your project, how can you demand it from others? Your passion kindles their passion. Your main task is to twist and modify the project until you fall in love with it head over heels. Devotion is more important than its significance.
Get together with your team, disassemble the project in parts and do not calm down until you turn it into an exciting challenge for each member of the team.
9. Project Revolution
Try to do what you did not do before. And if you already did, then look inside for new opportunities and moves.
Look from a different angle, invent.Do everything so that the project becomes a challenge and a revolution in your field. Unexpected solutions for old problems are what you need.
12. Looking for fans
You need to find those to whom your project will bring tangible benefits. These people will become your fans and will keep you on fire if difficult times come. Your fans are your army and strength.
An ardent admirer can become initially unhappy, whom you heard and changed something for his benefit. The power of appreciation will turn him into your ardent fan and defender.
Projects are not made for us, but for the end user, so do projects for people. Look for those to whom you will benefit, show this benefit and form your team of adherents.
13 and 14. Become a pirate
See your project as an adventure. Let everything that you do be saturated with this atmosphere. Work in unusual places. Allow yourself a place for the project, hang it with posters and slogans, let your team have their own secret place, which will make you elected.
This will bring a special drive to your work, because you will know that this is your adventure, your pirate stash. Nothing rallies the team like a common, special place - the project laboratory.
19. Find a wise friend
You need a person with whom you could talk, let off steam. Find a wise, empathic elder comrade.
Many wow projects can be very lonely. Especially if you are doing something revolutionary, which the majority of users have not yet reached. In this case, you will need a wise person from the side who will support you or stop you from making mistakes, to whom you can entrust your experiences, who will listen to you and help you.
20. Find supporters
It is important to find supporters of your project who will believe in you, on whom you can rely. Get a separate file for yourself where you will record the names of all your supporters. Separately write down those whom you would like to attract to the project (for example, influential people of interest to you). Try to expand your network of supporters.
Find supporters from among your users. Make them privileged. Let them help you test your project and attract new users. You can promise them some bonuses for this.
It is important to know who your most loyal supporter is, who will always report what is happening in the world of users and offer their ideas for improving your project.
21. Remember Wow
There are 5 criteria that are important for each project: WOW, beauty, revolutionism, influence and supporters. Remember this, take each of the criteria seriously, constantly measure them and keep your finger on the pulse.
Let everything in the room where you work remind you of your Wow project. Something great needs to be done: "Life is too short to engage in non-wow projects."
Maintain the desire to do great. Only that makes sense.
Sell
22. Describe your project in 3 minutes
To sell a project, you not only have to light a fire inside yourself, but also bring the essence of this fire to other people. And in this case, two methods come in handy.
- Sell the project as a story. This is the whole art of storytelling: not just talking about numbers and indicators, but conveying the essence of your project in such a way that it is impossible not to want it.
- Make your story concise but succinct. To present your project in the shortest possible time - three minutes - prepare in advance, and do not pick up words on the go. Write a beautiful and inspiring story about your project, and then reduce it to three minutes of abstracts and rehearse. Always be ready to sell your project. You never know where potential buyers will overtake you.
Metaphors are a very powerful tool. Often it is metaphors that make it possible to convey your thoughts most intelligibly.Therefore, look for metaphors for your project - words, pictures, stories, ideas that describe your project vividly and excitingly.
Collect metaphors, try them on, arrange a meeting with the team and work out a metaphorical look at the project. Do not be afraid that the metaphor will go away, be open, ready for new ones to appear. The main thing - do not forget about the power of metaphors.
23. To sell is to sell to everyone.
Often people think that they need to sell only to customers, that they are important for the project. But often this is not so. It is important to be able to sell to your colleagues in order to turn them into supporters.
Learn to attract not only project customers, but also those who may be involved in it.
24. Dissolve the rumors
Many are waiting for the results of the project to begin to speak. But wait is not necessary. You can spread the rumors yourself. And not only you can, you must spread the rumors about your unique project. This is an effective marketing pitch.
Order all the team members the same T-shirts, let there be a special atmosphere where your team appears. Confirm that your project is incredibly cool and will transform the world. Let the rumors do their job.
25. Start expanding your network
Talk about your project everywhere. Develop your community. Do not wait until it grows itself. Find the people you would like to see among your allies, and try to lure them to your side.
Make lists of interesting personalities and set aside time each week to get to know them and attract them to you.
27. Do not forget your friends
It is very important to thank those who were with you in time. Always remember your allies and adherents who believed in you at the initial stage.
Tell them how your work is progressing, create an alert system for them, arrange events to maintain their proximity to your project, organize a supporter management program, and create a sense of exclusivity for each of them. The main thing is to always remember them!
28. Do not waste time on enemies
Do not waste your energy to convince enemies, ignore them. There will always be enemies, especially if your project is revolutionary, designed to destroy the old schemes, on which many profited.
Spend all your efforts on expanding the network and working with a wise adviser. It will do more good. It doesn't matter how many enemies you have if you have many friends.
29. Create a first-rate advisory board
If you want to promote your project, get yourself powerful supporters, people who have weight in your field. You will be able to resort to their authority when you talk about your project.
30. Take care of self-supply
To have a lot of money in the beginning is bad! Do not apply for grants or loans. Try to get by with a small budget. Then you will not become hostages of money, no one will demand results from you, you can choose yourself with whom to work, work in your own way and dream in a big way. In addition, this will lead you to approach the project creatively, to look for unusual options.
Do not be afraid to make a project without money, do not be afraid to beg. The main thing is to keep freedom and flexibility.
31. Do not forget about practice
Selling is not an idea, but real results. Think about who will be the first users of your project, and work with them.
Get practical results, improve them, then talk about the project. Let the practice and results for users become your must-have item from the first day of work on the project.
Follow up
32. Crushing
It is necessary to break the project into mini-projects that can be completed in a few hours or days, and experiment with them.
Such crushing helps to feel the real speed and progress of your project, to see a live result, rather than planned on paper. So take, crush and test.
33. Become a fan of prototypes
Live with thoughts on prototypes. Do not put them in a long drawer.Quickly create and try. The longer you plan, the faster the Wow feeling leaves you, the fire and enthusiasm goes out. Practice is the essence of mastery. The faster you start prototyping, the faster you will advance in your project.
Build a culture of rapid prototyping. Let all team members get used to acting fast. Talk about prototypes, live them, test and get results.
34. Play
Try to treat the project as a game, because the game gives inspiration and excitement. Take the most boring parts of your project and play with them, think about how you can transform them so that they become interesting.
Entertain yourself, otherwise you will easily lose your fuse.
35. Request feedback
Crushing and prototyping are necessary for quick feedback - the foundation of any Wow project.
The goal of all your actions is to speed up the implementation to get feedback. Feedback allows you to understand in which direction you are going.
Do not delay implementation for later. If you have an idea - experiment, but do not get attached to it too much, because there can be many ideas. Get practical results, increase execution speed. Like to work on a project quickly.
36. Blast it all
Do not be afraid to destroy the built. Many failed projects appear only because their managers continued to work on them, even realizing that they are boring and uninteresting.
No matter how far you go in a project. If you are not inspired by him anymore and understand that he does not have the perspective you want, give it up and start over. Be careful not to kill projects, but to do mediocre things.
From time to time, gather a team and ask - how much more wow? If you see that the project is losing energy, change course.
37. Continue to attract supporters
Always get supporters. Let as many cool people be around you. Treat this as a serious duty. Organize events regularly to attract supporters.
It’s useful to get someone who breaks stereotypes into your project. He will bring original and interesting ideas to the project and become a valuable assistant.
38. Get a large notebook
Get a thick notebook that will become the Bible of your project. It should be everything that relates to your work, down to the smallest detail.
This is your archive, growth story, a tool for motivation, a medical card - all in order for the project to live. And let it be fun.
39. Make lists
Get used to compiling lists. They have the power to take stock. Lists combine everything that is important for your wow project, show where you are moving and what you will do next.
Make lists live. Let employees bring their ideas there too. Lists will help you move around the project and see your progress.
40. Live by the deadlines
Sometimes you can get carried away with plans and experiments and miss something. Go on time. Let there be a person in your team, a tyrant of terms responsible for carrying out the work.
Find for yourself Mr. Last-Two-Percent, who will join in the work on the project at the final stage, show and see what no one could have done before him. He will bring in a new vision and meaning and complete the project.
41. Become the master of 15-minute meetings
Nobody needs an hour and a half RAM. All issues can be resolved in 15 minutes.
When you have time, you can allow yourself to describe the problem for a long time and discuss it. Fifteen-minute meetings accustom clarity, brevity, conciseness and increase the speed of work on the project.
42. Celebrate
Do not wait for the finale. There are always reasons and reasons to celebrate. Successful test, good feedback, fresh idea - celebrate. This will keep you burning wow and motivate you to move on. Congratulate your team members.Let it become your culture.
Learn to celebrate and fail. In the world of implementation and experimentation, error-free is not possible. And if you learn to treat failure as an experience that made you smarter, is that not a reason to celebrate?
Celebrate quick setbacks. This is evidence that you are moving and developing. Present the weekly prize “Best Failure” - encourage mistakes.
43-46
- Always aim for Wow. Maintain your Wow fire and Wow state.
- Try to make the project individual and unique, let it become a brand.
- When there is something to go out into the world, take an interest in leadership.
- Never forget about customers.
47. Develop a rumor management program
Your project should start speaking for itself long before it enters the world.
Consider a system of marketing events that create an aura around your project. Surround him with honor and let everyone know that you are doing something cool and unique.
Come out
48. Sell
At the final stage, there is no point in revolutionary activity. Begin to agree with management on the implementation of the project.
Expand your staff, attract those who are ready to deal with administrative matters. Find Mr. Finalizer who will help you adopt your project and obtain the right of succession.
49. Introduce your cranks
Do not forget about your team. These people with the Wow virus can transform other projects. Embed them in other teams. May they continue to turn and change the world.
50. Write a history of the project. Have a holiday
Finish the project enchantingly. Send hundreds of postcards, tell everyone about your victory, write the story of your team and your project, mark everyone who helped you in this matter, arrange a grandiose party. And after it, take a couple of weekends and start all over again.
For such is the life of a professional Wow project.
