Notion project management is fraught with the same problems as any PM tool. Chiefly, the tools you use are not what make or break your project.
Project Management tools vary in layout, structure, and capabilities, but they all organize around who needs to do what and by when. In common parlance, a project is simply a structure for organizing work. This simplification invariably leads to a world of avoidable breakdowns.
Breakdowns show up with all project management tools because they make the task the fundamental unit of work. The Project Management Framework for Notion (PMFN) looks at projects differently by redefining a project as a promise that originates in a conversation between a customer and a performer to create something valuable on time.
A project is a promise by a performer to produce satisfaction for a customer to an agreed-upon set of standards, including the time frame. — Bob Dunham
Looking at it this way, a promise is synonymous with a project and lives at the center of the diagram. The promise only comes into existence from a conversation with the customer. The tasks that emerge all support fulfilling the promise to the customer. The ongoing conversations are about what is required to fulfill the promise and produce satisfaction. That means that tasks can come in or out of scope based on what will produce the greatest customer satisfaction.
Effective project management is about producing satisfaction for a customer in the context of a conversation about what matters. Conversations lead to requests and offers, but neither is an agreement to do anything. A client’s request to cut delivery time in half is not an agreement by the performer. Likewise, an offer to pull in the schedule by doubling the budget is not an automatic agreement by the customer.
Requests and offers are thus precursors to an agreement that occurs through conversation, whether in person, via Zoom, or email. Many project management tools assume conversations and negotiations about cost, timelines, and deliverables happen outside the project. These conversations are, in fact, the core of what creates the project in the first place.
What makes Notion project management superior to simple task management tools is the ability to record the details of conversations and link those conversations directly to the task, client, and promise. The PM Framework for Notion recognizes the relationships between:
- The client or customer that we are trying to satisfy.
- The meetings and conversations we have to determine what constitutes satisfaction.
- The set of promises to manage to satisfy the customer.
- The tasks that are required to satisfy those promises
What Constitutes Satisfaction?
We ask this question because getting things done is different from producing satisfaction. As an example, a client once insisted that properties in a report be in an exact order. Diving deeper, the order was needed to facilitate copy/paste into a separate spreadsheet for analysis. So, to produce greater satisfaction, I added the ability to send data directly to the spreadsheet. Completing tasks is different from producing satisfaction.
What is the Promise?
A promise requires multiple elements. Who is doing what, for whom, why, to what standards, with what common background, and by when? When parties share a significant common background, other details can be light. Otherwise, everything needs to be more specific. One can proceed with missing elements, but anything missing is a potential breakdown. And because all of these are brought forward through conversation, that’s the most critical part of a project to manage.
Where Do Tasks Come from?
Tasks come from the performer as part of breaking down the work to produce satisfaction. The customer generally only cares about tasks to know whether they indicate the promise is on track. Agile development and “stand up” meetings make sense for the performers, but the customer only cares about one of four states for the promise:
- The promise is on track.
- The promise is at risk, and here are the actions being taken to recover the promise.
- The promise is at risk, and there is a request for help to recover the promise.
- The promise cannot be kept. We offer an apology, have new conversations, and offer a new promise.
What Makes Notion Better at Project Management?
The Project Management Framework for Notion has all the standard features one would expect when managing a project. It excels at slicing the data and associations between your clients, their projects, and your conversations with clients or staff. Individual tasks are still assigned to people with due dates, but all exist in the context of conversations for agreement to produce satisfaction for customers.