2 Ways to Intrigue Your Project Stakeholders

The purpose of this blog post is to go into a little more detail about the Description part of the Charter that supports the Project Purpose, so your Stakeholders are intrigued and engaged.  The Charter is covered under the INITIATE step.  The Purpose is covered under the LEAD domain and Motive segment.

The Charter is covered under INITIATE and RATIONALIZE (Step 1).

The Purpose is covered under LEAD in the Motive segment

Sometimes to clarify for stakeholders, you can create two subsections to the Description:  Current State and Target State.  

Current State describes the current experience of your end customer, even if that is you or your team, and the Target State describes the expected experience after the project is complete.

Current State

The current state describes the problem state for your customer.  It describes what your customer is experiencing today and why that is not working for them.

Create that initial current state from your perspective and then share it with the customer or business pilot team and get their input.

Ask them to phrase the current state in their terms.

It is easier for them to start from your text rather than a blank sheet so create yours first and then send to them for their modifications or additional ideas.

The current state describes the customer’s problem state and concerns

Some examples of current state descriptions that have been genericized for you are as follows:

• The business team is not unique in the organization.  The team spends significant time doing this particular set of activities for this reason and it absorbs or wastes this amount of effort each time the business team engages in this activity.
• Due to a lack of x (whatever the project is promising to deliver), the business team experiences this kind of problem when doing this set of business activities.  
• Because this problem x exists (the problem that the project is going to solve), employees end up doing this set of activities, which uses up considerable time, every time this particular process has to be completed.

Target State

The target state describes the ideal future state for your customer.  It describes what your customer is looking forward to experiencing when your project delivers what it is expected to deliver.

The target state is the state of possibilities and excitement

Create the target state from your perspective and then share it with the customer or business pilot team and get their input.

Ask them to phrase the target state in their terms.  You might be surprised what they come back with and it can really help your team with focus on the best solution.

As in the current state, it is easier for the business team to start from your text rather than a blank sheet so create yours first and then send to them for their modifications or additional ideas.

Some examples of target state descriptions that have been genericized to help you are as follows:

• The business team is able to easily do this action and achieve this result because of z outcome (whatever the project is delivering).
• Measurable improvement as a result of z implementation includes:
  • This item now only taking y time
  • This process only requiring y amount of effort
  • The customer’s customers being able to get particular items delivered in y time due to z solutions
• Project outcomes delivered by a particular date help the business teams deliver a particular critical resource to their end customers because of something due to those outside entities at that time

These are just some example templates to help you create meaningful current and target state descriptions.

Use your customer’s words

Customize to what you need and share with your customer.  They may be excited to fill in both where they are at and especially where they want to be.

The current and target state descriptions, especially when in the customer’s language, can really intrigue and engage your stakeholders and create empathy for the customers of your project’s solutions.

Summary

Current and target state descriptions support the project purpose.

Create an initial set of both current and target descriptions and then share with your customer to get their feedback and input, and especially their wording.

These descriptions, especially if they are in the customer’s language can really intrigue and engage your stakeholders and create empathy for the customers of the solutions your project is delivering.

Action Steps / Apply This Knowledge

1. Create a set of current state descriptions in bullet form and send to your busines pilot team or other customers for rewording and feedback.
2. Create a set of target state descriptions in bullet form and send to your busines pilot team for rewording and feedback.
3. Combine these and add to the project description section of your charter and ensure your stakeholders review them.
4. In the project charter review meetings or as part of the initial steering meeting walk through the current and target state items and look for reactions and suggestions from your stakeholders.
5. Prompt engineering guidance for AI GPTs such as chatGPT: I’m a business leader managing a project which is dealing with X current state, striving for Y future state, and involving stakeholders such as Z.. What are a few things to list under current state, and also under future state, that would excite my stakeholders and get them more engaged? ”

Learn More to Do More

Check out the learning hub which presents other project concepts from a project knowledge awareness standpoint: https://simplepmstrategies.com/learning-hub-index 

INITIATE – Charter Current - Target State 

© Simple PM Strategies 2024