I am a believer in the power of project management.
As a professional project manager for nearly twenty years, I have witnessed project success drive business results. I have also proven that project management can change lives and help achieve personal transformation. Now I am sharing some practical tips and techniques that you can use to help achieve your own personal goals, live your best life and become a PM Believer.
Living The Agile Life
This week I am continuing my focus on tips inspired by the “Agile” approach to project delivery. As I previously described, Agile is an alternative approach to delivering projects that are focused on delivering project value more quickly and more frequently with a much smaller project management process footprint. Agile is growing in popularity and includes many techniques that can help us achieve our personal goal projects.
The Least You Can Do
What is the least you can do?
In Agile projects, the minimum viable product (MVP) is the smallest functional version of the product that can be put in front of customers to start hearing feedback. This important for Agile project teams because they seek to deliver business value as quickly as possible while eliminating any activity that is not value-add.
Establishing an MVP version of the product helps the team focus on the priority work versus all of the nice-to-have items. It is a constant reminder of the goal, deliver value to customers as quickly as possible.
MVP can be valuable to our personal goal projects too.
Do you know the least amount of work required for you to start seeing results with your goal?
When we start pursuing personal goals, we often make things more complicated than they need to be. We say things like “if I am going to try to lose weight I am going to have to buy a new wardrobe and join a gym.” While those things are probably on the horizon, they aren’t part of your minimum viable product. Your MVP is to start managing your diet, getting more exercise and to start seeing positive news on the scale. That MVP does not require some big up-front investment to start delivering the “value” of your project.
If you know the minimum amount of work required to achieve your goal it immediately becomes easier to reach. MVP can help you focus on the smallest efforts necessary to achieve the early results that help build the momentum needed to pursue those bigger steps.
After defining a SMART goal, take some time to determine your minimum viable product. What is the least amount of work that you need to do to start achieving results, to start delivering the value? Once you have achieved your MVP and learned a lot along the way, it will be easier to use that as a foundation on which you can build to make your dreams come true.
Do a little bit… achieve small wins… learn a lot… repeat! It is the least you can do.
Are you ready to be a PM Believer?
What is the least amount of work you can do to achieve your goal? Once you know what your minimum viable product is, you can focus on that first and begin to see results. This will help you build both the knowledge and the momentum needed to build on these successes to achieve your ultimate goal.
How have you applied project management for your personal success? Tell me about it at OperationMelt.com and make sure to join my email list to have updates delivered to your inbox weekly.
Make sure to help your friends achieve their goals by sharing this post on your social network and by following me on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.
Want to know more about how I changed my life with project management? Pick up your copy of my book Operation Melt: How I Used Life-Changing Project Management to Lose Over 100 Pounds In Under a Year.
About Operation Melt
Operation Melt started as a blog to share my personal transformation and weight loss story. After achieving success with that goal, Operation Melt has evolved into a platform to help inspire, motivate and equip people to achieve their own personal and professional goals so they can live their best lives. My vision is to build a world where no goal ever dies of loneliness.
