The Power Of Front Loading Projects
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Hello fellow divers,
I have missed the past two weeks! Was on vacation, then some folks at Flow Sparrow were on vacation. Didn’t have much free time, but we are back now.
Alongside this content, I’m planning to start doing interviews with creatives, developers, entrepreneurs, and marketers I like. All with the goal of helping you run a better website development business. Watch out for that coming soon. ??
Until then, we will continue the scheduled programming.
Let’s dive in.??
???This Week’s Dive???
The Power Of Front Loading Projects
I've been really interested by the reasons creative projects commonly go off track lately. In our experience it appears that projects with minimal resources invested at the beginning tend to be the most chaotic, incur higher internal costs, add a lot of stress, and ultimately result in a poor client experience.
The concept of “Front Loading” has been a new focus for us. This involves investing more time and resources into a project's early stages, with the goal of gaining a comprehensive understanding of the project, anticipating major obstacles, and generally getting further ahead on the onset.
There are some benefits and some potential pitfalls to watch out for with this approach. Let’s dig into an example scenario, then the pros and cons.
Example Scenario:
Suppose you've sold, scoped, and closed a website development project, and are now planning the first two to four weeks of work.
Project Specifications:
Approach Without Front Loading:
Approach With Front Loading:
It’s a simple example, but it illustrates how you can practically front load difficult elements of the project.
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Benefits of Front Loading:
How to Front Load:
Front Loading Pitfalls and Mitigation:
A good example of bad front loading?is designing the entire site before getting approval on a style, then having to redo it entirely. There are things that can be front loaded and things that can’t, so be thoughtful about it.
Closing Thoughts:
I like to think of projects the same as my workday. Get the hard stuff out of the way first, then have a more relaxed rest of the day. This gives me peace of mind throughout the day knowing I already accomplished a lot, the same can be said for projects.
I can assure you waiting to the last minute to solve tough problems is never fun. Putting yourself in a situation where you are solving tough problems towards the end, realizing certain things won’t work, and trying to launch all at the same time is a recipe for disaster.
When you start a new project, think about how you can effectively get ahead in the early stages. If you are mindful about what you front load, you can get the stressful bits out of the way and make the project go a lot smoother for you and your team.
Very excited for Webflow conference this year! Had such an inspiring time there last year, met so many awesome people. Can’t wait to do it again this October. You should come along for the fun.
They will be doing a tour across four cities on two continents this year. Kicking off Oct 5 with the main event in SF, followed by smaller in-person-only events in NYC, Chicago, and London.
I'll be attending the San Francisco date on October 6th. If you're going too, I'd love to meet you there! ??
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Thats all for today folks! Hope you have a lovely weekend.
P.S. If you are on Threads?come say hi!