Producer Playbook

Guidelines and best practices for producers and project managers.

Written by
Wes Jones

Edited by
Lindsay Brady
Kristen Goodhue

Table of Contents

Introduction ……………………………………………………… 2
Writing ……………………………………………………… 3
Legal Documents ……………………………………………………… 4
Folder Structure ……………………………………………………… 10
File Naming ……………………………………………………… 13
Emails ……………………………………………………… 16
Meetings ……………………………………………………… 20
Project Planning ……………………………………………………… 25
Project Kickoff ……………………………………………………… 28
Project Management ……………………………………………………… 30
Finishing & Delivery ……………………………………………………… 36
Retrospectives ……………………………………………………… 38
Financials ……………………………………………………… 40
Questions ……………………………………………………… 43
Solving Problems ……………………………………………………… 45
Individual Habits ……………………………………………………… 47
Essential Reading ……………………………………………………… 50
Disclaimer ……………………………………………………… 52
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Introduction
Part of being a producer and managing projects is writing things down, making sure people know what’s going
on, and sharing what you’ve learned. After working at a few agencies I started to see the same things being
needed or how some problems could be solved the same way.

What I’ve done is simply collect the guidelines, best practices, and things I’ve learned in one place so they can be
referenced and shared wherever they may be needed.

However, by writing these things down it assumes what worked for me will work for you. So rather, take what
you need and leave the rest. It’s a place to start, not a mandate.

If you’re new to being a producer or project manager, this can be a guide to help you develop your craft,
navigate your agency, and work with your team. Or, if you’ve been doing this a while, it can help you build out
your internal docs and and define the process around what you’ve been doing. And while there are many
different specialties of production and project management: video, social, product, etc. this has been written ​in
general​ with specifics introduced where they apply.

If you think something should be added, edited, or revised as you’re going through this, let me know:
wes@wesjones.co​. This is meant to be a work in progress, draft v(#), a living breathing document.

The other part of being a producer I’ve learned is working with people. I’ll say it again later but people enjoy
working with people they like. So, the first job is proving you can do the work, then, it’s to try and be friends with
the people you’re working with. It makes the hard times easier and the fun times that much better. Of course,
you don’t have to be real friends with them outside of work, but everyone can tell if you’re only being cordial or
actually care.

To that note, I couldn’t have learned any of this without the many people I’ve been able to work with so far.
Especially, ​Lindsay Brady​ who taught me pretty much everything in here and let me make my own mistakes
when I needed to learn the hard way. ​Kristen Goodhue​ who let me prove I could do it and who always made me
be better. ​Cara DiNorcia​ who challenged me to keep learning and to make sure I was doing what I wanted. And
Ranae Heuer​ who has always given me the chance.

I hope you find this helpful, and if you think it could be helpful to someone else, please share it.

Let me know if you ever need anything.

Wes Jones

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Writing
As the leader of a project you’ll often have more information than anyone else working with you. Which makes it
your responsibility to effectively communicate what you know to the rest of the team. Often in writing, and clear
thought often results in clear writing. Good writing is focused, accounts for nuance, and is easy to understand.
Whereas bad writing is inefficient, unclear, and increases the probability for miscommunication.

Guidelines
Keep these rules in mind when you’re writing anything for yourself, your team, or your agency.

Small Words
Using small words makes you think about what you’re writing. Write in plain english. Even complex subjects can
be written about simply.

Short Sentences
Respect the readers time with short, intentional, sentences. They may want to know what you have to say, but
don’t have the time to read elaborate explanations.

Clear Statements
Every sentence should be a complete thought. If a sentence is vague or could be misunderstood, rewrite it.

Purposeful Stories
A paragraph, or story, is a series of statements that build on each other. Make sure each one has a purpose and
moves the story forward.

Tricks & Tips

Some things to help you write quickly and clearly.

Assuming
Never, ever, assume someone knows what you’re talking about.

TK
“TK” is a writers trick to mark a spot you need to come back to explain, expand, or write altogether. “TK” is used
because it very rarely ever shows up in everyday english words. So, when you’re writing and need to leave a
placeholder write TK, and then you can search your document for all the places you need to go back to.

Define ​That
Instead of saying “that”, describe what ​“that”​ is.

Just
You don’t “just” do anything. You do it with conviction or not at all. Same goes for “only”.

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Legal Documents
Contracts will define everything you do at your company and will keep you safe if (when) things go wrong. At
times they can seem daunting and complex while others incredibly simple and borderline unnecessary. The
thing is, they’re always worth the time and effort you put into them, and the more you know about what they
are, how to read them, how to write them, and the purpose they serve the more you’ll know about how your
business is run and what you have to do to keep it and yourself in good standing. That said, no one expects you
to be trained in Contract law, which is why your agency should have legal counsel to make final
recommendations when it comes to these documents.

Process
The time it takes to come to a signed contract is usually in proportion to the size of the proposed engagement
where on a small scale things can be overlooked and on a large scale critical items will need to be discussed and
negotiated. The thing is, you should always have a contract. The purpose of this is to make sure you are
protecting your company from any negative consequences that may arise from doing the work.

Draft
Start with a template provided by your legal team if you can and go from there to outline the: project overview,
requirements or goals of the engagement, services and deliverables, key milestones, fees and expenses, and any
assumptions you’re making about the potential engagement.

Review & Revisions

Once a contract is drafted it will then go through rounds of review and revision until both sides are able to come
to an agreement. Always have more than one person from your team read the contract before it goes to the
client for their review. Throughout the process keep your legal team up to speed on what’s going on and rely on
them if you have any questions about the specific arrangement your working toward.

Execute
Once both sides are in agreement with the terms and conditions set forth in the contract the next and final step
is to have it Executed. Which means to have it signed. Signing on behalf of a company can only be done by
designated members. If you have the authority to sign documents on behalf of your company, you’ll know.

Agency / Client
When working with a client you should always have a contract outlining the relationship and work you’ll be
doing for them. It’s in your best interest to lead the development of the contract rather than have to agree to
one created by someone else. Depending on the type of engagement, size, and timing different contracts may be
needed to ensure everything is accounted for.

Master Services Agreement

The Master Services Agreement, or MSA, is the overarching contract between your company and a client. It
outlines all general legal terms and conditions that each of you are expected to abide by and what happens
when you don’t. This document is more about the relationship than the actual work. MSA’s are usually

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negotiated once and revisited only if there is a significant change in the way either you or your client conduct
business.

Statement of Work
The Statement of Work, or SOW, outlines specifically the work you’ll be doing for your client. These can be
per-project or for retainer based work. In them you’ll include an Overview of the project, a detailed description
of the services or product you’ll be providing, the fee / payment terms, and any assumptions made. The SOW
also details when you’ll be invoicing the client for the work you are producing, either on a Time and Material
basis or as a Fixed Fee.

The key is to be as specific as possible so if there’s ever any disagreement or misunderstanding you’ll have a
written and signed document that details everything you discussed and agreed to.

With MSA Terms

Sometimes a project won't warrant an MSA. Likely it will be a one-off project or with a client who isn’t large
enough to make going through the process of negotiating an MSA worth it. In this case, the SOW should also
include a standard set of terms and conditions that will often match those of your MSA. Items detailing Liability,
Payment Schedules, Ownership, etc. One thing to note; only the legal counsel should be editing or suggesting
changes to the legal mandates in MSAs.

With MSA
An SOW for a client with an MSA in place means the terms and conditions language may be left out of the SOW,
but it should always reference the MSA in its opening language.

Change of Scope or Change Order

A Change of Scope, or COS, is an amendment to an SOW redefining certain aspects of the language previously
agreed upon. A COS often comes into play when a client asks for more work than originally requested or
requested to change the deliverable set significantly. Rather than work on good faith, it’s best to outline all
requested changes and their effects to the timeline and fees of the project in a formal document which will then
need to be signed by the client before any new work begins. There are times that a simple Memo or Contact
Report or email detailing the change is sufficient enough, but detailing a major change is always in your best
interest.

Letter of Intent
A Letter of Intent, or LOI, is used as a way to confirm a client's intended action. It may be that there are ongoing
conversations around the negotiation of a MSA or there are internal politics that need to be resolved or waited
out before anything can be formally signed. The LOI acts as a bridge during that time to gain an initial level of
commitment from the client. Key items in an LOI are the length of time commitment, start date and fees
associated to the requested work.

While these are often hard to enforce, they can be a way to initiate the process and push for a decision if things
seem to be taking longer than they should.

Memo or Contact Report

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Think of a Memo as a formal letter. Use it when there’s been a discussion with your client and have come to an
agreement but it’s not big enough to warrant a full contract. A Memo will outline all the details and will be sent
to the client as a record of what’s been decided.

Agency / Vendor
Similar to the relationship between a client and your company, you too may have situations when you need to
engage other vendors or freelancers to augment or supplement your team with new capabilities or additional
resources.

VSA
A Vendor Services Agreement, or VSA, is the governing language between your company and a vendor (another
company) who will provide services to yours. It’s the ​MSA​ of working with vendors. Some companies may call
this a “Consultancy Agreement”.

FSA
A Freelance Services Agreement, or FSA, is the governing language between your company and an individual
who will provide services to you or the company. It’s the ​MSA​ of working with freelancers.

Exhibit
An Exhibit is an amendment to a VSA or FSA which outlines the project overview, services, requirements,
timeline, fees, and assumptions. It’s the ​SOW​ of vendor and freelancer relationships. Additionally, each Exhibit
should reference the VSA or FSA it belongs to.

AICP
The AICP contract is a specific contract for film and photography productions. It’s a standard document used by
all production companies and includes language specific to this type of work which allows them to streamline
their negotiation process.

Rider
For an agency working with productions companies who require the AICP contract, the agency may include a
Rider which outlines their terms and conditions that either supplement or override those stated in the AICP
contract.

Non-disclosure Agreement
Often your client will give you access to confidential information about their business they don’t want shared
publicly. Additionally, you may have to give confidential information about your business to clients or other
partners that you don’t want made public in order to asses new opportunities. A Non-disclosure Agreement, or
NDA, is a way of protecting that information by making people responsible for keeping it private.

Mutual
A Mutual NDA is used when you and a potential partner both intend to share confidential information with each
other.

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One-way
A One-way NDA is used when you are going to share confidential information with another party but don’t
intend or want to be responsible for any confidential information they may share with you. One-way NDA’s are
often used when talking to vendors or freelancers.

Releases
If you want to use something that’s not yours you’ll need a Release. Releases can be for people, content, or
locations and can offer a one-time payment or not so long as everyone agrees to the stated terms. A Release
states that the person, creator or manager of a piece of content or location authorizes your company to use the
content or their likeness in your work. Often releases are in perpetuity, which means forever, and signifies that
under no circumstances can anyone revoke the right to the release or request consideration after the fact.

Talent
A Talent Release, releases the rights of an individual. This can be for anyone physically appearing in your content
or even a related likeness of a person.

Content
A Content Release, releases the rights for a specific piece of content. This can be for a specific reason or a general
release. Content can range from photography, video, fonts, music and the like.

Location
A Location Release, releases the rights to a specific location. Often used in original film and photography
productions the requirements can vary from property to property and depending on where you’re shooting from
can either be mandatory or unnecessary. Check with the local government office before you get there, and with
any prominent buildings or known locations as they will likely have their own rules regarding how they can be
portrayed, if at all.

Licensing
Sometimes a Release isn’t the best option, or an option at all, if you’re unable to get a release the next best thing
will be to license the content you want: film, photo, music, etc. It’s critical to know that not all licenses are made
equal and that each aspect of a release is negotiable.

Licensor
The person or company licensing the content.

Licensee
To who the content is licensed.

Term
The Term dictates how long the Licensee has rights to use the content. The Term can often be extended or
renewed before the License expires.

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Geography
The Geography dictates where the licensed content can be displayed. Often more important for out-of-home
and physical activations whereas a digital or social license may cover all internet applications. So if you can, you
may also want to obtain a license that is world-wide, as certain licensor may restrict the use of content in certain
countries.

Use
The Use dictates how the licensed content may be used. Often content licensed for one reason cannot be used in
another situation without first gaining permission to do so, which may require additional fees.

Assumptions
While contracts mostly define what we know, we more importantly need to outline and detail the things we
don’t. Assumptions are a form of contingency planning for situations we don’t expect to happen but need to be
ready for should they arise. They are the most important part of a contract. They answer the question, ​what if​?

You can start by referencing other contracts to see how assumptions have been written for similar projects but
you have to make sure whatever you assume matches your SOW and applies to your current project.

Asume Everything
Put assumptions around the timeline, the deliverables, how, when, and from who you’ll be receiving feedback
(this is incredibly important), the fees and expenses you expect to incur, the main stakeholders, everything. If
you’re unsure about something while you’re writing a contract it’s important you make an assumption you’re
comfortable with rather than leave it open for interpretation by someone else later on.

Referencing Documents
If you need to refer to the engagement MSA, a previous SOW, Memo or Contact Report you should restate the
information in full or cite the name and date of the prior document within the new contract. This ensures there’s
a paper trail between all relevant documents and a clear progression of the engagement overall.

Define Everything
All abbreviations, industry jargon, and buzzwords should be fully defined in their complete form when used for
the first time. For example, ​Statement of Work (“SOW”)​, may then be referred to as ​SOW​ throughout.

Numbers
Numbers should always be written out and qualified, ie: ​four (4).​ Monetary amounts should be written
numerically.

Be Specific
If something isn’t easily understood, add more detail. If something seems open ended, qualify it with a number
or explain how something will be done. You get to call the shots here.

Be Brief

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Remove all unnecessary words or phrases.

Ditch the Jargon and Legalese

Even though it’s a legal document, you should draft all contracts in plain, simple English.

Legaleses Plain English

due to the fact that → Because; Since

With reference to → About

In the event that notwithstanding the → Although; Even if

fact that

Heretofore → Previously; Before now

For the duration of → During

Inasmuch as → Because; Since

Examples
So you can get a sense for how these can be written here are a handful of assumptions around general project
management for a new engagement:

● Client and Agency will each provide one (1) main point of contact for the duration of the project. The Client
contact will be responsible for transmission of assets, documentation, feedback/approval, and Client
deliverables to Agency, scheduling of meetings, consolidation of feedback, and other communication
needs as required.
● Email, Slack, and other tools may be utilized between Agency and Client as a form of communication, but
any decisions regarding the scope must be documented in writing.
● Client to provide Agency with consolidated feedback within forty-eight (48) hours of scheduled
presentations.
● Each Deliverable as defined above may have up to two (2) rounds of review.
● Revisions of any Deliverable at the request of Client once it has been approved will be considered a COS.
● Any images, music, talent, or other assets provided to Agency by Client and its affiliates, agents,
representatives and contractors will be assumed to have had all necessary rights secured by Client in
advance of delivery to Agency.
● Delay in receiving assets or information to be supplied by Client may impact project timeline and budget
and could result in a COS.
● Travel and out-of-pocket expenses are not included in this SOW. All travel expenses, inclusive of airfare,
hotel, cab fare, meals and other reasonable expenses, will be passed through to Client at cost. Client will
approve such expenses in advance of the expenditure.

Remember, these are examples. You’ll need to write new assumptions for every project.

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Folder Structure
“Great ​organization​ is the trademark of a great organization.” -- Bill Walsh

Folders are a way for you and your team to organize and make available all of the work related to a specific
client and their unique projects quickly and efficiently. They also allow you to automatically keep an archive of
your work should you ever need to reference an old document. There’s nothing worse than needing something
but not knowing where it’s saved or how to find it. It also helps when you need to explain to someone where to
find something when you don’t have the time to find it yourself.

Standardized
All folders should follow a standardized format so no matter what client or project you’re working on everyone
will know where to find what they need.

All-in-One
This structure keeps everything together.

● CLIENTS
○ Client Name
■ 00_Client Servies
● NDA
● MSA
● SOW
● Expenses
● Invoices
■ 01_Production
● Pitch
● Brand Assets
● Timeline
■ 02_Strategy
■ 03_Analytics
■ 04_Creative
■ 05_Technology
■ 06_Social
■ 07_ReferenceDocs
■ 08_Projects
■ z_Archive

Split
This structure separates the more sensitive client services info from the project documents. This is good if you
typically work with freelancers and vendors and don’t want them seeing the financials and other related details.
If splitting, you may want to consider different parent folder permissions or servers.

● ADMIN

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○ Clients
■ Client Name
● NDA
● MSA
● SOW
● Expenses
● Invoices

● CLIENTS
○ Client Name
■ 00_Pitch
■ 01_Production
● Brand Assets
● Timeline
■ 02_Strategy
■ 03_Analytics
■ 04_Creative
■ 05_Technology
■ 06_Social
■ 07_ReferenceDocs
■ 08_Projects
■ z_Archive

Folders
Every folder you make should be intentional and add clarity within your folder structure. Make sure your team
knows the purpose of each folder and where they should be saving their work.

Legal Folders
In order to match the Legal Document process each of the following folders should be set up as follows. Draft
hold the working files with each parties redlines, while Executed contains the final PDF, signed agreements. It is
always best to keep the final working file at the parent level to ensure edits may be made or used again.

● MSA
○ Draft
○ Executed

Discipline Folder
Each Discipline Folder will contain documents unique to the discipline. These can be guidelines, best practices
and reference docs provided by the client or those developed by your team.

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Projects Folder
The Projects Folder is a parent folder to all of the cross-disciplinary projects being done for the client. Project
folders can be archived as they are completed to keep the main folder clean. These can be further categorized
per year and/or by objective if there are many projects under one umbrella. Each Project Folder may also have
the necessary discipline folders working on the unique project.

● 08_Projects
○ YEAR
■ Project_1
■ Project_2
■ Project_3
■ z_Archive

Guidelines
Over time your folders will get messy. Here are a few things that will help keep them clean.

Consistent Naming
Folders should always be named the same thing. Don’t name one “Technology” for one client and
“Development” for another. Pick one and stick to it. Also, never use spaces, always an _ or - to separate words or
numbers. This is because different systems may read spaces differently, so by using a _ or - you remove the
possibility of your file being corrupted as it’s saved in various places or not being able to find it because it
doesn’t show up in search results.

Most Recent
The most recent document should live immediately within its respective folder.

z_Archive
Every other out of date document should then be moved to the z_Archive folder within its parent. This way you’ll
have a record of what’s been done, but will reduce the opportunity for people to choose the wrong document.
Putting “z_” at the front of the folder name makes sure it's dropped to the bottom of your folder list and out of
the way … because “z” is the last letter of the alphabet.

Housekeeping
Consistently manage your folders to ensure they’re in order. If left unchecked they’ll eventually become
disorganized beyond what can be remedied. Additionally, hold everyone accountable for managing the project
folders. From time to time, hold a “spring cleaning” for your digital things.

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File Naming
File names should always be written the same way and be made as short as possible while still conveying all
necessary information.

Standardized
Every file should follow the same naming convention. This makes them easy to read, easy to understand, and
easy to place in your folder structure. The full format is:

ClientCode_DocType_Project_Description_Version_Date-Initials

Remember, _ and - keep your file and folder names clean and transferable between various systems.

Client Code
Often people work on more than one project, by indicating what client the specified file is related to allows
people to quickly identify if they’re in the right place. To create them, client codes should be six characters or
less and in full caps. If a brand name fits the criteria it can remain as whole, if not use an abbreviation. If a brand
is part of a parent company, only use the parent company code for related documents like an MSA. For example:

Bose remains BOSE​, whereas ​Range Rover becomes RANGE​, or ​Vitamin Water becomes VTWTR​ but is a
division of ​Glacéau​ and owned by ​Coca Cola​.

Use what makes the most sense, but watch out for abbreviations that may be inappropriate.

Document Type
The Document Type identifies the type of document the file is. Abbreviations should be used where applicable to
keep the file name short.

Abbreviated Document Name

MSA Master Services Agreement

SOW Scope of Work

COS Change of Scope

PROP Proposal

LOI Letter of Intent

VSA Vendor Services Agreement

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FSA Freelancer Services Agreement

EXHB Exhibit

NDA Non-disclosure Agreement

RL Release

LIC License

TREAT Treatment

SCRIPT Script

MOOD Moodboard

TAG Tags

MARKUP Markup

Project
Like each client, every project should have a unique identifier code as well.

Description
The Description identifies the type of work contained in the document. If it’s redundant the Project & Description
may sometimes be combined or one of them omitted. Often in the case of a legal document where the
Document Type serves as the identifier.

Version
Version control is often the most difficult aspect of naming files and will be something you have to stay on top of.
Major changes should increase by a full digit while minor but notable changes may be identified with a decimal
increase. Versions should always be preceded by a lowercase “v”.

Major change:​ v3 to v4
Minor Change:​ v5 to v5.1

Dates & Numbers

The date should always be in reverse order. This allows items to self order from oldest to newest.

May 9, 2021 becomes 20210509, and if put in brackets looks like: [YYYYMMDD]

Single digit numbers should be accompanied by a zero to fill out the leading space.

4 is written as 04

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Initials
On occasion when working with document drafts it may be necessary to identify who last edited a document. In
these cases, the latest editor may append their initials to the file name as not to change the version.

Guidelines
Here are a few other things you should do to keep your file names clean.

Arrangement
Some files won’t need the full name to convey all the necessary information so you can remove the parts of it so
long as it stays in the same order.

Spaces
I’ll say it again, there shouldn’t be any spaces in a file name, instead use either _ or - to separate words.

Follow Folder Structure

Named files should coordinate with their appropriate folder.

Downloaded Files
Downloaded files may append themselves with additional characters. Always remove these before saving to
your folder structure or sharing with anyone else.

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Emails
Emails are sacred, but inboxes are lawless places. You never know how someone manages their inbox or what
other emails they’re getting. Anything from travel reminders to personal emails can be pushing yours out of
sight. And out of sight is out of mind. This means you need to quickly convey the intention of your email so
there’s no opportunity for it to be pushed off until later. Emails also act as a record of all communication.
Operate with the idea of “if it’s not in an email it’s not true”. If something is decided in person, on the phone, in
slack, text, etc. make sure you get it’s recorded in an email as well.

External v. Internal
Your clients get a lot of emails and the people on your team may be working on more than one project. So, while
emails going to your client and team are often different, similar rules apply to how you approach them.

Client Emails
Putting your company name or project reference in the subject line will ensure your client knows the email is
coming from your team and is related to the project you’re working on. No client ever wants to be the bottleneck
of information, doing this makes it easy for them to work with you.

Internal Emails
As people in your company may be working on multiple projects at a time you should make it easy for them to
manage their inbox by including the client code or project reference in every email subject you sent that’s
related to the project. This way they can quickly scan their inbox to find what they need.

Subjects
The Email Subject is likely the most important part of any email. It’s the first thing anyone sees and needs to
convey what the rest of the email is about. It will also help you categorize and find past emails. Overall, they
need to be clear and concise. All emails subjects should follow this standard format:

[ActionItem] ClientCode DocType Project Description Date | Time

Action Item
Action Items are used to let the recipient of your email know they need to do something with the contained
information. They should be placed in Brackets and written in Title Case without spaces.

Action Description

ForReview A document or content that needs to be reviewed.

ForApproval A document or content that needs to be approved.

ForSignature A legal document that is ready to be signed.

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ForPayment An invoice that is ready to be paid.

Client Code
If there is no Action Item the Client Code (see File Naming) should be placed in brackets: ​[BOSE]​, if the Client
Code follows an Action Item it should be left open: ​[ActionItem] BOSE​.

Document Type
The Document Type is used to identify the type of document attached to the email. Often used for legal docs.

Project
Use the abbreviated Project Code when you need to identify a specific client project.

Description
Once the identifying details are taken care of you may need to add additional description to what is in the email.
Be as short but descriptive as possible.

Date | Time
While the date and time the email was sent is automatically included in the email details there will be times
when it’s important to include either a date, time or both in the subject line. This can be used for identifying
milestone dates or reporting times. In order to separate the time from the rest of the information use a vertical
line and use the following configurations depending on the information you’re including:

Time only:​ ​Email Subject​ | ​Time

Date only:​ ​Email Subject​ | ​Date
Time and Date:​ ​Email Subject​ ​Date | Time

Examples
The following are sample subject lines you may use verbatim or as a baseline for crafting your own.

Subject Description

[ForReview] Project Description | Date Request for review

[ForApproval] Campaign Description | Time Request for approval

[ForSignature] Client DocType Project | Date Request for signature

[FLAG] (POS, NEG, GEN) (description) | Time Bringing positive, negative, or general
awareness to a situation

[URGENT] Campaign (POS, NEG, GEN) (description) | Time Bringing pressing positive, negative, or
general attention to a situation

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[HotSheet] Client Campaign | Date Sharing a HotSheet for a specific client

and campaign with date signifier

[CLIENT] INT HotSheet | Date An internal, client specific, HotSheet

[CLIENT] HotSheet | Date An external, client specific, HotSheet

[REPORT] Campaign Day, Month Date | Time Sharing performance report for a
specific campaign, date, and time

Etiquette
Email has to be finessed. As it’s text only it’s incredibly difficult to convey the tone of what you’re trying to say as
things may come off too cold when you’re in fact being nice or overly warm when you need to be firm.

Arrangement
Email Subjects can be arranged in whatever way makes the most sense to convey the intent of the email. This
means you can omit some details that are either redundant or unnecessary. Like everything else the key is being
consistent.

Threads
Always create a New Thread for a new document, idea, or action. Never change the purpose of one email thread
to another. Other people will try and do this, but you can police it. If this starts to happen out of our control, at
the very least you can edit the Subject Line of the email thread to relate to the new purpose.

To / CC / BCC:
If you do find yourself replying to an email thread you should always re-organize the To, CC, and BCC lines to
include the proper people in order. Almost think of email actions against a RACI (Responsible, Accountable,
Consulted, Informed) or RAM (Responsibility Assignment Matrix) system. If you don’t know the RAM system,
check it out here​.

Action Description

To The responsible party - Person or people who need to respond or do

something.

CC The consulted party - Everyone who you want to make aware.

BCC The informed party - Anyone you need to share the email with but
don’t want others to see.

Canned Responses

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If you find yourself writing the same emails again and again, a time saving trick in GMail is to enable ​Canned
Responses​. This will allow you to prefill an email template which you can edit.

Scheduling To Send
Don’t ever schedule an email to automatically send in the future. You don’t know what will happen between the
time you schedule it and the time it actually sends. Instead, save your pre-written email as a draft and ​set a
reminder in Slack​ to let you know when to send your email. This way you can give it one more read to make sure
everything is correct and revise if anything is now out of date.

Delayed Send
Gmail gives you the ability to ​unsend an email for up to 30 seconds​ after you click send for those times you
realize you made a mistake the moment after you hit send. That said, the email will send immediately if you
refresh the page or click to anywhere else.

Pick Up The Phone

Sometimes email isn’t the right way to communicate. As mentioned it’s difficult to convey tone in an email and
often a lot of back-and-forth can be negated if you pick up the phone and talk live with the person you’re dealing
with. That said, every decision made on a phone call needs to be followed up and confirmed in an email.

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Meetings
Meeting can either be an incredible waste of time and resources or the most efficient way of getting everyone on
the same page. It all depends on how you approach them and while each meeting will require a different
approach there are some best practices you can follow to have more effective meetings and ensure people
come prepared.

Cadence
Everyone works in their own way and have different times of day they’re most productive. While not everyone
will be accommodated all the time, you can schedule meetings such that they reduce disruption and get people
the information they need before they need it. The purpose of this is so you can provide the most opportunity
for people to enter and maintain a ​State of Flow​. ​Flow​ is when people are most focused, engaged, and energized
about the work they are doing. Simply, Flow is the same as ​being in the zone​.

Manager v. Maker Schedule

People managing the work and those doing it work differently. Where makers require long stretches of
uninterrupted time to get their work done, Managers generally get things done through consistent interaction.
It’s the job of the manager to create the right environment for their team. Meaning the manager has to recognize
there’s a cost to disrupting the maker and taking them away from their work. Paul Graham’s discourse “​Maker’s
Schedule, Managers Schedule​” provides further insight into the differences and how to manage for them. By
understanding the different you’re better able to create the environment that gets people to their Flow State
quicker without undue distractions.

Timing
Have a consistent schedule for when your meetings will take place rather than sporadically whenever you figure
you may need to get together. This means choosing set times everyone can plan for. Generally it’s best to have
meetings on Mondays and Fridays. Mondays for everyone to discuss the priorities of the upcoming week and
Fridays to recap what was accomplished and set a preliminary plan for the next week. Then other meetings
throughout the middle of the week should either happen early in the morning as the work day begins or later in
the day after people have had a chance to make progress with their work.

Client Meetings
Client Meetings should also be planned on a set schedule. This will give you and your team tangible deadlines
and allow for consistent communication with your client. Of course, you will have to plan for your client
meetings as it works for their schedule, but you do have control over the initial proposed time and can convey
the fact that your team works more efficiently if you’re able to keep these early or later in the day / week.

Additionally, if your team likes to work a different way, and it’s actually more effective for them, then plan
accordingly. Knowing their preference off the bat shows the team you are an advocate of their best work.

Meeting Types
From 1-on-1’s, Project, Discipline, Planning, Kickoff meetings and Retrospectives each require a different
mindset and planning.

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One On One
A private meeting between a Manager and someone who reports to them to go over goals, project status, and
anything the Manager can help their report achieve. Try to have a structure to the meeting, this allows the direct
report to come prepared to have a more direct conversation, topics like: 1 win, 1 loss, 1 hurdle or Start, Stop,
Continue, or just their WIG (Wildly Important Goals) are good ways to have them organize their thoughts
beforehand.

Project
Often everyone on the team will say they want to be involved at every step of the way but you have to know who
is a critical team member and those who are nice-to-have but not necessary for each meeting. This will change
as a project progresses, but you can’t let people who don’t need to be there hold up the rest of the team.
Remember, time is money and large meetings cost a lot of money.

Discipline
Discipline meetings are times when the team can come together to share learnings, discuss situations, and offer
help to other members of the team.

Planning
A forward looking meeting to plan strategy, objectives, KPIs, etc. Planning meetings can be focused on the
agency, toward a specific client or project, a team or individual and can be either internal or externally facing.
Generally, these cover anything related to the health and growth of the company.

Kickoff
The first, official, time a full project team is brought together to formally initiate a project. (See Project Kickoff).

Retrospective
An official phase or project regroup to assess and discuss overall team performance and learnings. (See
Retrospectives).

Agendas
Agendas should be sent prior to the meeting so everyone can come prepared. By letting everyone know what the
purpose of the meeting is ahead of time you can get everyone to help self police should topics start to
inadvertently veer away from what you’re there to take care of. Each agenda should follow a standardized
template to ensure consistency across teams.

Action Items
Action items are tasks that must be done to achieve a proposed and desired outcome. These tasks may be self
assigned or delegated to one person responsible for seeing the task through to completion. To ensure Action
Items are readily achievable they must be created and assigned with:

● A single, achievable, goal​ -- multi-step items should be broken down into subtasks or different Action
Items all together

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● A Due Date​, with specific time of day if necessary

● A single person responsible for the Action Item​ -- they may again delegate it to their direct reports
but it will be on them to ensure it is completed on time and of the quality expected

Each team member must know that each Action Item assigned to them is theirs to manage. Additionally, all
required information should be attached to made available with the Action Item so the person responsible has
full context for what needs to be done.

Calendar Invites
Meetings are expensive once you realize the amount of billable time gets wasted spending time in meetings with
no clear objective. Often calendar invites are the first time anyone is made aware of an upcoming meeting.
Without context you run the risk of people coming with their own agenda and derailing the meeting from its
original purpose. To help prevent this every calendar invite should include details covering the purpose of the
meeting and what the desired outcome is. Along with that, be ruthless with who you invite. While large meetings
are sometimes necessary, each person added to a meeting increases the risk of the meeting not achieving your
intended goal. To stop this, make sure everyone comes to the meeting prepared and aware of the objective and
desired outcome.

POST
The POST outline is one way of detailing the key information and format of a meeting by identifying the Purpose,
Outcome, Structure, and Time. Lay out the information in the following way in the notes section of the invite:

P.O.S.T. Description

(​P​) Purpose The intent of the meeting.

(​O​) Outcome What needs to be achieved.

(​S​) Structure How will the meeting be arranged: Group, Presentation, etc.

(​T​) Time Length of the meeting.

Intent / Action Item

If more details are needed you may also use an Intent / Action Item outline in the invite details:

Objective
The purpose of the meeting.

Agenda
● Item 1
● Item 2
● Item 3

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Action Item
● AI 1
● AI 2

Again, Action Items should be single, defined tasks which are assigned to an individual who is ultimately
responsible for it.

Amazon Method
Write up that everyone reads beforehand so they can discuss it, or read during the meeting to be discussed at
the end. Makes people clarify their thoughts and truly think through their ideas before spending other people's
time on it. ​Here’s how it works at Amazon​.

Meeting Notes
Meeting Notes are sent after a meeting to quickly recap what was covered and what next steps or action items
need to be taken. They act as written confirmation of the key points and information that was discussed and
should be shared out to everyone who was there along with those who couldn’t make it but should be informed
as to what was decided. These notes are a way to keep a record of decisions as a project progresses. Again, these
notes should follow a standard format across teams. Additionally, meeting notes may be sent to an external
team after an internal meeting to share what was discussed as well as to a larger internal team if only a few
people were involved in an external meeting.

Internal
Internal notes are sent to the internal team and may include information that is for internal purposes only.
These documents reaffirm decisions made in the meeting along with outline delegated Action Items and next
steps.

External
External notes are sent to the client and other external stakeholders who are on a need-to-know basis. Certain
information may be deleted from the Internal HotSheet that doesn’t need to be shared externally.

Format
Meeting Notes can either be sent in the body of an email or in rare cases within the teams Slack Channel.

Subject: ​[CLIENT] INT Meeting Notes | Date

Hello,

Drop it like it’s hot.

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General Notes

Next Steps

Action Items

Thank you,

Etiquette

Devices
No one should be allowed to be on their device in a meeting other than if they are taking notes for the group. It’s
a distraction to the person on their device along with everyone else in the room. As much as anyone wants to tell
you they can multitask it’s not true. Tell them if they are so good at it then it shouldn’t be any trouble for them to
make up the time they spend paying attention to you and everyone else later on.

Notes
(As I’m sure most people reading this are producers or project managers this won’t be anything new, but if not,
read on). It is not the Producer / Project Manager, or the youngest person in the rooms responsibility to take
notes for everyone else. Sure, someone may send a recap, but everyone in the meeting should be engaged,
tracking their own Action Items, and taking their own notes. Most people won’t naturally do this, so it’ll be part
of your job to make it part of the expectation for your meetings.

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Project Planning
Pitching new business comes with it’s own approach and aspects you have to consider: what the brief says,
figuring out what the client actually needs and convincing them of it, deciding if the project a right fit for the
agency, if the work will be exciting, if you have the bandwidth to take it on, if it will be profitable, if it will it lead
to more work, and will it be good for PR and the portfolio. There’s more and it’s a lot to get through, but for now
let’s say your agency is in the final round(s) and it’s now time to start getting specific. Both you and your
potential client are going to want to know exactly what it is you plan to do, how you’ll do it, how long it’ll take,
and how much it will cost. And for better or worse it’s going to be based on estimates and best guesses. But,
there are ways to make sure you’re as close to right as possible.

Estimating
Every project is different. But that doesn’t mean you have to start from zero each time. The best way to make
sure you’re on the right track is to approach it from every angle. Consider similar projects, talk to your team,
understand what the client is expecting and if they have a preference for how they’d like the project to go. Along
with that your intuition will play a role in how you plan a project as if it doesn't feel right it probably isn’t.

Similar Projects
Looking at similar projects can help you determine how long something might take, the team size, or what skill
sets you need to involve in order to get something done. But it’s a starting point, not detailed directions.

Team Input
The most important thing you can do when planning a project is to involve the rest of the team. If you try and do
it alone you’ll only have your perspective and without input from the people who will actually be doing the work
you won’t have any idea what things are really going to take.

Individually
Speak with everyone individually first to see what they’re thinking. This makes sure everyone feels involved and
has ownership about the work their doing. You too get to see whether you were accounting for everything or if
the team is thinking of the project different than you are.

As a Team
After you have taken everyone's individual input and crafted an initial plan you need to take it to the full team so
they can see how everything is starting to fit together. During these meetings you can discuss if certain things
are redundant, if there are ways to be more efficient, and make sure you still have buy in from everyone after
they see it as a whole. You’ll likely have to revise your plan and have a couple of these sessions. They’re worth it.

Responsibility
Best for you to approach these discussions as questions of how and why rather than ask if they think your
opinion is right. By having them detail for you how something should go it makes them responsible for it when
the project becomes a reality. Also, by having them talk through their approach it makes them have to actually
think about what they’d be doing instead of agreeing to an abstract idea that you present them.

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Team
The makeup of the team can either make or break a project. Too large and nothing gets done. Too small and the
team can’t keep up with the expected pace. Casting a team is something you’ll have to do for every project and
getting it right means looking at the overall picture to make sure you’re accounting for everything from the start.

Size
You will want to keep your team as small as possible while still being able to do the work on time and at the
quality you expect without burning out the team. A smaller team reduces the amount of communication
channels which means there’s less opportunity for misinterpretation or things to not be communicated. So
while each discipline will likely request that they have more people on the team, understand that you’ll need to
work with them to determine what the actual needs are and how it does or doesn’t fit within the project plan.

Ability
While on paper you might have multiple people who have the same role, you know that each of them will have a
different style, ability, and speed. Knowing your team will help you decide if you need multiple people to do a
job or if one person can take it on themselves.

Available Resources
That said, there may be a time when you don’t have the right resources in-house to do the job. Either they are
fully allocated to another project or no one has the right skillset. In this situation you have two options, either
bring in freelance contractors or hire a new full-time employee to fill the role. When it comes to this there will be
larger conversations with the executive team to decide what the best approach is for the agency and the work.

Questions to ask when considering either a freelancer or new employee are if you have the budget to hire a
contractor or might the agency wants to expand the companies skillset and be able to offer this type of work
again to other clients. There are pros and cons to each and many factors, some not even related to the actual
project that will determine how you fill out the team.

Goals
During the planning phase is when you’ll want to work with the team to understand what their individual goals
are for the project. Is there something they’d like to try, something they’d like to prove, something they want to
avoid. Knowing these things at the start will help you put people in a position to succeed and understand what
may be bothering them during the project should if you recognize that their individual ambitions have been put
aside.

Timeline
The timeline will largely be determined by the client. They’ll often have deadlines they need to hit for certain
business goals and are looking to you to make sure they meet them (most likely they’ll already be behind
schedule by the time they bring you in).

Expectations vs. Reality

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While the client will have their expectation of how long something should take, you need to take a realistic view
of the project, your team and capabilities, and the budget to determine if the expected timeline is in fact
feasible. If so, great. If not, you’ll need to develop alternate options which you bring to the client and discuss
why their expected timeline can’t be met but there are other options or ways of working to pursue.

Budget
A timeline issue is likely a budget issue. Without a proper budget to secure the right resources a project may take
longer than expected. If the client is able to increase the budget to expand the team certain things may be able
to be done quicker or in parallel such that the timeline can be compressed.

That said, sometimes things take how long they take and no matter how many people are working on something
it won't get done any faster -- remember, a larger team often works slower due to the amount of people
involved.

Balance
The key to this is understanding that while some projects may be similar, no two will ever be identical. There are
too many variables at play to think one will be the same as another. Different clients, different teams, different
objectives. All of these play a role in how a project takes shape and you’ll have to find the proper balance to set
up a project for success. You’ll have to consider the clients goals, their budget, their timeline and expectations,
your team, their goals, your agency and the type of work it hopes to be doing. It’s up to you to work with
everyone to develop a project plan that everyone is excited about and agrees to.

Two common scenarios are:

Limited Budget
You may reduce the amount and fidelity of the deliverables to achieve a project fee that fits within the budget.
This will reduce the overall scope of the project.

Accelerated Timeline
You may add more or more experience resources to the team to get work done quicker to fit within the available
timeline. This will increase the fees of the project.

Contract
All of these planning discussions and information is what makes up the details of your final contract and leads to
the Project Kickoff.

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Project Kickoff
The project kickoff happens after all client details in the MSA and SOW have been negotiated and executed. Even
though you’ve probably had a number of conversations with various team members as you’ve been setting
everything up, the kickoff is the official start to any project.

Purpose
The kickoff meeting sets the tone for the project and informs the team of what’s to come and what’s expected.
It’s usually the first time the whole team gets together and is the time for them to get up to speed on the project,
what the client is looking for, and agree on how everyone plans to work together. It takes a lot of thought to do
this right and can set everything in motion or derail a project from the start.

Internal Kickoff Meeting

An internal kickoff meeting should consist of the following information:

● Intro’s
● Client Background
● Project Overview
● Timeline and/or Key Milestones
● Client Objectives
● Agency and Team Goals
● Agency Team & Roles
● Approach
● Key Docs & Folders
● Q&A

The internal meeting is what sets up a successful External Kickoff Meeting.

External Kickoff Meeting

The external kickoff meeting is an opportunity to introduce the clients to the working team and align on the
approach for how you and the client will interface and work together. Many sections of the Internal Kickoff
document can be shared in the External Meeting with the following client specific additions:

● Key Stakeholders
○ Possibly a RACI outlining the various key players associated to the project and their role
● Request Outstanding Assets

Quick Wins
A new project just started, the team is ready to work, the client has written their first check and soon they’ll want
to see what they’re paying for. The challenge however is it often takes time to get to anything worth seeing.
Especially if it’s a large project with a lot of variables that need to be worked out.

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What you can do to build momentum quickly is to define and focus on a few quick wins. This benefits the team
as they ramp up the project as well as instill confidence in the clients that work is in fact being done.

Quick wins can be things like:

● Collaborative working sessions to engage the partner early

● Audits (Design, Tech, Competitor, etc.)
● Look & Feel Exploration
● Simple Prototype (that said, the flashier the better)

Getting these things to your client early into the project shows you’re already at work and producing quality
deliverables. It also gives you a test run for ensuring the process you agreed on is working or not.

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Project Management
Project Management is everything we’re talking about. It’s how projects start, how things get done, and how
things are delivered. And the only thing you can be sure of is that your project won't go as planned, so you
should do everything you can to create a plan that will let you adapt when you inevitably have to shift or change
course.

Methodologies
There are a number of ways to get things done and it’s always a balance between the type of project, what the
team is used to, and what the client expects. Below are a few of the most popular methods. Take what works for
you and disregard the rest. Don’t make it harder on yourself or the team than it needs to be. Sometimes rules are
too rigid and you and the team spend more time managing the project than doing the actual work. These are
guidelines, not rules.

Agile
Rather than a methodology, agile is a set of principles that outline a way of thinking and how a team should
work together in an effort for achieving a determined end goal. The Agile Manifesto states:

Individuals and interactions​ over processes and tools

Working software​ over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration​ over contract negotiation
Responding to change​ over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on

the right, we value the items on the left more.

Agile emphasizes leaving things open to chance rather than assuming everything is predictable. Which makes it
great for dynamic work environments where you’ll work closely with your clients and know new information will
become available and that you’ll have to adapt as you work through the project.

As it’s a set of principles, Agile thinking can be found in many other methodologies as a set of guidelines for how
teams should work.

Waterfall
Waterfall is an approach where the full project is outlined in the beginning and then broken down into phases.
It’s about doing it once and doing it right, as opposed to a more agile approach were you’ll be continually
testing, learning, and optimizing. Waterfall projects typically have a long time horizon. The phases progress
linearly and usually the previous phase is required to be complete before the next phase can begin.

Waterfall can be inefficient with it’s staged approach and adherence to a set timeline, however it can be useful
to take waterfall planning and combine it with a Scrum / Sprint based approach within each phase.

Or, combine the two and run a project under the Wagile approach: waterfall to a certain extent, then agile to test
and optimize.

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Kanban
Kanban is a process that focuses on visualizing the work with an emphasis on continuous delivery. It’s a flexible
framework that allows the team to organize and prioritize the work to their preferred working style. This allows
the team to adapt and work with changing priorities. Part of this is limiting the number of Works-in-Progress so
the team stays focused. Typically Kanban is visualized on a physical board with post-it notes or digitally with a
card based system like Trello. These lanes are not required, but many kanban boards follow the same flow with
an addition or substitution depending on the project at hand:

Work Lanes Description

Icebox / Parking Lot Ideas and stories that are no longer being worked on but could come back

Backlog Stack-ranked stories ready to be initiated once

Onboarding Stories that are selected for the current Sprint

In Progress Stories being worked on

For Review Stories ready for Internal Review

In Review Stories being reviewed

Demo Ready Stories ready for Client Review

Needs Work Stories that need more work after either In Review or Demo Ready

Done Stories accepted as Done

SCRUM
Scrum is one of the simplest ways to implement agile principles into a project with its focus on ensuring
continual delivery of high fidelity work. Tactically, Scrum proposes a set of roles, meetings, and tools to
efficiently develop work. Outside of that, the team is empowered to be self-managing with each member
responsible for their own tasks and deliverables. The team will work from a Backlog of work items, or User
Stories, set forth by a Product Owner that define features or functionality. Work will typically be done in a
defined timebox, typically 2 Week Sprints (sometimes further broken down into 1 Week internal sprints with a 2
Week Client Sprint Review / Demo). Work is then shared via Sprint Demo’s where the client will review
prototypes or working code.

Roles Description

Product Owner Owns the Product Backlog and defines the business case for each story along
with manages stakeholder interactions

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Scrum Master Owns the timeline and management of the Scrum Team and supports the
Product Owner with the Client interactions

Scrum Team The team doing the work; UX/UI, Designers, Developers, etc.

One of the principles of a Scrum team is to keep them small in order to increase efficiency.

Meetings Description
(Ceremonies)

Sprint Planning (30 min) Review the backlog and assign priority to new stories

Daily Standup (15 min) Morning check-in for the team to share status and identify blockers

Sprint Review (30 min) Internal review for the Product Owner to determine if stories pass the
Definition of Done

Sprint Demo (1hr) Client facing work in progress review

Sprint (30-45 min) Every two week retrospective for the team to discuss how the
Retrospective project is running and identify opportunities for improvement

All meetings are time-boxed in order to keep people focused on the task at hand.

Definitions Description

Story A distinct piece of functionality that adds value to the user. Written as: As a
(persona), I want (to do), So that (I can do…)

Task A subset of items necessary for a story to be completed

Ready The Scrum Team will need to determine if each story is Ready to be worked on.
This means each story typically includes things like: independent tasks, all
reference material, acceptance criteria, client approved designs

Done The Product Owner & Scrum Team will need to define what their Definition of
Done means. Typically includes things like: All code has been written, code is
devoid of errors, implementation doesn’t impede previous progress

Having everyone in agreement for the definitions of what you’re talking about makes it easier to stay aligned at
every stage of a project.

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While Scrum takes a lot from Agile, pure Scrum is hard to implement in an agency or project based setting with
predetermined deadlines and client expectations.

Lean
Lean emphasizes being hyper efficient with continuous testing in order to assess value and identify
opportunities to improve the product and/or process. It’s about stripping everything back to the bare essentials
so the team can work as quickly as possible while producing a high quality output.

Sprints
Sprints are typically 2 week time intervals in which work is planned and executed. Further, they can be broken
down into 1 week sections for internal planning with a 2 week Sprint review. This time frame usually gives
enough time for the team to show progress without it being too long that momentum fluctuates due to there
being too much time available to complete assigned work. Sticking to a set sprint cadence also allows the team
to develop a rhythm they can sustain throughout the project.

Timeline
No matter what methodology or combination of that you choose you’ll always need a timeline. The client
expects it, the team needs it to stay focused, and it’ll let you plan ahead and anticipate what’s to come. Your
timeline needs to be developed ahead of the Kickoff Meeting for the Project and often there’s a high level, if not
detailed, timeline included in your SOW. That said, everyone has to understand that the timeline will be revised
throughout the course of the project as items shift, priorities are redefined, etc. The one thing to watch out for
though is if things start to change a lot that it might be time to consider a Change of Scope to redefine and reset
expectations.

Your timeline should have the following key dates:

● Kickoff Date
● Milestone Dates of:
○ Project Phases
○ Significant feature deliverables
● Formal Client Review(s)
● Informal Client Review / Status
● Project End Date / Delivery
● Vacations -- both company wide and already planned individual vacations so you can account for
coverage

Level of Detail
For a short engagement you might only need an outline of key dates, whereas a large project may require a
detailed schedule that accounts for every phase, milestone, check-in and deliverable. The point is to keep
everyone on track, aware of what’s happening, and when.

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Considerations
To start a timeline you should consider the pitch deck, project plan, and known expectations. Then, build the
timeline against the deliverables, phases, constraints and milestones you need to meet. As you do this the
timeline should be logical with related items grouped together and broken down into manageable tasks with
each task assigned to an owner who is responsible for seeing it through to completion.

Format
Often you’ll have to make the same timeline in multiple formats for the various people and parties involved.
Here’s how those can look along with the tools you can use to put them together.

Gantt Chart
Gantt charts are a task and time based way to structure your work over a period of time. The tools below allow
you to set different task types and set dependencies so when one thing changes the rest of the sheet shifts along
with it. It often makes the most sense to detail a waterfall or sprint based project with a Gantt Chart due to how
visually one task item leads to the next. Because of that it can be difficult to detail an agile project timeline with
a Gantt Chart as different work streams are being done concurrently. Though it can be done if you take a Feature
Deliverable approach were everything related to a specific feature is detailed underneath a parent and then the
parents overlap and the tasks are placed in relation to each other.

A few popular tools to use for creating Gantt Charts are: ​Smartsheet​, ​Instagantt​, and ​OmniPlan​ among others.

Visual Timeline
While a Gantt Chart is great for internal, detailed, timelines, you may need to create a clean, presentation ready,
timeline to share with clients. This you can do in Keynote or other presentation software (but Keynote is the
best). It’s a much more manual process but once you get set up they’re fairly easy to maintain. The only thing is,
don’t overcomplicate it or you’ll lose the benefit of making a pretty doc.

Detailed List
If all of that is too much for your project you can create a Detailed List. With a list you can define key dates and
milestones in a simple, easy to read format that can be shared and updated quickly. Make sure to include:
project start and end dates, phases, check-ins and milestones, and anythings else that needs to be noted for
both the team and the client like holidays and vacation.

Flex Time
When you’re making your timeline it’s critical to plan ahead for the time when you don’t get feedback on time or
something takes longer than expected. It will always happen and it’s easier to say you built time into the project
to accommodate for these things than have to rework and reschedule your entire timeline or compress work in
order to fit into the existing dates you already committed to.

Allocations
Part of planning a project is planning for and securing the resources you’ll need to complete the deliverables
both on time and within budget. This means it’s a balance between how many people you can assign to a
project, their seniority, and the time available. For example, it may be cheaper to allocate or hire one person

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who is more expensive, but has more experience and works faster than a junior team who needs oversight and
more management.

Then, with that, once you have your team defined you need to ensure they can work throughout the project, or
at least, finish their deliverables. It’s inefficient and the work will suffer if you have many people jumping in and
out of a project. There’s a loss of continuity and knowledge that comes with a shifting team.

Action Items
Of everything, Action Items are the specific things you need people to do. They are clearly defined, ownable,
and, of course, actionable. You should aim for your Action Items to be as contained as possible. Meaning, one
Action Item defines one component of a deliverable. That said, should a feature contain multiple components
they should all be grouped together so one person is able to see the entire thing through. This ensures a
consistent logic throughout.

Of course, depending on the complexity of the project the granularity of your Action Items will need to adjust to
what needs to get done and the team you have available.

Tools
There are plenty of tools and many of them do all of the same things. Use the one that your team likes to use.
That said, a few I like are:

● Flow - Flow has everything from Project / Task management, Timelines, and Resourcing. On top of that
it also looks great on desktop and mobile.
● Asana - The UI has vastly improved in the past few years and they seem to be making continuous
updates with new features that make it a well-rounded project management tool
● Mavenlink - When used properly Mavenlink can do it all but I’ve seen it become slow, to almost
unusable when a large team is on it
● Basecamp - oldy but goody, pending the complexity of the project and how involved clients are, this
tool is a great way to keep everyone aligned, and hidden from items they don’t need to see
● Trello - Trello does it’s job but the visual design of the app makes it feel a bit elementary
● LeanKit - It’s truly a great system, but they’d be well served to update their UI, it’s too system oriented
and I don’t see creatives taking to it as well
● GitHub Projects - Used this once when it was first out and it was fine for a small project, but I’ve heard
they’ve made more improvements so I’d be interested in trying it out again for a dev focused project
● Monday - Never used this, but I’m sure you’ve seen their ads
● Airtable - new kid on the block

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Finishing & Delivery

The way you deliver work will depend on what sort of work you’re delivering along with the scale and fidelity of
the project. That said, you should always deliver your work as a premium product. Clients are coming to you for
an experience and this can be the grande finale of how it all comes together. You have to define that for yourself
but here’s what you should consider as you wrap up and deliver projects of any type or size.

Contingency Planning
While we always hope for everything to go right you have to expect and plan for it to go wrong so you know how
to react in the moment should something come up. You don’t want to be caught in a critical moment and not
have an answer. The best way to do this is to set thresholds that have to be met for something to happen. It’s
easy in the moment for emotions to take over, but if you’ve planned ahead you can pragmatically, and without
reacting emotionally, navigate any situation.

Better Than Expected

There comes a point of diminishing returns so watch out for that and don’t make more work for the sake of
doing so.

As Expected
Let it ride and look for opportunities where you can further optimize or take advantage of situations organically.
Again, don’t try to do too much as it could look like you’re trying to hard or you take away the magic that made it
work in the first place. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.

Not That Great

This will happen more so than not I think. No matter how well you planned ahead and prepared for what’s to
come there are so many other factors that you don’t have control over that come into play when you put
something out into the world that can affect how it’s received. The key here is to not react emotionally to the
situation, which is why it’s best to have benchmarks and best practices in place that will guide your course of
action. Sometimes there are things you can do, and other times it’s best to just wait it out.

Side note: the big launch may not actually be what you want anyway. Hype is great, but it’s unsustainable. What
you really want is what Ryan Holiday calls a “Perennial Seller”. Something that day-over-day, year-over-year,
gets better and more people want. It’s built on reputation and a solid product. So, don’t worry if your launch
isn’t a big splash in the market. You actually have an opportunity now to get feedback, learn from how people
are using it, understand what’s working and what’s not, and smartly improve your product as more and more
people start to discover it.

Catastrophic
You planned ahead, but not for this. Things aren’t going well, your client is looking for answers and no one really
has any. This isn’t any fun. Obviously. And when things start going downhill they can pick up speed quickly and
become harder to control. At the end of the day when people feel things are out of control they let their
emotions take over and it’s easy for people to start pointing fingers and saying things they don’t actually mean
or really want to say. Which is why planning for the absolute worst and knowing when it’s time to stop is critical
for saving your reputation and your clients -- ultimately they have to answer to someone too. So, have a plan

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and don’t react emotionally if (and when) you find yourself in a catastrophic situation. Your client will be looking
for answers, and even if you don’t have them, having a plan will give you authority throughout the situation and
give your clients confidence in you even if they can’t see a clear path out.

Best Practices
You want to make sure you always look good. Doing these will help you do that.

Over-Communicate
Everything at the beginning. If it’s too much they’ll tell you. This way you can be sure everyone is a part of the
conversation and you won’t get the “I wasn’t aware of this” comment later on if a client is surprised by
something.

Remind
Always reiterate how you got here and what decisions were made. Your client will find it hard to disagree with
themselves. But even if they do they’ll know you were only working with the information you had available.

Document Everything
Keeping a record of all conversations, decisions, and notes between you and your client will save you when
questions come up throughout the project. If you don’t have it documented, you’re going to have to assume the
client is right. So make sure you recap all important notes to them in a HotSheet because there is nothing better
than being able to pull up and confirm a decision that had already been made when you know they don’t believe
you for a second.

Aftermath
Plan for what happens after you deliver the project. It’s easy to think that the project will be completely over
once it’s delivered. However, it doesn’t just ​end​. There will be retrospectives, follow up calls, discussions, etc.
And even if it wasn’t asked for you’ll likely need to create and present a formal recap and performance analysis
of the project itself.

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Retrospectives
Retrospectives (or Post Mortems, but don’t use that, it sets the wrong tone) are a look back, obviously. But
they’re more than an unstructured conversation to dwell on the past. Rather they are a time to highlight what
went well along with give space for the team to bring up issues they saw and discuss how things can run better.
That said, a retrospective can’t be a time to point fingers and play the blame game. When done well they can
inspire, improve process, and propel a team forward with greater focus and drive toward achieving the end goal.

Format
While a retrospective can take many shapes you should always follow a consistent format. You shouldn’t have to
spend time going over the purpose and rules every time you do one. This means they need to be simple. The
team is there for one reason, to discuss how things are going and what can be done better. Don’t make it more
complicated than it needs to be. To run a retrospective effectively, you need to keep things focused. Don’t let
the meeting delve into an off-topic discussion or something that can, and should be handled in another setting.
You’re there to get insights into how the team is working, both good and bad. Which means that everything must
ultimately be actionable. Getting together to discuss how things are going doesn’t add any value to the team if
you don’t come away with actionable steps to make things better.

Guidelines
A handful of rules to keep things ​Simple​, ​Focused​, and ​Actionable​ are:

● Have a set time

● Everyone must participate
● Bring in an outside perspective
● Watch out for overpowering voices
● Ask: ​“Does everyone agree?”

Good, Bad, Better, Best or Start, Stop, Continue

Often a discussion is enough, but if you’re having trouble getting people to participate you can use the Good,
Bad, Better, Best exercise. It’s a way of getting everyone to analyze the project from multiple angles and requires
each person write 1-3 sticky notes for each category before going around the room and sharing with the team.

Topic Description

Good / What went well.

Continue

Bad / Stop What didn’t go well.

Better / Start What could be done better next time.

Best What went so well you want to keep doing it.

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Timing
You can do a retrospective at any time but it’s typically best to have them at set milestones or on a
predetermined cadence to let the team get into a rhythm and make sure you’re not doing them only when
things aren’t going as well as you’d like them to be.

Sprint Retrospective
You should have a retrospective at the end of every sprint (typically every two weeks). These are different than a
Sprint Review and don’t have to take longer than 30 minutes. Use these to assess performance and ways to
optimize your process. That said, only change a 1-3 things at once. You’ll need to test your changes to see if the
hypothesis was correct or not and if you change too many things you won’t know how things are affected.

Project Retrospective
While a Sprint Retrospective is done every other week, you should also have a Project Retrospective once the
project is complete. This allows for larger discussions to happen on an overall project basis and can affect how
future projects are set up, run, and delivered.

Retainer Retrospective
One nuanced situation where retrospectives can be valuable but hard to conduct is for a retainer project where
work is continually getting done but no major milestones are reached. For situations like these you can conduct
monthly retrospectives at a “Sprint” scale along with larger “Project” scale retrospectives each quarter. Doing it
this way allows the team to assess the work and process often enough but not so much that the meetings feel
redundant.

Outcomes
You want your retrospectives to be valuable for the team. Often that’s going to mean giving them space to share
what they believe has been going wrong more so than what went right. That said, if they get too hung up on
negative issues without developing action items to remedy them they can get stuck in a cycle that’s hard to get
away from.

Negative
When mismanaged or run poorly the team can:

● Become resentful
● Miss opportunities for improvement
● Nothing changes

Positive
If run well the team can come away with feelings to:

● Improve personal or team wide process

● Increased ownership over the project and outcome
● Insight into the overall team

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Financials
Cash is what enables a company to be in business and at the end of the day it’s the producer who is responsible
for the budget and to ensure the company is making money.

Factors
While the numbers never lie there is usually some nuance when it comes to getting to the final number you bill
the client and what you report against. Some of the things you’ll have to consider are: what is the client's
budget, are we willing to go in at a lower margin than our standard rate, is this an exciting project, would we get
press / exposure from doing the work, can we reduce the deliverables but still deliver great work in order to
meet their budget, among others. That said, there are a handful of factors you’ll need to be familiar with in order
to assess and responsibly manage your project and your budget.

Cost Rate
The Cost Rate is the internal rate, figured out by the agency’s finance department, necessary to cover the costs
of running the business. It takes into account things like: health insurance, office space, computers / equipment,
etc. for each employee, otherwise known as overhead.

Billable Rate
The Billable Rate are those that the clients see. This rate takes into account the Cost Rate and the Profit, or
Margin, the agency wished to make on each resource.

Margin
The margin is the difference between the Cost and Billable Rates. It’s the profit the agency makes on the work
being done per resource. Often your agency will have a standard margin they aim to hit along with a threshold
necessary to get approval of should the margin look to be less than the standard. In addition to the margin
against each resource, there’s also a standard set by the agency for the total project margin. This margin is also
used to negotiate should the agency and client be misaligned on price or if the agency feels the need to ‘invest’
in a piece of business in order to secure it. The margin is what gives the agency the ability to invest in it’s people,
infrastructure, and provide more resources to the people working there.

Estimated Fees
This is what you’ll bill the client and is based on your best estimate and assumptions for what the project will
require to complete.

Actual Fees
Actuals are what was actually spent to produce a piece of work. Knowing the actual time people are spending on
a piece of business helps inform later negotiations and project plans, along with alerting you if your project is
‘running hot’, or projected to be over budget or if it looks like you’ll be making a better margin than you
anticipated.

Actuals​ equal the ​bill rate​ of the resource ​over the time expended​, including any out-of-pocket or “hard” costs
the agency expects to incur.

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Burn Rate
Your Burn Rate is how quickly you’re depleting your allocated resources. From this you’ll be able to tell if you’re
on track, over budget, or ‘running hot’, or if it looks like you’ll be making a better margin than you anticipated.

While it’s great to be making more money, having a higher margin can also be an indicator of problems as would
having a smaller margin. If you’re expecting a higher margin you need to ensure the work is being done at the
quality and fidelity you and the client expects. If not, it could be that people aren’t doing the work assigned to
them properly.

Also, if you’re burning hot, the best thing you can do is flag it as soon as possible. That way you and the team can
assess what’s causing it and create a plan for working within your new budget constraints. You also don’t want
to have to explain after the fact why you didn’t budget accordingly or say anything during the project.

Reporting
While the report will be the same, different people in the agency will be focusing on different things.

Burn Report
The typical report will include the following information:

Subject: ​[CLIENT] Burn Report | Date

Hello,

The current status of [Project] is as follows:

Budget:

Projected Margin:

Start Date:

End Date:

Time Complete:

% Complete:

Costs:

Actual Margin:

Notes:

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Thank you,

Project Manager / Producer

As the owner of the project you should know what your Burn Rate is and be able to speak to what’s affecting it at
all times.

Executive Producer / Program Director

These people oversee portfolio’s of business and will likely ask for a bi-weekly or monthly report for each
project. They’ll want to know what is affecting the Burn Rate, if you’re tracking toward your projected Margin,
and if there’s anything you foresee that will change how things are going.

Executive Team / CFO

Often they only want to see the overall Margin. Rather than get caught up in the details they want to know
whether or not the business is making money. If things are good they usually don’t have any questions, but
when things aren’t going well you can be sure they’ll want to know exactly what is going on and how it came to
be that way.

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Questions
“To be interesting, be interested.” -- Dale Carnegie

Being a producer / project manager means you need to have the answers when no one else does. Which
sometimes means saying “I don’t know, but I’ll find out” and being able to do that. Producers are often seen as
the “no” person on the team, however, we are the problem-solvers, the ones who investigate and navigate the
rough waters to find a proper solution.

Purpose
While people will look to you to have the answers, to get them you need to know how to ask the right questions.
“You don’t know, what you don’t know” and it’s OK to ask questions.

New Business
As much as a potential new client is evaluating you, you need to be evaluating them as a potential partner.
Understanding their business, competitors, goals, risk tolerance, timeline, budget, etc. to help you determine if
a client will be the right fit for your company and the type of work you do or want to be doing.

● What are your biggest priorities this year?

● What companies do you admire?
● What is driving this initiative?
● How much do you think this is costing you?
● How did you decide to seek outside help?
● Given everything we’ve discussed what would be a helpful follow-up?

Understanding Goals
While there usually always an overarching project goal that’s agreed to by both the client and the agency, there
is a lot of nuance when it comes to the goals for the business and the personal goals for each person involved.
Knowing what they are will be crucial for navigating the delicate relationships and conversations that will come
up during the course of a project.

Business
Different departments will have different goals, you’ll have to determine which ones are in fact the ones you
should be working toward and which ones are nice to have or could be disregarded. Additionally, you need to
consider what your agency's business goals are and how you can work toward them in harmony with the goals
of your client.

● Who really owns this problem?

● Where will future growth come from?
● How will the business change if this is successful?
● What solutions have you tried / what do you want to avoid?
● What organizational resistance might we come up against / have to watch out for?
● What aspects concern you?

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● Is there anything else we should discuss or anyone else we should talk to before finalizing our
approach?

Personal
Each person will have their own goals you should be aware of as well. Often these will go unspoken but may be
influencing a project more than anything else. Personal goals can come from people who are looking for a
promotion or are trying to impress someone else within the organization, or from someone who is worried
about their status in the company. They may want a nice portfolio piece or recognition in some other way. The
key is realizing people from both your agency and your client will have their own goals.

● What do you wish you could spend more time on / what do you wish you could do less of?
● Is there something else you’d like to accomplish?
● If we’re successful with this project, how will it affect your job?

Getting Clarity
Often people will say one thing but mean something else. They’ll do this without even knowing it. Maybe they’re
afraid of sharing the truth, upsetting someone else, or honestly don’t know everything they need to. Which
means it’s up to you to uncover, work through, and get to the real truth of every situation.

● What’s the most important thing we should be discussing today?

● Can you tell me more?
● What have we decided today?
● Is it a yes or a no?

Developing Relationships
People want to work with people they like. It makes it easier, and more importantly, it makes it fun to work
toward a shared goal with people you enjoy being around. This is something you can learn, but there’s no one
size fits all approach.

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Solving Problems
“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.” -- Marcus Aurelius

It’s the producer’s job to solve problems.

Mental Models
Mental Models are how we make sense of the world. And to make sense of it in a useful way you’ll need to be
able to see things and understand them from multiple perspectives. A mental model is a framework for thinking,
and while we each have our own way of starting, we’ll need to apply other models in order to expand our
viewpoint. Basically, you need a latticework of mental models you can pull from that will allow you to draw on
your experience, challenge your assumptions, and think better.

Here are a few you can use to start developing your Mental Model toolkit.

First Principles
A first principle is an assumption that cannot be deduced any further. It is a pure thought or the most basic
element of something. Aristotle defined first principles as “the first basis from which a thing is known.” Based on
facts and logic, first principle thinking removes any bias introduced by an assumption or preconceived notion. It
asks that you break everything down until you can’t go any further. It’s the practice of discovering what we know
to be absolutely true.

First principles is the thinking framework people like Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, Charlie Munger, and Elon
Musk, use to accelerate learning, solve difficult problems and increase creative output.

During an interview with TED curator, Chris Anderson, Elon Musk explained his process and how he applies first
principles when asked what his secret was for achieving so much.

Musk:​ Well, I do think there’s a good framework for thinking. It is physics. You know, the sort of first
principles reasoning. Generally, I think there are — what I mean by that is, boil things down to their
fundamental truths and reason up from there, as opposed to reasoning by analogy. Through most of our
life, we get through life by reasoning by analogy, which essentially means copying what other people do
with slight variations.

Watch the video here: ​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JQXoSmC1rs

The key point isn’t so much what he says to do, as it is what not to do -- reasoning by analogy.

Second Order Thinking

While it’s easy to think one step ahead, Second Order Thinking tells us to think beyond the immediate next
result and consider the overall situation and every possible outcome. Thinking of the second, third, and
fourth(...) reaction allows us to fully think through every decision. By considering what could happen through
multiple layers of a decision you can increase your probability of avoiding decisions that have damaging effects.

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Inversion
We often think of problems from the most logical starting point and work forward. Inversion tells us to invert, or
look at a problem from the opposite direction. This thinking backwards help you remove obstacles by seeing
them before they happen and can reveal new solutions.

Socratic Questioning
Socratic questioning takes critical thinking a step further. Beyond a traditional discussion, Socratic questioning
is a disciplined analysis meant to assess the truth and reveal underlying assumptions. It’s a process fit for
exploring complex ideas, analyzing concepts, and determining what we do and do not know. Typically, Socratic
questioning follows this progression:

1. Clarify what you know​ - What do I believe? Why do I think this?

2. Challenge those assumptions​ - How do I know that’s true?
3. Search for evidence​ - What is similar to this? How can I prove it?
4. Change your perspective​ - What if I thought differently?
5. Think forward​ - What does this affect? What are the consequences?
6. Return to the beginning​ - Was I right? Why did I think that? What did I learn? What do I know now?

Doing this allows you to put your assumptions aside and focus on the facts. By removing judgment you’ll be
more likely to come to a rational conclusion.

The Five Whys

Formally developed by Taiichi Ohno for the Toyota Production System, The Five Whys is used to uncover the
root cause of a problem. Simply, it’s the process of asking “Why” five times, or until there are no more layers to
investigate. Straightforward in execution, by solving a problem from a root cause you give yourself the
advantage of developing both a deeper understanding and likely, a lasting solution.

For more, ​Farnam Street​, has a great overview of Mental Models with a short definition or example for each.

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Individual Habits
“Boring people are busy. Good people are excited.” -- James Nord

These aren’t massive lifestyle changes. Rather, you should be looking to cultivate small habits that have a large
impact on your output and lifestyle.

Focus
You don’t want to be busy, you want to be productive. Being busy means you’re reactive, wasting energy, filling
up time with undirected action and not adding value. Being productive means you’re making progress. That said
you can’t be 100% productive, 100% of the time. So you need to find the time where you’re able to do that
focused, valuable, deep work. Which means you need to make work a ritual. To do this you’ll need to determine
when and where you do your best work and then create the environment most conducive for you. Then, you can
introduce environmental triggers that prime your body and mind to enter a state where you can work at your
optimal state.

The ONE Thing

This is taken straight from the book of the same name and helps you quickly prioritize what you should be
working on by having you ask the question: “What’s the ONE Thing I can do such that by doing it everything else
will be easier or unnecessary?”, and continually asking yourself that each time you complete your ONE Thing.

Getting Things Done (GTD)

Getting Things Done​ is a productivity method meant to focus your work by asking you to:

1. Capture:​ Collect what has your attention

2. Clarify:​ Process what it means
3. Organize:​ Put it where it belongs
4. Reflect:​ Review frequently
5. Engage:​ Simply do

GTD was developed by David Allen and is a way to organize and curate your to-do lists and action items.

Inbox Zero
Get everything out of your inbox. Set up labels so you can easily filter and find the messages you need to without
having to dig for them. If you don’t need to do anything with a particular email, move it to its appropriate folder
and understand it will come back around should any action be required.

Less Than 2min

If something will take less than two minutes, do it immediately. If it will take longer and you can’t get to it in that
moment write it down as an Action Item.

Bullet Journal

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Bullet Journal​ is a note taking framework called “Rapid Logging” which defines how you take notes, identify
tasks, delineate events, and provides a system for how you organize and categorize your notebook. It’s a
method for keeping things be organized, brief, and actionable.

Organization Tools
Like we have project management tools for the team, you too should have your own system that works for you.
For some it may be notebook and sticky notes or others a more formal tool. Often it’s both. A notebook is great
for those quick ideas and notes you need to keep track of throughout the day and a task tracking tool helps you
manage things over time. Also, the digital tool will work across devices and there’s no worry about loosing it.
These all pretty much do the same thing but they feel a bit different, so try them out and use the one you like
best:

● ToDoist
● Evernote
● Apple Notes (this is surprising powerful and useful as a digital notebook)
● Workflowy

Health
If your body is unfit you cannot expect your mind to be sharp.

Cumulative Change
Evolutionary change happens over time and is the result of many small changes compounding over time. Rather
than try to overhaul and commit to a complete new lifestyle all at once, focus on cultivating individual habits
that, over time, have the possibility of creating notable impact.

Athletics
Athletics is about control. Not only of your physical state, but your mind as well. You’re training your mind to
overcome, persevere, and execute with precision. If you’re a runner you’ll know there’s no better feeling than
running through a cramp and coming out the other side knowing you disregarded every impulse telling you to
stop.

Meditate (Take Zen)

Take 10 minutes every day (or as often as you can) to sit with yourself, clear your mind, and be present. Remind
yourself not to be reactive, that you in fact are the one who controls your perception.

Gratitude
None if this would matter if you didn’t have a team working with you (for you) doing the actual work. You owe it
to them to do your job well and recognize their work. Thank them, and not only when they complete a
deliverable.

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Leave
If you’ve made yourself so indispensable to your team they can’t get any work done without you you’ve done
your job wrong. You should always be working to put yourself out of a job so you can work on more valuable
things. Furthermore, leave work at work. They don’t need you as much as you think they do.

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Essential Reading
“Fools learn from experience. I prefer to learn from the experience of others.” -- Otto von Bismarck

While nothing beats actual experience, there is only so much you can do on your own. Which is why reading is so
important. Books are cheat codes. You can be exposed to new perspectives and get the highlights and
cautionary tales from people who’ve already done the same things you’re trying to do in a relatively quick, 2-4
hour time commitment.

Productivity & process

The ONE Thing​ by Gary Keller [Book]
The Lean Startup​ by Eric Ries [Book]
SPRINT​ by Jake Knapp [Book]

Negotiation & relationships

Never Split The Difference​ by Chris Voss [Book]
Power Questions​ by Andrew Sobel [Book]
Captivate​ by Vanessa Van Edwards [Book]

Health & fitness

Own The Day, Own Your Life​ by Aubrey Marcus [Book]

Business & strategy

Blue Ocean Strategy​ by W. Chan Kim [Book]
Zero to One​ by Peter Thiel [Book]
The Fish That Ate The Whale​ by Rich Cohen [Book]
The Score Takes Care of Itself​ by Bill Walsh [Book]
BOYD​ by Robert Coram [Book]
Perennial Seller​ by Ryan Holiday [Book]
The Obstacle is The Way​ by Ryan Holiday [Book]
The Hard Thing About Hard Things​ by Ben Horowitz [Book]

Articles & further reading

You’re hired, but first, some rules​ by James Nord [Article]
Charisma As Natural As Gravity​ by Christopher Nolan [Article]
Makers Schedule, Managers Schedule​ by Paul Graham [Article]

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Thank You.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you. We wrote this playbook to help the people responsible for the success of
their teams be successful themselves. We think the more people that know this stuff and can implement it, the
better.

These are things we’ve learned at agencies and now as ​a Strategy, UX / UI Design, and Development studio
where we help young companies go from zero to one and established companies innovate quickly. We believe in
small teams of 3-5 who are nimble and are able to adapt to the changing market while maintaining a vision
consistent with our partners goals and objectives. Overall we expect ourselves and the people we work with to:

Be Bold. Be Different. Be Useful. Be Valuable.

If, as you were reading through this though of a team or someone you know who could benefit from what we put
together here the best thing you can do is to share it with them.

Further, if you want more resources, insights, strategy sign up for our ​Newsletter​ here where we publish new
articles each week.

Would love for you to join us.

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