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sperkins

Four things to do to ensure project success.

Published by Stephanie Perkins on May 12, 2010.

In this industry (as in others) there are a million ways for projects to become delayed, derailed or just plain dead in the water.  In my experience, implementing the four steps below greatly increases the chance your project will launch on time, on budget, and on strategy:

  1. Define the strategic imperatives upfront. Make sure all key players in the project are believers of the strategy, and understand why it’s important/tied back to an overall organizational or marketing goal.  This will help prevent derailment and help stakeholders become invested in the project’s outcome.  This is also a key moment to define a measurement plan.
  2. Include key stakeholders in the development of a deliverables-based project plan. Hold an internal review to cover off on all steps, dependencies, resources and staffing required, as well as financials and deliverables at each stage of the project plan.  Make sure all parties are comfortable with the time they are allotted for their deliverables. Once project players agree on how and when a project will be executed, they are more likely to adhere to the project plan.
  3. Hold a weekly touch-base with the team on the project. In this touch-base, have key stakeholders report in on the status of their task at hand as well as communicate upcoming deadlines and responsibilities to all members of the team.  Stakeholders are more likely to hold themselves accountable in this group scenario.  This is also an opportune time to communicate changes in project scope, discuss deviations from strategic imperatives, and revisit the project plan to ensure the project is tracking appropriately.
  4. Have a postmortem. While that sounds grim, there is as much to learn about what went wrong (or right) with a project. Use this time to both celebrate project successes as well as uncover pain points for the project and an understanding of what didn’t go quite as smoothly.  Take these learnings into consideration for future projects – more often than not you’ll find insights on how to ensure project success in the future!
Categories: New ideas and approaches
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jhodroge

Better digital starts with collaboration

Published by Jennifer Hodroge on April 30, 2010.

The interactive visual aid, more commonly known as the IVA, is undergoing a revolution.

The IVA, a primary sales force tool, used to be a direct copy of the printed sales aid. Now we’re taking advantage of all the digital space has to offer to create an interactive, relevant story for our audience. We’re thinking about how our audience gets  information. We’re still presenting straight charts and data, but we’re also including new snapshots of data, some that are interactive and some that are animated. Information presented in a new way that hits home for a physician, encourages the sales rep and physician to have a better conversation.

To get there, it meant changing our way of doing things.

In the past, we may not have discovered until the final approval process that a piece didn’t meet certain legal or regulatory standards, standards that continually evolve. However in this case, we began with collaboration. We started talking with our legal and regulatory counterparts at the concepting stage. We brought them in at the beginning, sharing our mindset. Of course we always had the medical point of view; but, it was helpful to share our creative goals early and often with our full team.

With consistent involvement of all parts of the team, the hurdles became much less, because everyone was in on it from the beginning, no surprises. We were not the only part of the team that was eager for the project to succeed. Everyone had a stake in the success. The team had a good understanding of what we were trying to accomplish creatively, so they provided feedback that helped us get there.

Extending connectivity to more stakeholders.

Now, as we begin to plan for future projects involving the IVA, Jeff Stauffer, VP, Digital Strategy at GSW Worldwide believes that in the near future, we can look forward to a lot more connectivity. He says that with the introduction of the iPad and other similar hardware, the digital game will change. Reps will have an easier time handling the hardware, for one. Physicians could enjoy real-time connectivity.

Real-time connectivity for the IVA could mean that as a rep talks with a physician during a sales call, they’d be online and maybe also see that a thought leader is also online. A real-time conversation could happen – creating interactive connections between people, on demand. We have Skype and webcams. A global, mobile conversation could take place at just the right time and place for all the participants.

Of course this type of connectivity brings with it a whole new set of concerns. Being able to openly discuss these concerns with the whole team will help bring new ways of thinking – about how the IVA could work -to life. Taking the time to put all parts of the team in a room (even if it’s virtual) to discuss the goals and desired outcomes will help us get there sooner, all while delivering the best creative.

Categories: Healthcare marketing innovations
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Kelley

Let the individual speak through the crowd

Published by Kelley Smilkstein on April 26, 2010.

“Know the value of the end-user and know the value of just listening.”

-Ben Heywood

In a recent article on how social media can help pharma advertisers connect, Ben Heywood, co-founder and president of PatientsLikeMe.com, highlighted not only how important it is for a patient to be able to voice his or her personal experience in a nonjudgmental setting, but also how valuable it can be for the companies that serve those individuals to actually listen.

As an editor at GSW Woldwide, one of my primary tasks is to keep an independent perspective as I evaluate the material that will be presented to HCPs and eventually filtered through to consumers. As part of that role, I am often (and rightly so) left out of the creative process. The team needs me to see their work from an outsider’s perspective.

So imagine my delight to hear that the guys and gals upstairs (or rather, the creatives down the hall) were inviting anyone in the company to brainstorm ideas for an upcoming pitch. The outsider in me, the serious, to-the-letter regulation abider in me, would get the chance for one afternoon to say what I thought, not just what the rules of grammar, design, and regulatory agencies dictated.

A shop that creates a truly team atmosphere – where each individual, no matter in which department he or she sits  can have the chance to participate – is a shop whose work looks less like a tired cookie-cutter on a conveyor belt and reflects more of what the consumer needs: simplicity, honesty, a touch of humor. A perspective that matters.

Regardless of whether my ideas made it to the end, I know that I’ve been heard. Likewise, as consumers, as patients, or as providers, having a sense that the crowd is made up of individuals, well, there’s real value in that.

Categories: New ideas and approaches
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