How to Run a Vaudeville Project
Comprehensive overview of Vaudeville projects and how to run them.
Standard Process
Business Development Sets Up Asana Template, Which Covers:
Create a shareable Google Drive folder to house all project files
Review and finalize staffing plan
Assign a project code and add it to the project code sheet
Add the project in Harvest and assemble team for time tracking
Project Startup Tasks
Create a Project Plan based on SOW, deliverables & activities
Develop a Project Tracker/Timeline (Gantt chart style)
Plan internal + client kick-off sessions to review scope and resources
Running the Project
Hold internal kickoff
Hold client kick-off
Determine recurring stand-up and status meetings, run throughout the project
Create a Deliverables Tracker to capture all work and keep it updated
Determine format and set up Weekly & Monthly Status Reports, send them out throughout the project
After the Project
Hold a post-mortem session
Tools and Support Docs
Google Drive
Purpose: The purpose of a shared drive is for all project materials to be house in one central place. Folders should be created and named for easy access and understanding. Set-Up
This can be a shared drive with clients as well as VV staff and vendors/partners.
Naming structures: start to follow with consistency and the team needs to align on that still - we name files very differently across teams, I am trying to fix that. We should at the very least have a structure as follows:
CLIENT (main client folder with multiple projects)
CLIENT_PROGRAM (Project folder)
CLIENT_PROGRAM_PROJECT_File Description_Date (file within project work streams)
General folder name examples to get a project started:
Contracts & agreements ◦ Meeting notes & agendas
Brand positioning & naming ◦ Design assets
Project plans ◦ Research
Background materials (from client)
Harvest
Purpose: Keeping track of all active and potential projects in the pipeline, and assigning the right team members and hours reporting for.
Set-Up
Each project will be set up with a VV Project code, entered into Harvest accordingly where all VV team member can track their weekly hours across the project and the tasks assigned
Hours should be entered either daily or at least weekly, and submitted into Harvest every Monday at Noon for the week prior.
Weekly reports
Asana
Purpose: Asana lets you know who is doing what, and by when. Communication is focused and actionable and you’ll always know the status of work happening across your team. Spend less time talking about work, and more time actually getting it done.
Set-Up
Between status meetings, scheduling conflicts and never-ending email chains, a lot of your time at work isn’t focused on work. Asana lets you know who is doing what, and by when.
Each team should assign an Asana admin who helps keep the project in check as soon as the project kick-off (or sooner!)
Task owners need to keep up on their tasks and update Asana with notes, comments, or status/date changes - or let the Asana keeper know all updates.
Project Plan
Purpose: A project plan lays out all the ways in which we will deliver on our scope of work, and should include activities, meetings and deliverables in a tabled timeline. That way, we stay on track!
Set-Up
After a kick-off session, the team lead takes the scope of work and puts it into a project plan draft.
Team members will be assigned to certain activities in the table & timeline
Examples of different Project Plans:
EBSCO - Visual Calendar outlook - great for executives
Project Trackers
Purpose: Tracking status and reporting across all work streams across large and small projects. This is where we can start to identify risks, and issues for specific tasks, personnel or resources.
Set-Up
We have used various formats for project trackers across teams. (depending on the keeper + audience) tp track work and developments across different work streams.
Various tracker examples we have used in the past and current:
Margaritaville - past project, worked well for multiple work streams (client + VV use)
MGM Stargate - active and very robust across multiple workstreams (mostly VV internal use)
LightWorkers - this example was developed for client to adopt and use (client + VV use)
Deluxe (Gant-style Project Tracker) - a robust template developed for a client to adopt
Staffing Plan
Purpose: Creating a staffing plan and resources sheet frames out the project across weekly hours and roles/resources and can help in budgeting service hours for entire projects.
Set-Up
We can determine whether we share these to clients -- sometimes we may keep for internal use - regardless, staffing plans are allow us to frame out our people and resources, hours and project needs - and we can revisit them as projects move forward
At 2 weeks in - review staffing plane
Deliverables Tracker
Purpose: What better way to track all the work we do, but to put it in a deliverables tracker. These work great both for internal and client-facing purposes.
In order to track all the work we do, we record the work we put out the door - that way we can easily take credit for the time we spent on important initiatives & strategy, design, and business deliverables for our clients.
Here's an example of a general deliverables tracker:
Weekly and Monthly Reporting
Purpose: Each work week should end with a status report to clients of all active projects. A middle- to end-of-day report in the form of a bulleted email, document or deck should outline progress, status and next steps across all active work streams in order to show movement across the team and all initiatives.
We have used various formats (depending on the keeper + audience). We will plan to make this more standardized across teams with help of leadership team and strategy leads.
And we should discuss what Weekly vs Monthly status reports look like (doc vs. deck format, etc.)
Here are some recent examples:
MGM LightWorkers - standard doc
MGM Stargate - email format to executive level contacts
Comcast Watchable - deck format
Note Taking
Notes should include the following and be posted in relevant Slack channel:
Who is in the room (and their roles)
The bulk of the conversation and the speakers for individual lines
Open questions
Action items / next steps (usually bolded)
Managing the Calendar
It’s essential to be a hawk with the calendar. Every day should begin with a sweep of the day, and week.
In general
Keep team’s calendars flipped open to view their schedules so you maintain a macro view of bandwidth and resourcing issues.
The Michaels (Wolfson and Fogarty) and Taylor are the hardest to keep track and knowing the flow of their day (and even week) will be helpful for maintaining project rhythms and momentum.
Protect working sessions and client meetings for your projects (and be sensitive to the needs of other teams for resourcing) so get ahead of it by keeping an eye on VV goings-on
Stand-Ups
Each project should have a daily standup calendar slot. In the beginning, you need a 30 minute slot every day to whiteboard the week and day’s deliverables.
Internal Meetings
When a project kicks off, it’s good to defend a number of calendar slots for internal working sessions. Be specific with titling meetings. Some use cases for internal working sessions could be: client meeting prep, deck work, ideation for marketing or product, GTM strategy, travel planning and beyond.
External Meetings
When a project kicks off, make sure you have at least one (if not more) weekly meeting on the calendar with your main client, and anyone junior who is crucial to their team (they usually have a deputy or two who needs to be looped into VV’s work). These sessions should have an agenda (outlined later in this doc) and be followed up with recap notes for team transparency.
Project Cadence
Kick-Offs
Purpose: Every project begins with a dedicated kickoff meeting. These are usually 90 minutes to 2 hours, and are an opportunity for both teams (client/Vaudeville) to meet and get to know each other, outline roles/responsibilities, and begin discussing the landscape of the project (including a table read of the SOW, regrouping on the project’s background, outlining success, and agreement how to work together effectively).
The Project + Client, explain the reason it exists, how it stands now, what the end result is (success!) and the known risks.
Your Team: explain each area of the project and which of your team members will be responsible for each
Deliverables: Explain the deliverables associated with each area, why they exist and what needs to happen to make them a reality.
The Insight: Leave time and space for your team to suggest ideas, challenge your plan, and come up with a better way of working.
The Process: Talk over the project, how it will work, what tools will be used, the flow of communication, meeting cadence, regular client sessions and updates.
Plan Client Kick-Off Session accordingly: Base agenda on insights from this session and team feedback.
Producer is in charge of:
Scheduling this session
Creating the agenda + getting internal buy in before circulating to the client
Capturing notes + action items during the meeting
Sending a recap note
Weekly Meetings
Every project needs weekly client time. You’re in charge of setting up the slots (typically we have 1x standing meeting with additional to get booked as needs arise) and making sure the team is briefed for the discussions, as well as for information capture (see above).
Reporting (see tools section)
Wrap-Up
It’s here that we check results against the quality targeted milestones, ensuring that all objectives have been met within planned times, and analyse budget outcomes. You then report results to senior management and other interested parties, giving full recognition to staff for achievement.
Raising Red Flags
Raising red flags (about internal and external events) is crucial to success in this role. There are a number of situations where raising concern will be a game changer, listing some situations below as reference points:
Double bookings; see calendar section
Team travel
As of late, we have a number of projects across the US (Boston, Philly, Denver, LA) so it’s also important to block out travel early and often. If your clients are not in New York, get ahead of travel by asking Michael, Taylor and the client when travel should be happening. Put holds on the calendar whenever needed and check in with EA on double bookings and travel arrangements to make sure nothing is cropping up last minute. Last minute travel for your individual projects will also rock the rest of the team’s work and cause things to be rescheduled across the board so take care to be mindful of your needs and the rest of the team. Ideally, planning for travel would be happening a month in advance of actual events. That will be difficult to organize given how spontaneous the calendar can be, but try for it!
Getting off track from the SOW
If a project is progressing and has deviated from the activities, deliverables outlined - raise the flag. At the end of an engagement, assume that a client or legal office (or some senior stakeholder) will be holding this up with a red pen, to discern whether everything outlined has been delivered. Use this as a guiding light as you move forward, and make sure that the timeline and items outlined are being met. If they are not, call a meeting with senior team to discuss and make sure that you bring it back to center. Clients at Vaudeville run the gamut from free and easy to completely linear and Type A; assume that you should always be buttoned up and getting ahead of their diligence with reviewing the contract (e.g. your ass is grass if these items are not met so be thorough, always always). And if the items have changed or are different, set a meeting with the senior team to ensure that someone is informing the client and refactoring their expectations so they are plugged into how the scope has changed. Communication is key and no one likes a surprised and/or unhappy client.
Not making enough progress on strategy/deliverables
To the point about the SOW, do a weekly or bi-weekly check in with the paperwork to make sure that you’re moving forward appropriately. This is especially important for very short project timelines (one-three months) where the deliverables are hard hitting and quick, Make sure you’ve set enough internal calendar time to keep things moving forward swiftly, with client reviews happening frequently.
Lack of communication internally
Communication is a key ingredient to success, across the board, at Vaudeville. A key part of the Producer role is forcing conversation (delicately!) to make sure that all the relevant internal/external stakeholders are synced up. This requires a deft touch and tracking with the day to day threads of progress (or lack thereof). Make sure that you are nudging conversation between Michael/Taylor/Senior Team (even if they aren’t in the day to day, they should be aware of any red flags, client changes, or needs) and booking time for conflicts to be hashed out. It’s important that there is internal agreement about deliverables, workflow, resourcing etc. before going into the room with the client. Set internal working sessions for specific items with the project name delineated e.g. 9-10am, “Craftsy [the project] internal: discuss CMS needs”.
Getting Ahead of Client Asks
Understanding your clients and their needs is essential to success. They will run the spectrum from crazy demanding and a bit intimidating to warm, friendly, and engaging (and everything in between). Remember that their stress or anxiety is mostly due to the conflicts of their positions, and should be met with level headedness and a can-do attitude. VV specializes in client therapy; we are here to listen and problem solve, not to add chaos. Pay attention to the likes and dislikes of your clients. Do they prefer to talk daily, or weekly? Morning or afternoon? What timezone are they, and what is most convenient for them? Do they want to lead the discussion or do they prefer that you have a strong agenda they can simply respond to? There are nuances to every client-Vaudeville relationship but the more you listen and anticipate their needs, the better off you will be. And make sure that you are aligning with Michael, Taylor and senior team here. They will rely on you to understand the client and their personality and to keep a close and open line of communication even if they are pulled into other projects.
Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is your best friend and is something to be highly valued in this position. Working with clients, and with prickly, brilliant and mercurial creatives (internal and external) means that emotional intelligence is your foundation and best friend. Without this - everything is chaos. What do I mean by emotional intelligence? I’m talking about reading a room - understanding when to jump in, when to hold back, when to impose structure, and when to let things roll. A few notes on managing individual team members, with an eye towards emotional intelligence and their personal preferences (which I’ve learned over time).
Best Practices with Individual Team Members
Best Practices for Working with Michael
Set creative brainstorms in the morning, exclusively. Creative spitballing will be difficult for him after a full day of meetings and client asks; get ahead of this by booking time when he is fresh (he will appreciate this and give you what you need much more quickly).
Give context before jumping into a meeting. Reiterate the name of the client, the ask, and what you hope to get done during the meeting time. He can revise as he wants, but it will be helpful to give this framework so he can riff from there (instead of trying to put the pieces together).
Push back. Michael is the absolute best. Full stop. He is also a button pusher. He will challenge your assumptions and your facts, and will force you to backup your opinions. Don’t be afraid to do that. Be polite, be firm, and stick to your guns. If you disagree with his interpretation of an ask, or with his opinion or reasoning, play devil’s advocate. This back and forth is all in service of nailing it for the client. As the backbone of the project, it’s your job to be the point of record and make sure that you can always stand behind the work process, deliverables, and client communications. Do what you need to ensure that this is true, including arguing with MW when appropriate :)
Best Practices for Working with Taylor
Bring your A-game. Taylor is hyper-organized. He is also continuously switching between a zillion things. As with MW, he needs context about the goals/objectives of a project - and more granularly - a meeting or working session. Be your most buttoned up self. This means getting ahead of the calendar, anticipating where the red flags will be, being punctual, being clear, keeping a level head, and bringing your best thinking at all moments. Sloppiness, irregularity, being late or uncommunicative are not going to fly. You should be three steps ahead of his needs at any given moment.
Best Practices for Working with Jack
Be concise. Jack is a task-master (she says lovingly). He’s very into efficiency and organization. Come with a tight agenda of objectives and items for discussion, and run through the list smoothly. It’s about precision, getting to the point, and capturing the action items here.
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