#3 | One Team, One Dream: The Game-Changing Effect of Dedicated Project Teams

I am a big believer that dedicated, cross-functional teams can change the entire outcome of a project.

In my experience, these dream teams have 3 main benefits:

• The team has ownership of the project and is 100% invested in the success of the engagement.

• Better allocation of talent because there’s less time to coordinate with functional managers across multiple teams or departments.

• High level of expertise and familiarity with the project’s goals and requirements.

I recommend EVERYONE start revisiting dedicated teams for large-scale initiatives.

Let’s look at some familiar staffing approaches for large-scale projects and see if you can picture how your organization would function with each.

How to Staff

Product Team Structure

This is where employees from product teams are assigned to work on projects temporarily. They balance their project responsibilities with product team goals respectively. It’s important to state the project is a different set of work items than the product they have ownership over.

Matrixed Team Structure

Similar to a product team structure, employees from different functional areas are assigned to work on projects temporarily. They balance their project responsibilities with regular departmental duties.

Outsourcing, Co-Sourcing, or Staff Augmentation

Companies may outsource certain project tasks or even the entire project to external agencies or contractors with specialized expertise. This option can be cost-effective and provides access to a broader talent pool.

Taskforces or Squads

Temporary teams are assembled to address specific issues or opportunities. They consist of subject matter experts and stakeholders who come together to work on a defined task or problem.

Dedicated Project Teams

Companies can assemble dedicated teams solely focused on a specific project. These teams consist of members with complementary skills and expertise, working together from project initiation to completion.

Hybrid

This is when companies add a little ✨sprinkle sprinkle✨ to life and combine aspects from two or more approaches outlined above.

There are more, but these are the main ones I see over and over - regardless of industry or company size.

How would you staff your project?

You’re gonna love me for this, but it depends. (It wouldn’t be fun if you had all the answers 😎).

Here are some things to think through before you allocate your dream team to your next big thing:

• How complex is this project?

• What specific skills do we need to rock this project?

• How much money do we have to put together a dream team?

• How tight is the schedule? When do we need to get this done?

• Do we have any funky legal or contractual rules we gotta keep in mind while putting our crew together?

• Are we looking for local heroes or can we open this up to top global top talent?

• What’s the risk tolerance? How much can we roll with the punches?

• Do we need any superstars we don’t have in-house?

• Have we done something similar before? How did we tackle the team-building part? Did it work?

• What could go wrong and how can we steer clear of trouble?

Pro-tips

• If the work is less than 100 days, don’t worry about most of this. Give it to a scrappy but talented product team as an enhancement.

• If the work is more than 100 days but less than six months, consider a mostly dedicated squad or task force. I use “mostly” because even when people are re-allocated temporarily, they’re still expected to be semi-available for other stuff. Do yourself a favor and forecast this completion date at 50% allocation regardless of what people say they can commit to.

• For complex projects - especially those that will take more than a year, consider a dedicated project team with members who have complementary skills and expertise. Don’t forecast a completion date beyond 80% allocation. During the summers and big holidays drop it down to 70%.

• Identify the specific skills needed for the project and allocate resources accordingly. If you’ve never done the project before, make sure you allocate time for discovery BEFORE you kick off.

• If the budget is super tight and there’s an appetite for risk, consider bringing in top-tier global talent. Allocate additional time for onboarding.

• Evaluate past team-building experiences and learn from them to improve future projects.

If you start pitching your leaders on dedicated project teams, let me know - I’d love to connect with you (and answer any questions you have getting started!)

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