The word “Discover” is a verb meaning to find something or someone unexpectedly or in the course of a search to uncover something, come across, stumble on, bring to light. Synonyms mean to learn, realize, recognize or dig up.
We have recently been writing a lot about “Steps to Discovery” for clients. The first step we talked about involved unlearning what we already know in order to uncover something new. The second step we discussed defining what we discovered. The third step to discovery for a client is about planning and executing from all that we have learned, realized, or dug up!
People Plan: A people plan starts with your team’s structure and then augments it with a T3 Expo Eventgineer team. Each one is dedicated and matched to a particular individual and is designed to perfectly align to them and the team. From this structure you know who your “go-to” people are, and our Eventgineers learn whom to ask for in order to make the event easier to navigate for everyone – and reduce any extra work. We ensure that the account leads know the work outline, and that objectives are aligned between us.
Project Plan: From the work outline of people married to process, we create the timeline of events needed to execute the event. This includes what are the milestone and goals we need to meet to ensure success.
The genius of Sherlock Holmes was to pay attention to the little minute details that poor Watson found to obvious to be relevant, so he ignored them. This type of discovery becomes critical to the invention of something new with the client.
Trust Plan: Trust your senses. If you feel you are off the mark, you probably are. Go back and ask questions. Your trust plan must account for insight and intuition. Insight is the deep understanding of the nature of things, the capacity to see the potential in things and where you can take it. Intuition is that flash of knowing something before it happens—it is your gut talking to you!
Customer Journey Plan: After the plan is created and delivered to the customer, a dedicated Eventgineer is aligned to the stakeholders identified during our Discovery process. It starts with feedback on the plan, and then working briefs against the items identified in the plan. T3 Expo makes this process come to life through scrums that include constant refinement of the plan through scoping work, reviewing, giving feedback and developing the respective initiatives. If something is deemed out of scope or requires a change that was not in the original project plan, we set it up for review, adjust timelines and re-prioritize work and budget. We then adapt the plan to incorporate it into the event. This all occurs within T3 Central, our industry leading project management tool, and our face-to-face meetings that we have with our clients. So we are all the same journey together!
PM Handoff Plan: Think of the project manager (PM) as a mini-CEO -- they have a full view of the entire project. Make sure to fully communicate your learnings together, and for them to share their learning with you as well.
Remember to never stop learning about the client. Discovery never ends and is continually evolving. It should be throughout the planning and execution process.