Starting your digital project? Begin with a project canvas.

Why are you starting this digital project? What existing (or new) need does it fulfill? Is the project necessary, and if so, why is it necessary? In short: what is the core reason for developing this product?

An end user is the person who will use the digital product you create. For a CRM, these are internal employees; for a new website, there are two groups: your audience who visits the website and the employee who fills and maintains the site. Both have requirements and wishes for using the new digital product.

When starting a digital project, it is important to gather needs within your organization and from (other) end users. This may sound obvious, but external end users are often overlooked.

Tip: A good way to capture the needs of end users (in the project canvas) is by using user stories. Learn more about user stories.

What existing problems will you solve with this digital project? It often sounds negative to label something as 'problems,' but use the process of identifying problems to involve people in the lead-up to this new digital solution and excite them: this will solve something for you (this benefits you later: people feel more involved)! Writing it out helps you distinguish requirements and wishes, providing a good foundation to get started.

How do you translate needs into goals that you can later say: it worked? 'Measuring is knowing' is not a saying for nothing: translate needs into SMART goals.

SMART:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Acceptable
• Realistic
• Time-bound

First look at your organizational strategy: what role do you want to fulfill? What problem or opportunity underlies it, and how does the digital project contribute to your organization's mission?

A good and relevant question is: how does it actually fit into your digital strategy at all, and does it align? How do you view digital in (the future of) your organization?

No digital strategy yet? High time to develop one. From your organization's goals, you look at the digital tools you currently have, the needs, and the opportunities that exist. DEN offers an e-learning (self-study) and InCompany workshop (internally for multiple people in your organization) for digital strategy. 

The final part of the project canvas is noting the conditions to make the project a success. Think of things like: clear goals and a clear link with your mission, sufficient budget, a realistic timeline, clear governance, and clear agreements about management, support to actually use the product for people within your organization, good collaboration with the external party, and so on. Can't figure it out? Reverse it: what could ensure this project fails? These, then rephrased positively, are the conditions.