The Five Ws and one H of Digital Signage Project Management Personnel: Who, What, When, Where, Why, How?
With the Digital Signage Expo just around the corner, I am always eager to see who has the brightest, shiniest object in the room. I also wonder if we will see more screens than people, because this is about technology.
But what’s important to remember is that human input is the foundation of all technology. Every device on the floor is the result of incalculable hours of human productivity.
The groundwork for human input is in project management. What gives digital signage a unique position is the amount of expertise needed because of the various components needed, from technology to content to measurement to leadership.
No single person can do it all. Wirespring’s Bill Gerba wrote that
An expert is someone widely recognized as being highly skilled in his or her art. And because of the broad range of industries that digital signage touches, there are plenty of digital signage industry experts, digital signage technology experts, digital signage advertising experts and even digital signage project experts. But I can count on one hand the number of people who I would genuinely consider to be across-the-board digital signage experts.
He’s absolutely right. You’re going to need a team.
Even with the variables, there is no formula that relates scope to team size. But it’s worth considering. Regardless of the person, it’s time and money here. When I am on a project, I like to apply the journalistic “5 Ws and 1 H” model to figure out a team that will bring the network to fruition.
Who is part of the team to deploy the network, and why?
I’m mixing two Ws here because the Why is the driver of Who. You pick someone because he is an expert at a particular discipline. Usually there are a couple of levels of management with a project - the leadership, and the management. At the leadership level, you’ll find mostly champions and decision makers, those responsible for writing checks and saying yes or no. At the management level, you’ll find those who will be in meetings, doing site surveys, digging through research, and drawing up storyboards.
As the project develops a scope and areas of required expertise, the right personnel will rise up as important to the project in both long-term and short-term needs.
What will each person contribute?
Complementing Bill’s thoughts, every person brings a unique experience to the table. In the project outline, the needs of the network execution will dictate the skillset, and therefore the contributions of the personnel. For example, if you plan to deploy a wireless solution over a specific bandwidth, you will have an expert in wireless communication help drive that part of the project.
Where and When will these people be needed in the project?
Mixing my Ws again, but they go together. The project timelines will dictate how and when people are used. A kickoff meeting at the beginning of the project followed by emails of progress may be the only communication some members have until their expertise is needed. Consider the rollout of a network. They’re at the kickoff, part of the communication, but don’t really spring into action until the end of the project.
How are you, the project leader, going to make this work?
The 5 Ws give you perspective on how leadership makes this work. As a project manager, it’s much less about the output (the network) and more about the input (human capital). Theodore Roosevelt said, “ The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.”
The right team is critical. All the research in the world has no value if the right people are not in place to take that research and use it.
Paul Flanigan
