Week 1 – Project Planning

This month, I am going to be tackling an Operations project for a quilt shop called The Quilted Windmill. This is my week one update of this month-long project. 

In this small business, like most small businesses, everything is institutional knowledge. The owner and employees have all the procedures and systems in their brains. New employees have to be trained to do the same. When an employee leaves, they take information with them. 

This is a difficult truth when a new system is added. Consistency is lost because employees have to rely on themselves to remember. They also have systems on paper that would be easier to manage online. They need somewhere to keep information, systems, and procedures. A place to keep things consistent no matter the employee’s knowledge. That’s what I am going to build. 

This month I am going to be:

• Gathering and organizing information
• Creating an easy to manage system
• Managing a large project
• Building a system that can be added to overtime
• Documenting my work 

What Have I Done This Week?

This week I laid out my plan for my project. I planned what I needed to do each week of this month. I chose Trello as my project management system. I’ll be doing a walkthrough video on that next week. 

I talked to the owner of the quilt shop. I wanted to see if this management system is something that would really solve problems and add value to the business. She agreed that it would be beneficial. I created a landing page for this project and started documenting my progress!

What Did I Do Well?

I was very thorough with the steps I need to complete each week. Using Trello, I added checklists within the tasks to clearly pave the way for this project. I talked to the owner of The Quilted Windmill. I stated what problems I wanted to solve and what system I wanted to use to solve them. It was beneficial to see what elements I thought were needed and which ones weren’t. I can now make adjustments accordingly. 

What Could Be Improved?

The due dates on my project management are vague. This next week, I am going to be more specific with when I want tasks completed. 

What I’ll Be Doing Next Week 

Next week I’ll be focusing on:

• Brainstorming any new sub-pages
• Adding steps and answers to those sub-pages
• Documenting my progress
• Making a Trello project management walkthrough video
• Posting my progress
• Updating the SOP for the system I’m building
• Updating my landing page
• Week 2 update post!

Want to see my full project? Check out my landing page here!