There’s quite a lot of bullsh*t around project management – over the past 10 years there has been more focus on managing risk than on project delivery. There are some really helpful techniques though that can really help you deliver your start-up:

1. Set clear objectives at the start. Sounds obvious but it’s critical. While you can spend all the time you like working on business plans, specifications, etc., when you’re finished, make sure to summarize the objectives into a single slide in plain English. Share it with your team Regularly, it really helps keep the focus.
2. Identify KPI’s (key performance indicators) early and monitor them constantly. Once you’ve identified your objectives, identify the key metrics that are going to help you deliver these objectives – this can be tricky to do but it’s critical. Monitoring your performance against these KPI’s will help keep the focus on delivery.
3. Set a delivery timescale. Projects require a delivery date. It sounds obvious but most start-up’s I’ve seen don’t identify what they want to have delivered by when. Make sure the timescale is achievable but challenging.
4. Identify key delivery milestones. Project managers are obsessed with project plans, I suggest you should really focus on mapping out your key milestones (things you’re going to have have achieved) by certain dates. You can go as detailed as you like on the plan but I suggest no more than 12 key milestones for any project. If you miss any, you need to recover and get back on course.
5. Use RAG (Red, Amber, Green) Status indicators. For each milestone, assign a RAG status. There are variants of what these colors mean but I suggest the following
   Green: On track for delivery by required date
   Amber: Behind schedule but should be able to recover, overall project delivery timeline not at significant risk.
   Red: Overall project timeline at significant risk. Immediate action required to recover the project.

Incorporating these 5 project techniques should help any Start-Up deliver within the required time.