When you’re working on a start-up, detailed planning is incredibly difficult. No matter what type of project you’re working on, I suggest you set 10-14 key milestones that are critical to you achieving your project.

Milestones are specific things that need to be achieved at specific points in time.

So, if you’re working on setting up a t-shirt company, example milestones might be:

1. Website wireframes and design finalized – 10 March
2. Website development complete and live – 4 April
3. Facebook split testing complete – 30 April

The delivery of a project is a long and difficult process – setting realistic milestones makes things much more achievable.

Some general tips on setting milestones for a start-up project:

1. Milestones need to be actions within your control, not outcomes ie. you shouldn’t set a milestone to sell 10k units by x date. Rather the milestone should be focused on what you need to complete to get that expected outcome – for example: Round 1 of split testing complete with website optimization tasks complete
2. Milestones need to be achievable. It’s critical that milestones are challenging but achievable. Not hitting milestones puts your project at risk, it’s also hugely demoralizing.
3. Always hit your milestones, whatever it takes. Every single milestone, every single time. Completing things is a habit. Missing milestones should never ever happen. Once you commit to this, you really become a project manager. Web developer a bit flakey, have you worried? Get someone else. Designs running behind schedule? Ask the designers to stay late. You start to watch for all these risks around the corners and totally focus on hitting each milestone.
4. Don’t assume everything will go perfectly. Back to how realistic your dates are. Stuff always goes wrong – don’t plan for a fair wind and everyone to work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. People get sick, first versions need changes, etc.
5. Make sure your milestones are critical to the project delivery. It’s easy to focus on the nice to have but make sure your milestones are all absolutely critical, if they’re not critical, they’re not a key milestone.
6. Put your key milestones on a single slide. Make a simple slide with the expected deliverable and the required date. Share it and put it everywhere. track each milestone as Red, Amber, Green or Not started throughout the project. Update each status at least once a week – it’ll help you stay focussed.

I hope this is of help.