Project management requires a wide spectrum of skills, organizational abilities, and attention to detail to make sure everything moves forward according to plan. A good project manager is able to keep all the plates spinning in sync while making it appear effortless at the same time.

However, the more plates you have spinning at once, the harder this is to accomplish. Critical path method (CPM) is one of the tools project managers can use to create a comprehensive plan and organize complex projects with many moving parts.

In this Process Street post, I’ll take you through the CPM process step-by-step, and then show you how our templates and checklists can take some of the stress out of your project management.

Read on, or feel free to skip ahead:

• Project management 101
• What is critical path method?
• Steps to effectively (and easily) use the critical path method
• Project management with Process Street

Let’s jump in!
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At 5 AM on August 29, 2005, the largest drainage canal in New Orleans, the 17th Street Canal, was breached by torrents of water, an hour before Hurricane Katrina struck the city.

Levees and floodwalls fell in 50 different locations, flooding 80% of the city – under 15 feet of water in some parts.

No doubt the system failed. But which system?

The Bush administration claimed the break couldn’t have been foreseen. Scientists claimed they’d given warnings about that exact situation for nearly ten years previous. The US Army Corps of Engineers blamed the city; the city blamed the engineers.

It could be said – and many have – that in this case, it wasn’t the levee system that failed that day, but the human system certainly did. Later, experts determined that budget cuts, outdated engineering, and inadequate process infrastructures are what led to the disaster.

But that was 2005, and something of that magnitude couldn’t blindside us again.

Right…?

At Process Street, we’ve been paying very close attention to the different responses to the COVID-19 outbreak. This post is going to look at seven of the most notable system failures that occurred during the pandemic, why they happened, and how they could have been prevented.

• Why do systems fail?
• What have been the biggest COVID-19 system failures so far?
• How to (easily) build a fail-proof systems

Let’s get started.
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Way back in 2014, we first tried our hand at launching on Product Hunt with an early version of Process Street. It got featured, but that was a different time; when Product Hunt’s staff manually selected each product feature (these days Product Hunt claims that an automated algorithm decides).

It was hunted (Product Hunt lingo for “promoted”) by Audrey Melnik of Funnel Ventures, didn’t even have a maker (another Product Hunt termin for the creators of a product), yet still found its way to the front page of Product Hunt.

Six years, a couple of relaunches, and a $12 million Series A on from that humble effort, Process Street has changed a fair bit. We’ve shipped over 30 products on Product Hunt; from podcasts, new Process Street feature launches, to whole product launches, to eBooks.

Some of them were great successes, with multiple top 4 spots and a whole bunch of front-page features. Others weren’t so great; some garnered next to no traction and were essentially dead-on-arrival.

The point of this article is to impart some of the lessons we’ve learned, from common myths and misconceptions, to what worked well for us (and what didn’t work so well).

Here’s a breakdown of what I’ll be covering:

• Why you should care about Product Hunt
• Common misconceptions about Product Hunt launches
• How to prepare for a Product Hunt launch (free checklist)
• Key takeaways: How to have a successful Product Hunt launch

Let’s start with the basics, which often get taken for granted when it comes to deciding whether or not to launch on Product Hunt.
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Call center quality assurance is like going to the dentist: everyone agrees it should be done regularly, no one likes doing it, and it’s probably been put off much longer than it should.

No one’s blaming you – agents hate it, supervisors hate it, even quality assurance auditors hate it. It’s tedious, time-consuming, and repetitive. Add to that the high call center attrition rate and low job satisfaction, and you may be wondering: why even bother?

Well, I’ll tell you. In this post, I’ll cover:

• What is call center quality assurance?
• Why is call center quality assurance important?
• How to overcome your QA obstacles
• 11 free call center quality assurance templates
• Automate your workflow with Process Street + Zapier

Plus I’ll provide you with 11 free checklists to take the drudgery out of QA audits!

If you came for the templates, grab them here:

• Call Center Agent Training Program Checklist Template
• Call Center Quality Assurance (QA) Agent Training Process Checklist Template
• Call Center Quality Assurance Structure Template
• Call Center Quality Assurance Audit Template
• Call Center Customer Service Quality Assurance Form
• Call Center Sales Quality Assurance Form
• Call Center Outbound Sales Quality Assurance Form
• Call Center Helpdesk Quality Assurance Form
• Call Center Metrics Calculation Checklist Template
• Manager Weekly Report Checklist Template
• Daily Supervisor Checklist

If you want to use these checklists, just sign in with your Process Street account and start customizing your templates. If you don’t have an account yet, sign-up here to get started with your free trial!

Otherwise, let’s get to it.
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Etymologically-speaking, the word “template” has an interesting history. Our modern usage of it is linked to the Proto-Indo-European word “tempos”, which means “to stretch”. Specifically, though, it refers to time and the stretching of it.

As time-bound human beings, making use of templates allows us to have more time each day. By completing recurring processes and actions far faster overall whether they’re marketing processes or sales processes, we’re able to, in a way, cheat time itself.

For sales teams, templates are a necessity for both cheating time and doing great work, repeatedly.

Seeing as 20% of sales staff turnover happens within the first 45 days, there needs to be a thorough, documented template for how to onboard staff properly. Similarly, for the sales process itself, there needs to be a sales process template (or better yet, templates).

With such playbooks at hand, it could help your team become high performers by a whopping 33%!

That’s why, in this Process Street post, I’ll discuss what a sales process template is, provide you with a stellar sales process template, and tell you how you can use more or even build your own templates from scratch.

Just read through the following sections:

• What is a sales process template?
• Why sales lead qualification is the most important sales process
• Have sales reps utilize a template for every stage of the sales process
• Use Process Street to revolutionize your sales team!

Or, if you can’t wait and want to start using the aforementioned stellar sales process template, here’s our MEDDIC Sales Process Checklist Template:

Click here to get the MEDDIC Sales Process Checklist Template!

Carry on reading to find out how to cheat time further. ⏳

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This is a guest post by Alyse Falk. Alyse is a freelance writer, and she handles stories about the latest developments in the field of technology. Passionate about AI, Alyse has extensive experience writing articles and essays on data-driven analytics, cloud computing, cybersecurity, machine learning, and IoT devices.

Customer feedback is integral to understanding how to deliver a consistently good customer experience. By gathering feedback, you stop guessing about what your customers do and don’t like and, instead, gain direct action items for how to improve customer experience in the future.

Improving customer experience (otherwise known as CX) comes with many benefits. Perhaps the largest of all is that your customers will get better service quality, leading to increased customer satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy.

Besides improved customer experiences, you will also get significant financial benefits. In fact, 73 percent of companies with above-average customer experience perform better financially than their competitors with a lower level of CX!

However, getting good customer feedback and reaching that ‘Aha!’ moment so you can improve customer experience can be tricky.

That’s why, in this guest post, I’ll be telling you everything you need to know about customer experience measurement, how to do it, and how Process Steet can help.

Read through these sections for everything you need to know:

• What is customer experience measurement (and why measure CX)?
• What to do before measuring customer experience
• The key customer experience metrics (and which ones to choose)
• Building a CX measurement scorecard
• Use Process Street to help with radically improving customer experience!

Or, if you wanted to start compiling customer feedback straight away, here’s Process Street’s Customer Feedback Checklist Template.

Click here to get the Customer Feedback Checklist Template!

Let’s jump right in.

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If there’s one thing the COVID-19 pandemic has taught the world of business (apart from that remote work is the future), it’s this: We aren’t prepared for disruption.

Supply chains, in particular, suffered a massive shockwave, with supermarkets, shops, and services being unable to operate the way they did before the virus struck. In fact, more than 3,000 suppliers in China were driven to force majeure declarations in the first few months alone.

As the world moves toward a new normal, you’ll be thinking about disruption and risk a lot more than you had done previously.

For businesses using suppliers, it’s necessary – now more so than ever – to establish a stellar procurement process to ensure goods and/or services can always be secured, no matter if micro (small, every day) and macro (large, extraordinary) disruptions happen.

That’s why, in this post, I’ll be discussing what the procurement process is, the benefits a documented and solid process brings, what the flow of a robust procurement process looks like, and how Process Street can help.

Read through the below sections to get up-to-date:

• What is procurement and the procurement process?
• The benefits of the procurement process
• The procurement process flow (with a procurement process example)
• Use Process Street for procurement and all other business needs!

Or, if you just wanted to get your hands on a procurement process that you can default to in every day and extraordinary situations alike, grab it here:

Click here to get the Procurement Process Checklist Template!

Ready to become a pro at the procurement process?
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Want to lose weight? Shape up? Get fitter? Gain muscle?

If you do, I have one thing to say to you:

“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got” – Henry Ford

To get better, improve, and achieve your goals, something needs to change.

But this concept doesn’t only apply to people who want to lose weight, get fit, or become stronger.

It applies to businesses too; to keep improving, businesses need to keep changing.

Businesses can typically find between 50 to 75 improvement opportunities when they go through process analysis. This can result in anywhere from a 10% to an 80% reduction in costs.

Aha! Thought that might get your attention! Interested in finding out more?

This is what you’ll learn by reading this Process Street post on process analysis:

• What is process analysis?
• How Lego and IBM nearly collapsed without process analysis
• The 4 tell-tale signs that a process needs analysis
• How to do process analysis (and how to do it well)

Ready to take the first step towards new and improved processes?

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Elisabeth Swan is the co-author of “The Problem-Solver’s Toolkit” and co-host of “The Just-in-Time Cafe Podcast.” She’s been a process improvement consultant, speaker, and innovator for over 30 years. She’s the Chief Learning Experience Officer for GoLeanSixSigma.com, a former cast member of ImprovBoston, and – if asked – may still be able to ride a unicycle.

Surgeon Atul Gawande made headlines when he told the world that a simple checklist could drastically reduce unnecessary deaths in The Checklist Manifesto.

Yet, checklists conjure images of forklift drivers on loading docks with clipboards counting boxes. How could they transform healthcare?

“He has… produced a 90-second checklist which reduced deaths and complications by more than one-third in eight hospitals around the world – at virtually no cost and for almost any operation.” – James Clarke, reviewing The Checklist Manifesto, Ulster Med J. 2011 Jan; 80(1): 54.

Aviation was transformed decades earlier when management and engineers at Boeing Corporation created the pre-flight checklist after the 1935 crash of the prototype Boeing B-17 at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio. Checklists have become so essential to the airline industry that most crashes can be traced to the misuse or failure to complete a checklist.

A New York Times reviewer noted, “no matter how expert you may be, well-designed checklists can improve outcomes”. Since the purpose of process improvement is improving outcomes, Lean Six Sigma and checklists are natural companions.

To prove that, this Process Street blog post will show the relationship between checklists and lean six sigma, and provide you with a free DMAIC Improvement Project Tollgate Checklist that you can use right now.

Use the links below to jump to that section of the post:

• Lean Six Sigma and the role of problem-solving
• Lean Six Sigma & the checklist
• Introduction phase
• Define phase
• Measure phase
• Analyze phase
• Improve phase
• Control phase
• Checklists and Lean Six Sigma
• Use Process Street to reduce error

Or, if you just want the checklist, check it out below!

Let’s get started.

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The excitement around a new project is intoxicating.

After all, it’s an opportunity for your team to collaborate and put their well-honed skills to use.

But with important projects, excitement can easily turn into dread. Especially considering that 70% of organizations have failed one or more of their projects in the last 12 months, with a lack of clear goals being the main issue.

So how can everyone involved know what’s expected of them? What deliverables they must bring to the table? How their actions figure into the bigger picture? And how can you, the project manager, break the project down into manageable segments?

While The Beatles professed that “love is all you need”, what’s going to be more useful in this scenario is a work breakdown structure.

That’s why, in this Process Street post, you’ll learn what the work breakdown structure is, why it’s so useful, different examples of it, and tips on how to create a work breakdown structure yourself. To boot, you’ll even get your hands on our easy-to-use Work Breakdown Structure Template!

Read through the following sections to get clued-up:

• What is a work breakdown structure (WBS)?
• Work breakdown structure examples
• Why a work breakdown structure is useful
• How to create a work breakdown structure
• Use Process Street for completing projects and processes alike!

Or, if you’re eager to get the template already, here it is:

Click here to get the Work Breakdown Structure Template!

Let’s break it down.

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