I’ve even turned a year older.

S’pose I’ve been busy mulling over loads of ideas for self learning. Thinking about trying my hand at wordpress theme design (but I haven’t got a creative bone in my body……), creating a site using html 5 (but on what exactly?), getting the hang of Aptana Studio (for building the html 5 site, maybe) and learning a little Jquery coding.

You see, there’s always something to learn about, the pleasure and pain of life I guess. My brain never really rests; if only my body was the same.

Then there’s work.

Absolutely thrilled with how well the recent project went, the team were indeed fabulous – those Amazonians, those MandSers, those designers, creatives and testers. All worked their socks / heels off and did brilliantly.

Me – I talked a lot, planned a lot, browsed a lot, drank a lot of starbucks, stressed loads and probably drove folks mad… but we did it! And now we are going to do it more….. soon.

And then there’s the Australia thing. Sadly, still waiting….. and waiting …….. and waiting. We’ve done all we can and just need to …..

Currently loving Spotify, and House, riding my vespa, reading a couple of good books, and planning for Rome next week.

Oh, and looking for a new wordpress theme for this blog. And fixing it, the tagging is broken somehow.

<end of brain dump>

I see no reason why we won’t so long as we follow a similar approach.

Its a credit not to the project management process but to the team of talented and committed individuals involved in project delivery – the Customer Experience team, the design agency, the Amazon developers and advisers, our external testing team and more.

The approach basically boiled down to:

1 – having a committed team of  talented people from across different organisations, empowered to work together and JFDI in order to get their areas of work completed to time and quality, and supported by myself and others to quickly resolve any blockages where needed. Its amazing what empowerment can do for motivation.

2 – top-down planning – a simple high level plan (more like a road map) with key milestone dates supported by more detailed plans for certain activities and deliverables where needed. Plans that the whole team understood and bought into, with dates they signed up to and were willing to go for.

3 – a good set of working relationships across the teams, lots of open communication – phone calls, face to face meetings, etc – and people being prepared to give and take around their roles and responsibilities, being flexible where needed to get the job done. Jobsworths were frowned upon – if someone had the time to do it, or it made more sense for them to do it because of their background knowledge, they got on with it and did it if it resulted in a better quality product or us remaining on track.

4 – everyone wanting success – Everyone wanted to deliver the project on time and within every team, people worked ridiculous hours, weekends and so on if it meant we kept on track. It probably helped that with each new milestone, I reminded the team responsible that we were on track to date (green) and that they might not want to be the one to turn us amber.

Fear of failure also does wonders for motivation!

So what did I personally do?

1 – Fortunately I have what I think are very good working relationships with the others in the  “project management team” – both the head of CX and the Amazon Dev manager. Between us, we helped keep the project on track by reaching decisions quickly, being pragmatic and having open, regular communication.

Having good relationships with each of them helped me to try and build trust between the different organisations, reducing the pressure on teams from others and giving them a little flexibility and space to get their work done.

2 – I kept my nose out of the detail unless necessary to keep the project on track. We had people on point for certain deliverables or milestones and the extent of my involvement was to get weekly status updates from them and have chats with them on an ad hoc basis to get a feel of how things were going. But I also encouraged them to raise things with me quickly if they had a blockage that needed clearing.

3 – I pulled together a high level plan (more like a road map really) and ensured that everyone involved bought into it. Once work was underway on one set of deliverables I let the teams get on with it and looked ahead to the next set, ensuring we were ready for work to kick off, again looking for risks and issues and working to remove blockages in advance of when work was due to start.

4 – I kept asking myself what could go wrong with a certain milestone or set of activity, and then worked to guard against it. Whether it meant getting more closely involved, producing a detailed plan with the team concerned, chewing it over with the management team, whatever.

5 – I talked a lot. I played diplomat in encouraging  individuals to trust, I played referee in disputes between organisations, I played taskmaster when it came to getting work completed on time, I played leader where needed to motivate the team and help them see the way forward and I played watchful observer when someone else stepped forward to sort something out.

In many respects I felt more like a sports coach than a project manager – prepare and empower the team and let them get on with playing while I look ahead to the next game – with a focus not on winning just the game but on winning the competition.

So roll on phase 2 – it might not be green all the way but we will deliver on time! Let’s JFDI, team.

The first Starbucks store in the world

The Starbucks store was tiny, no seating and as expected, quite crowded with tourists.

It is in the historic Pike Street Market area, which is on the waterside. Because its a heritage area, Starbucks couldn’t change the logo of it, which is why it is brown.

They were selling all the usual Starbucks stuff but it was too late in the arvo for me to have a coffee – maybe next time.

Amazon’s global HQ is in an old medical centre on top of a hill overlooking Seattle. We didn’t visit this building but we spent two days in their other building which is near Union Station and Seattle’s soccer stadium.

That is where Amazon Enterprise Services are – you know, the services they provide for merchants, affiliates and re-sellers. There’s not a lot to indicate its “Amazon” apart from some really good posters on the wall, which illustrated their processes.

If I get to go back to see them again, I’ve been promised that I will get to meet some of the developers working on our web site, which would be excellent. This time around, I got to meet various Amazon project managers that I will be working with.

Oh, and a bit of work.

Yes, work – I’m off to Seattle next week with M&S to meet some Amazon guys and talk process, plans and progress. So I have a bit of research and planning to do, which means I will be working on a bank holiday. But I don’t actually see it as “work” so its cool,  as its really very interesting, understanding the sorts of things that are planned for the web site and doing some thinking about how they could be delivered quicker.

And so amazing to be meeting with Amazon in their home town. Another experience to add to my collection of wonderful things I’ve done courtesy of working in the UK. I feel honoured to have been considered for the trip and really excited about it all. But I need to prepare – hence the weekend working.

Its a very short trip – literally a flying visit as I will be out of the UK for less than 72 hours. I just hope I can get it together for the main day as I am due to give a presentation and provide various updates on things.

Life is sweet and I’m making the most of it coz you never know when things might unexpectedly go pear shaped (reflecting back on the past 12 months and the rocky road its been.)

Right, off the watch The Bee Movie.