How To Set Milestones And Track Progress For Success

A series about project planning essentials: Setting milestones and tracking progress and what to do when you missed a milestone.

This is the third part of the project planning essentials series. Like always, if you missed the other articles you can find them here:

This Is How To Develop An Effective Project Plan — Part 1

This Is How To Develop An Effective Project Plan — Part 2

What you’ll find in this guide:

• The Importance Of Setting Milestones 🌟

• How To Set Milestones And Track Progress 📈

  • Identifying key milestones 🔍

  • Food Delivery App Milestones Example 📱

• We Missed A Milestone, Now What? 🏴‍☠️

  • First of all, don’t panic just breathe! 😮‍💨

  • Investigate what happened 🕵️‍♀️

  • Not everything is lost! 🌅 Understand, reassess and come up with an action plan

The Importance Of Setting Milestones

Milestones are critical for product managers because they serve as key indicators of progress, health, and direction of a product development cycle. If you love video games like me, it’ll be easier and fun to explain milestones this way.

Milestones are akin to checkpoints in a video game; they:

• Provide progress indicators, helping teams see forward movement.

• Offer moments for reflection and strategy adjustments.

• Boost motivation and morale with tangible achievements.

• Act as a risk management tool to correct course when necessary.

• Facilitate resource management, optimizing budget and effort allocation.

• Serve as coordination points among team members and stakeholders.

• Allow for feedback incorporation and product adaptation.

• Keep the end goal in sight, making it more attainable.

In essence, milestones guide and structure the development journey, ensuring a product team stays aligned, efficient, and driven towards successfully launching their product.

How To Set Milestones And Track Progress

Sequencing milestones is a critical step in project planning. This is where you'll arrange your milestones in chronological order based on each task's dependencies and your project's overall flow. The aim is to structure your timeline in a way that closely reflects the real-world execution of your product development.

To give a quick example, a basic list of milestones for a software development project may include:

⭐️ Requirements Gathering Completed
⭐️ Prototype Developed and Approved
⭐️ Beta Version Launched
⭐️ User Testing Completed
⭐️ Final Product Launched

Identifying key milestones

Understand Dependencies

Start by understanding your project's dependencies. These are the relationships between different tasks within your project. For example, you can't start building a feature (task B) until you've completed the design phase (task A). In this situation, task A is a predecessor, and task B is a successor. Understand these relationships before you place your milestones.

Determine the Logical Order

Post identifying dependencies; you should determine the most logical order for completing tasks, resulting in a chronological arrangement of your milestones. Using project management terms, you're essentially creating a Critical Path Method (CPM) or a Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT), although in a less formal way.

Mirroring Real-world Process

Your sequence of milestones should reflect how the product will be developed in reality as closely as possible. For instance, you wouldn't place a "Product Testing" milestone before a "Development Completed" milestone since you can't test something that hasn't been developed yet. By mirroring the real-world process, your timeline will act as an accurate reflection of your project's status and progress.

Team Input

Ensure to bring team members into the sequencing process. They can provide valuable insights into how long tasks can take and possible roadblocks. This can influence your milestone sequence.

Adjustments

Keep your milestone sequence flexible. During the course of your project, things can change – tasks can take longer than expected, new dependencies can arise, and priorities can shift. Always revisit your sequence and adjust as needed. Just ensure any changes are communicated to your team and stakeholders.

Food Delivery App Example

Let’s imagine you need to create a food delivery application, what will the milestones look like?

Milestones for a Food Delivery App

⭐️ 1. Market Research Completed (Week 1-2) ✅
- Completed survey of 500 potential users ✅
- Identified and analyzed 5 direct competitors ✅
⭐️ 2. Requirements and Specifications Finalized (Week 3) ✅
- Documented application features and functionalities ✅
- Presented and approved by stakeholders ✅
⭐️ 3. UI/UX Design Approved (Week 4-6) ✅
- Completed wireframes for all pages ✅
- Performed and passed usability tests with 10 users ✅
- Final design approved by stakeholders ✅
⭐️ 4. App Development Milestones
- Backend Development Completed (Week 7-12) ✅
- Built and tested server and database
- Successfully integrated with 3rd party services (e.g. payment gateway, map services)
- Frontend Development Completed (Week 13-18)
- Implemented all user interfaces according to approved design
- Functionality of all features tested and approved
⭐️ 5. Alpha Testing Completed (Week 19)
- Identified and fixed bugs
- Testing of all functionalities completed without major defects
⭐️ 6. Beta Version Launched (Week 20)
- Rolled out to a selected group of 50 users
⭐️ 7. User Feedback and Iteration (Week 21-23)
- Gathered actionable feedback from at least 70% of beta users
- Made necessary tweaks and iterations
⭐️ 8. Security and Performance Testing Completed (Week 24)
- Passed security audit
- Sustained simulated maximum load without crashing
⭐️ 9. App Store Approval and Launch (Week 25) We made it!
- Submitted to both Google Play Store and Apple App Store
- Published on both platforms without rejections
⭐️ 10. Post-Launch Analysis and Updates (Week 26 onwards)
- Obtained 10,000 downloads within first month
- Maintained an average user rating of 4.0+ stars
- Regular updates based on user feedback and analytics

We Missed A Milestone, Now What?

First of all, don’t panic just breathe!

Feeling a momentary sense of concern or stress when a milestone is missed is natural; it shows that you care deeply about your project's success. However, panic is a strong emotion that can cloud judgment, hinder effective problem-solving, and negatively affect team morale. Instead of panicking, a product manager can take proactive steps to manage the situation constructively. Like:

• Maintain composure: A calm mindset will enable you to think clearly and lead your team effectively through the challenge.

• Demonstrate resilience: How you react to setbacks can significantly impact your team's confidence and performance.

• Motivate and support: Encourage your team to stay focused and work together to overcome the challenge.

Investigate what happened

If a team does not complete or reach a milestone, as a product manager you need to take a structured approach to understand the root cause, reassess the situation, and take corrective action.

So instead of quickly trying to make corrections, try to identify the factors that altered the initial plan:

• Was the team overloaded?

• Were there communication breakdowns?

• Were there scope creeps that caused the delays?

• Were the necessary resources available when needed?

Understand, reassess and come up with an action plan

Even if missing a milestone is not a desired situation, not everything is lost! Here’s a list of easy steps that you can follow to mitigate the negative impact.

Step 1: Assess the Situation - Evaluate the impact of the missed milestone and gather information on why it was missed.

Step 2: Communicate - Inform stakeholders about the delay and be transparent about the reasons and steps being taken.

Step 3: Analyze the Root Cause - Conduct a root-cause analysis to determine what specifically led to the delay.

Step 4: Develop a Recovery Plan - Identify potential solutions and prioritize tasks for immediate attention.

Step 5: Re-plan and Re-prioritize - Adjust the project plan and timeline, review resource allocation, and establish new milestones if needed.

Step 6: Implement Corrective Actions - Act on the recovery plan and adjust workflows or processes as necessary.

Step 7: Monitor Progress - Set check-ins to closely monitor progress post-missed milestone and establish clear metrics for success.

Step 8: Document and Learn - Record the occurrence, its causes, and the actions taken to correct it, and share this knowledge with the team and organization.

Step 9: Foster a Supportive Environment - Encourage the team through the setback, promote a problem-solving attitude, and avoid blaming individuals.

Wrapping Up

Remember, setting milestones isn't just about ticking tasks off a list; it's like mapping out a quest in a video game 🎮. You're charting an exciting course from inception to completion, keeping morale high, managing risks, and always keeping the ultimate prize in sight—the successful launch of your product.

Got caught up in a tough level and missed a milestone? Take a breathe and don't panic—you've got this! It's just another challenge to overcome. Start by investigating what went wrong. Once you understand this, you can start taking actions and correct your plans to hit the next milestone 💫

After all…

Well, enough memes, now it’s your turn. Tell me, how do you set your milestones? Have you missed a milestone? Let me know in the comments!👇