The New One-Page Project Manager: Communicate and Manage Any Project With A Single Sheet of Paper, 2nd Edition

Chapter 12

Consulting and Marketing with the OPPM

Until now, I've referred to the one-page project manager (OPPM) solely as a communication tool. It is that, of course. But in fact, it can be used as something more—a powerful project proposal display for a consulting firm and a management tool for you, as the consultant's client.

While at O.C. Tanner, I hired an international consulting firm to help us with a pricing project. We wanted to evaluate our pricing strategy to better align our prices with the value we provide our clients.

The OPPM we created had three uses:

1. It communicated to upper management and other interested parties how the project was progressing, which is the traditional use of the tool.

2. It helped us manage the consultants.

3. It was used by the consulting firm to manage us. Yes, we got some of our own medicine back when the consulting firm turned the tables and used the OPPM to help them keep us going in the proper direction. In fact, all parties benefited from using the OPPM.

The project involved two phases. The OPPM samples found in this chapter show the tool completed for the first phase and as a plan waiting to be implemented for the second phase.

Phase 1: The Small Consulting Engagement

Notice the two OPPMs (Figures 12.1 and 12.2) are fairly standard-issue types, the sort we have seen in other chapters with a few variations. Let's look at Phase 1 first. The header contains the name of the project, Pricing Strategy (Phase 1); the Project Leader; and ...