Matching people and projects
Managers have many competing responsibilities including long and short-term project goals, as well as current skills and future team development goals. To sort it out, it makes sense to take a step back and explore your options.
Complex problems are often vague and have many possible solutions. The Meta-Problem Method may lead you far away from the dilemma that started your quest. That’s because the method forces you to clarify what you really want and what you are willing to give up. It enables you to compare objectively the possible pathways and their trade offs. It prevents you locking into solutions mode too early and then doubling down on solving a low-yield problem that does not serve your goals as well as the alternatives. At the end of this process, you will have a better understanding of your priorities and how to achieve them.
Steps in the Meta-Problem Method
Dilemma
The high-level issue you are trying to address
Pick the right employees for each project.
Goal
The changes you want to make to address the dilemma. There are usually many options.
Supporting Goals
- Current projects are successful.
- Future projects are successful.
Other goals could include increasing employee satisfaction, good utilization across the team, and meeting budget goals.
Problem Space
The set of problems you could chose to solve to advance your goals, plus the constraints that hold you back.
Example Problems
- Who should be assigned to each project so the current ones are successful? Maybe the problem to solve is “Who is best suited for each project while ensuring all projects have enough expertise?”
- Who should be assigned to each project so the future team is as effective as possible? Maybe the problem to solve is “Which assignments will lead to the strongest team in the future?
There are many other potential problems to solve related to assigning team members to projects. Each goal has many possible problems we could link to it. Are there other problems linked to these first two goals? Which options come to mind for the other goals?
High-Yield Problems
Sometimes solving one problem helps make progress towards several goals. In this step, we identify these “two-for-the-price-of-one” problems.
Which options will advance more than one goal?
- Assigning experienced and successful leads to each project will ensure that current projects have the best chance of succeeding, but may not help with future projects when there is the same limited pool of experienced leads.
- Assigning more junior leads to lower stakes or easier projects will increase the skills of the team and can improve the odds of success for future projects. However, the current projects may have an increased risk of failure as the junior leads learn.
There are many potential solutions that will have varying effects on the set of goals. Which alternatives improve the most important goals? How might the unknown change the right path forward? What other possible solutions are there to address the dilemma?
Problem Selection
Which of the many possible options in the high-yield problem step is the best set to address the dilemma?
- Which solutions make the most sense as a manager?
- Which solutions will best address the dilemma?
- Which solutions will deliver the best outcome for the least amount of time, effort and money?
Implement, Learn and Adapt
Check continuously that you are still solving the best problem, as new information emerges.
Observe and learn as you go. As new information reveals itself, check continuously that you’re still solving the right problem.