We’re coming up on the big day – the one we look forward to for, seemingly, months. I love this time of year and I love Christmas day. We expect hustle and bustle leading up to Christmas with the gift buying, school programs, holiday parties, etc. So when it comes to the actual day we want to sit back, relax, and enjoy the day with our loved ones.

Ah, but that’s not always the way it works out, is it? Some years the rushing about continues, even on Christmas day, and the relaxing with family and friends takes a back seat.

This got me thinking: what if we apply some basic project management tools to Christmas day? Maybe with a little bit of planning and thought we could make it to Christmas evening having enjoyed a wonderful day with the people we love. Ok, maybe that’s a bit ambitious, but I’m going to give it a shot.

Step 1: Define the project

The first thing we need to do is define what the end product will look like. Survival? Ok, well, that’s not specific enough. How about avoiding any major family conflicts? I’m not a family therapist, sorry. That’s outside the scope of this project. Everyone is able to open their gifts in a somewhat organized fashion? We’re getting closer. We physically make it to all the places we’re supposed to go? That will suit our purposes for now. As the project sponsor, I own the project requirements. So let’s make an outline.

This project – Operation: Christmas Day – will include these features:

• We expect the children to get up early and open gifts. The adults don’t want to get up early. Let’s allow the kids to open their stockings whenever they get up. The adults don’t have stockings.
• Let’s have breakfast together and then open gifts. The menu includes pancakes, bacon, and fresh pineapple.
• We need to be at Grandma’s house by 11:00 for brunch.
• The extended family is getting together late afternoon – around 4:00.
• I would like to avoid any major family conflict, particularly with Uncle Buck who loves to talk politics.
• We’re driving to the in-laws on Christmas evening – we should arrive there before 10:00pm and it’s 3 hours away.
• I would like to feel happy at the end of the day.

Step 2: Develop a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

The WBS describes the work that needs to be done in order to meet the previously described requirements. Now that we’re clear on the project requirements, we’ll brainstorm about the tasks necessary to complete the project and organize them in a hierarchy. The WBS will provide the basis for estimating schedule and budget.

Here’s a sample WBS for this project, though it could be arranged in a variety of ways.

Step 3: Create a network diagram

After we’ve clarified the work involved in this project, we’ll identify the dependencies between tasks. This helps us to know what tasks need to be done prior to other tasks. If we’re not clear on what needs to happen in what order, the project can quickly degenerate, which means missed deadlines and poor outcome.

Here’s a sample network diagram for Operation: Christmas Day

Step 4: Execute the plan

A description of the important points related to executing the plan is beyond the scope of this blog post, so we’ll have to leave it at the planning stage.

These (very simplified) project management tools may be applied to a variety of situations. Regardless of the tools, I hope you have a very merry Christmas with your family and friends!

We are really thankful for all of the feedback that we have received through our blog comments in 2009. We would like to share some of those comments (we refer to them as love letters) with you.

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Well, it’s that time of year again, and yes, this is the obligatory “Happy Thanksgiving” post. But in all seriousness, as we enter the holiday season, it’s important to reflect on the past year and all the things you have to be thankful for. Quite frankly, it’s something you should do on a regular basis, but let’s face it, most of us only worry about it from November to January.

Tis the Season for Thanksgiving…

I’d love it if the team and our readers could take some time and just give a shout out about what they’re thankful about. At the risk of sounding like a kiss ass, I am certainly thankful to be in the position I am here at ProspectMX. I work with some great people, I’m constantly learning new things… and I’ve got seniority I can lord over other people… kidding, kidding (sort of).

For real though, the internet marketing field is not only an exciting one, but incredible in it’s flexibility and need for creative thinking. Where else can you go out for a few drinks with your coworkers and wind up with tons ideas? Some are brilliant, some are hilarious, some are ridiculous, but all useful. Plus, once executed, those ideas can result in thousands of dollars in revenues from traffic, links, media notice, etc.

It’s a remarkable industry, and it’s nice to be a part of something that continues to grow and evolve.

Thanksgiving Fun Facts

I’m a sucker for fun or little known facts that have no practical use… so, here are some I found to add to my repertoire (and which are guaranteed to make you feel fat!):

• The average person consumes over 4,500 calories on Thanksgiving Day. (And we wonder why Americans are overwhelmingly overweight…)
• Turkeys can drown if they look up while it’s raining.
• American eat over 530 million pounds of Turkey on Thanksgiving, while more than 45 million turkeys are cooked and eaten on that day.
• Ripe cranberries of good quality will always bounce. (Um, you may want to wash before eating if you experiment with this…)
• Domesticated turkeys can’t fly, but wild turkeys can fly over 55mph for short distances.
• Turkeys can have heart attacks. Apparently when the Air Force conducted test runs and broke the sound barrier, fields of turkeys would drop dead.

Dang… I feel really, really bad for turkeys all of a sudden. But luckily not quite bad enough to go vegetarian this year. I can’t vouch for the validity of some of those facts… credit goes to the 1-800 Flowers website.

Have a blessed Thanksgiving everyone!

So, today the boys had a “Jammie Day”. These are days when my wife, Jodi let’s the boys stay in their jammies all day while they play games and stuff. They had a pretty healthy lunch and Jodi was away for dinner.

Well, my boys are rather picky and they weren’t in the mood for anything for dinner. So, I decided to get their attention and tell them that we were going to make the best sandwich EVER.

They got all excited about what it was going to be and will remember it forever. Here’s the video.

The “Toasted Triple Decker Peanut Butter, Jelly and Fruitloop Sandwich” is a remarkable thing for my boys.

What are you going to do with your website that’s remarkable enough to get your potential customers and/or link partners excited about what you have to offer and remember it forever?

For many of us that get bombarded on an annual basis with the typical 6 inch, thick, yellow paged book from yester-year and do not feel comfortable with tossing it in the trash for fear getting attacked by many trees.

Here is a list of the Top 10 uses for the books:

10. Use many of them together as building blocks to for an incredible play house;

9.   Ideal book to place on top of head and walking for practicing balance and poise;

8.   Door Stop;

7.   Conduct annual Yellow Page Book throwing contest;

6.   Excellent mini step ladders for the hard to reach places around your house or business;

5.   Ideal for making several hundred paper airplanes;

4.   Excellent seat for those who are vertically challenged;

3.   Use as cones for out of bounds and the end zone during your next pick up game of football;

2.   Great wheel/tire chuck for under vehicles and trailers to prevent movement while parked;

1.   Perfect stand to place your desktop or notebook on for the correct height to conduct your Google searches.

Not to mention if the Google Gods caught you using such an antiquated instrument of Search….. you may have an algorithm change done to you

I received in the mail one of the most remarkable direct mail pieces ever (Photo thanks to BruceClay.com – Virginia Nussey talked about it here) via FedEx this week. I opened the package and pulled out a very professional package of chocolate covered grasshoppers.

The first thing I said to myself was, “Are these SERIOUSLY chocolate covered grasshoppers?”

And then I read in fine print at the bottom of the package:

*Yes, these are real grasshoppers. They are even approved by the FDA of Thailand.

Brilliant. I didn’t have any idea what it was… but that alone made me look into it further.

A tag attached to the grasshoppers said, “Entrepreneurs can change the world. Join the movement now!”

Now I’m intrigued.

So, I went to their site and it looks like they are compiling entrepreneurs together and offering some discounts on services… but in the end, they are promoting telecommunication services of some type.

Here’s the lesson… To start something viral… it needs to be worthy of being viral. Business owners talk to us everyday about how they want to do these viral campaigns, but they often want to do things so lame, that nobody really cares. So, take a lesson from the grasshopper guys (and possibly gals, too)… and do something worth talking about in your next viral marketing campaign.

Oh… I brought the package home and had my kids eat them. That’s what the video above’s all about. I know it’s a bit long… sorry.

I have had several conversations with clients and most recently a very good friend of mine about why they are not using Google Mail for everything. My good friend still has an AOL account that he has had since the time it took 7 days to connect….crazy! I have explained to him and have shown him the greatness of emailing, archiving, SPAM ELIMINATING, scheduling, chatting, document and spreadsheet creating/sharing, customizing and organizing found when you have a Gmail account. He/They simply say I have had my email address for years and I tell them there are tons of ways around that after a few weeks with Gmail, you will kick yourself for not making the switch sooner.

Now this is not a “Plug” for Google or maybe it is…..however, I would love to hear more excuses of why you would use a very limited system for email when there is such an amazing product available. Please tell me what you are thinking?!

I can see if you are concerned about Google going out of business before your existing provider

As ProspectMX’s resident designer, knowing all of the nitty gritty details of SEO can sometimes be over my head.  So what do we have here?  Why, it’s only the Poetic Prophet (aka the SEO rapper) here to explain SEO to me in with…..rhymes and funky beats?  Ok, I admit I’m not a huge fan of rap music, but this is just awesome.

My favorite verse is..

“your photoshop functions then slice that design
do your layout with divs make sure that it’s aligned
please don’t use tables even though they work fine
when it come to indexing they give searches a hard time”

I hate having to clean out my inbox every day. Who wants to take time out of their busy schedule to clean out clutter, respond to important emails you don’t care about, and keep in touch with friends and family? Not me!

Introducing:

When I first read about Gmail’s new Autopilot program by CADIE, I was ecstatic! And getting to play with it this morning? Heaven!

Five emails from my boss to respond to? Done! (Curses and insults included!)

An important email from a client? Done, and I didn’t even have to give a crap!

And the relationship manager? LOVE IT! Why would I want to read and respond to my loved ones, when I can let Autopilot decide who is worthy of my time and who isn’t? I’ve already terminated relationships with 3 people this morning – and it’s only 9A!

I don’t know about everyone else, but I am loving this new program. I may never have to look at my inbox again. So thank you Google, for continuing to bring us cutting edge technology so we don’t actually have to deal with people on a personal level.

Hurray for technology!

Also…do I even have to say it? Happy April Fool’s Day!

The topic of this blog is putting a pricetag on frustration…and speaking of frustration, I’m preparing a sure to be hilarious recap of web usability problems with TNT.com. (Note to TNT- fire all of your web people.)

In the meantime, I found something online that I felt was very interesting.  Tonight I was searching for a ‘Microsoft Wireless Mouse’ on Amazon and came across something I had never heard of before.  Look at these 2 Amazon links and tell me if you can spot the difference.

Link1

Link 2

Could you spot the difference? Congratulations!  It’s not like it was right in the product headline or anything.  For those that missed it, Amazon is selling the EXACT SAME mouse for about 4 dollars more because it is in, what they call, “Amazon Frustration-Free™ Packaging”.

I hate dealing with those plastic death traps they put around gadgets as much as anyone else, but is it worth a $4 bump in price? What would I be willing to pay in any given situation to get the same thing with less frustration? $10 more for shoes you don’t have to tie (oh wait, that’s why I wear velcro). $100 more for a computer that never crashes? I’d pay it (and as I type this on my iMac I realize I did exactly that…except, more than a hundred dollars extra…).

My overspending aside, the point is, your lack of frustration is worth something. It’s just hard to figure out exactly how much it’s worth. In any given situation when you buy something, I wonder how much extra you would pay for better service, a better experience, an easier delivery method, etc.  How much money are companies losing because they aren’t willing to add that little touch to make their extra service worthwhile and “frustration-free”?

But this is starting to get deep.  In this case, for $4 extra dollars, I’d rather buy a sweet pair of scissors and just go to town on that plastic packaging.

Because in the end, I’d then have a wireless mouse and a cool pair of scissors to do with as I pleased. Win-win.