Deliverables represent a comprehensive list of tasks encompassing all the mini-steps a team must undertake to reach a project goal. Once a solid vision and a "North Star" of the product are established, and an evaluation of resources is completed, deliverables are created to provide a roadmap.

Pros of Deliverables:

• Allow your team to accurately track the progress of a project.
• Provide a rough idea of what needs to be tackled in the project.
• Offer a clear sense of the project's direction.
• Help manually evaluate project risks by assessing the probability of success for each task.

Crafting Effective Deliverables

Creating deliverables requires precision and a bit of science. Each deliverable should reflect an individual task that needs to be completed or researched further to make progress tracking easier. The broader the deliverable, the less useful it becomes. Let’s look at the difference between broad and precise deliverables:

Bad Deliverables:

• "Revamp the pharmaceutical to improve user experience."
• "Have a questionnaire where customers are required to fill in their symptoms to better navigate the pharmacy's over-the-counter drug options online."

Key Takeaway: Deliverables should not simply be ideas or features of the project.

Good Deliverables:

• "Draft a list of questions to ask patients for the interactive questionnaire."
• "Draft a website flowchart."

Naming Deliverables EffectivelyMake sure each deliverable is named as a "yes/no" question. This means that the titles convey that success is binary: either the deliverable is done or it isn’t. Here’s a comparison of poor and effective deliverable naming:

Bad:

• "Improve the questionnaire."
• This title does not clearly outline what success looks like. Does it mean improving the design or enhancing the accuracy of the results? It's too ambiguous and leaves room for interpretation.

Good:

• "Curate a new list of questions to ask for the questionnaire."
• This deliverable is clear and concise. To successfully complete it, a new list of questions must be created for the questionnaire.

Defining SuccessFor each deliverable, clearly state what success looks like for the task and include any important notes necessary for reference. Ensure that the completion criteria are clear to everyone working on the deliverable.

Conclusion

‍Overall, deliverables are crucial to the success of your project. They provide a clear path for your team to reach a goal, dividing that path into actionable instructions. Leveraging deliverables allows for accurate project tracking while ensuring clarity in progress. Remember to be specific in your deliverable naming to ensure success is evident as tasks progress.

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