Launching vs. landing a project
In project management, a project “launching” means you have delivered the final results of the project to the client or user. You can’t solely base project success on when the client accepts the project, though. Your work on a project won’t be complete until you “land” it by thoroughly measuring the results. This is when the success criteria and the metrics you defined initially when setting SMART goals will come in handy.
Teams should be clear on what they are trying to accomplish, beyond just launching something to users. Will your project increase retention? Will your project speed up a product feature? Depending on the product and situation, the answers will differ, but it is important that your team aligns and works toward the same measurable goal.
Launch and forget
A common mistake of many project teams is to “launch and forget” the results. This happens when a project manager delivers the project to the client and the client accepts the project delivery, but the project manager doesn’t assess if the project deliverables satisfy the customer or user. In the example above, if you didn’t check back periodically over five years to assess the results, you would have only launched—but not landed—the project. Launching and landings work in tandem to ensure true success.
A project landing shouldn’t create more hurdles. If done correctly, a landing creates greater alignment within the teams on the end results you all desire, and it gives everybody on the team better visibility on how to achieve success.