Name: F.I.R.E.
Rating: 3.9 (47 reviews)
Author: Dan Ward

What’s in it for me? Learn how to successfully manage innovative projects with a new method.

Project management is tough. You have to juggle many issues, such as budget, time frame, supplier contracts and team concerns. Luckily for you, you can refer to earlier projects to get an idea of best practices or trouble spots.

Or can you? If you’re working on a truly innovative project, this might be difficult – you and your team may be going where no one else has gone before. Other projects might be interesting but not helpful; where, then, can you turn for guidance to keep budgets trim and deadlines met?

These blinks are your guide to managing innovative projects on deadline and under budget. They’ll show you how to carry your project to success, by following just a few rational and logical guidelines.

In these blinks, you’ll discover

when “stormdraining” can be more useful than brainstorming;
how borrowing technology keeps NASA projects on time and under budget; and
why a US fighter jet project missed engaging the Soviet “threat” by a good decade.

The F.I.R.E. method gets you high-quality results in the fastest, most efficient way possible.

When you head a creative project, plenty of challenges will come your way. Luckily, there’s a fail-safe method that innovative project managers can use to stay on track, and it’s called F.I.R.E.

F.I.R.E. stands for Fast, Inexpensive, Restrained and Elegant. Everyone can use the F.I.R.E. method to improve their processes and achieve their goals.

Make your project fast by dividing it into smaller tasks that can be completed quickly. Big projects often drag, and sometimes it’s hard to feel you’re making progress. When you design for yourself a smaller group of shorter tasks, you can focus on each task one at a time, and set clear, achievable deadlines.

This means you have to stick firmly to a schedule, however. And being fast isn’t just about working quickly – you have to focus as well on quality. If you work quickly but sloppily, you’ll only create more work for yourself further down the line. In the end, you won’t really have saved much time.

Keep your project inexpensive by maintaining a small budget, and aim to solve problems with your smarts before throwing money at them. Inexpensive doesn’t mean cheap, however – it’s about efficiency. Learn to make the most out of what you have.

Being restrained is about staying in control. When you’re restrained, you don’t allow unexpected circumstances to determine the direction in which your project heads. Instead, you control the situation by holding regular meetings, maintaining short schedules, organizing small teams and keeping a tight budget.

Finally, being elegant is about focusing on simplicity. Remember: less is more. Simple projects, if done correctly, are better than complicated ones, as they’re easier to work on and ensure high-quality results.

To solve a specific problem, first work on generalizing the problem to identify your general needs.

Often when you have a question, you “ask” Google. And in turn, the Google search engine provides you with a host of answers, whether you’re looking to lose weight, fix a stove or consider space flight.

How does Google do this? The company’s engine simply searches through the tons of research stored online, considering the millions of questions that have already been answered. Innovation works the same way; you just need to know what to search for.

Avoid racking up extra costs and annoying delays by sticking to a set schedule and a limited budget.

Have you ever tried to experiment with a favorite recipe, changing details here or there, and ended up with something you had to throw out? Sometimes it’s best to stick to the original recipe.

Innovative projects can work the same way. When you have a time frame and a budget, try not to deviate from your plan, as you’ll just trip yourself up if you decide along the line to complicate things.

NASA missions focus on simplifying and accelerating projects, innovating only when necessary.

When you hear the word “innovation,” you might assume it describes something complicated and expensive. That’s not necessarily the case, however. The US space agency NASA shows why.

The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has launched many innovative missions, given its dedication to simplifying and accelerating projects.

Key ideas in F.I.R.E.