Project Planning Template
Create a source of truth for teams to visualize and reach project milestones.
About the Project Planning Template
Project planning helps you prepare for any project. The first step is getting approval from a key decision-maker like upper management. Once you get permission to move forward, you’ll need to map out the project's who, what, when, where, and how.
Keep reading to learn more about project planning and the Project Planning Template.
What is a project plan
A project plan is a single source of truth that helps teams visualize and reach project milestones..The plan typically includes:
Goals defined, and tasks you need to complete to achieve them
Scope of the project
Outlining task schedules
Delegating task management to your team members
Cost estimates for each phase of the project
Planning for unexpected events
Project timeline
Deliverables expected at the end of the project
When you’re in the production phase of any project, planning documents will save you time and money by encouraging teams to consider hidden costs and the tasks involved from start to finish.
When to use a project plan
Project plans are most useful when you outline the project’s “what” and “why” to anyone who needs to give you project buy-in. Use it to proactively discuss team needs; expectations; and baselines for timeline, budget, and scope. The plan will also help you clarify available resources before you kick- off a project, as well as expected deliverables at the end of the project.
Create your own project plan
Making your own project plans is easy. Miro’s whiteboard tool is the perfect canvas to create and share them. Get started by selecting the Project Planning Template, then take the following steps to make one of your own.
Invite other stakeholders to help define your plan. Before you start filling in the different sections, invite your team, clients, and other stakeholders to join you on a voice or video chat (up to 25 participants can join at any given time).
Define project goals. Align with your team on the problems you’re trying to solve. Document these pain points in the relevant sections.
How will your team measure success? The more specific your metrics, the better chances for your team to reach them. Try agreeing on specific numbers or percentage changes you’d like to see in certain areas of your business.
Confirm who else needs to be involved. Everyone on your project should have a defined role. Even if they’re not available to participate in the meeting, you should include them in the planning document.
Get an estimate of project cost. This includes your financial budget and can also extend to time and resources for your team.
Identify what resources already exist. Are you starting from scratch or piloting a new initiative? Figure out what assets you already have access to, and note how they can boost your project.
Know what obstacles stand in the way of success. Prepare for roadblocks or time lags throughout your project timeline. Stay proactive and anticipate how you can stay on track.
List your action items. Outline your next steps after the meeting, and allocate responsibilities to each team member.
Confirm your project timeline. Deciding on dates and deadlines will keep your project on track. If you’re already using an
[], you can copy over important milestones to this template. Revisit the plan regularly to ensure that you’re working together toward your goals, and revise as needed.Online Monthly Planner
Get started with this template right now. It’s free
User Story Map Framework
Popularized by Jeff Patton in 2005, the user story mapping technique is an agile way to manage product backlogs. Whether you’re working alone or with a product team, you can leverage user story mapping to plan product releases. User story maps help teams stay focused on the business value and release features that customers care about. The framework helps to get a shared understanding for the cross-functional team of what needs to be done to satisfy customers' needs.
Idea Funnel Backlog
An Idea Funnel Backlog enables you to visualize your backlog and restrict the number of backlogged items at the top. In doing sos, you can prioritize items on your list without having to engage in unnecessary meetings or create too much operational overhead. To use the Idea Funnel Backlog, break up the funnel into different phases or treat it like a roadmap. Use the Idea Funnel Backlog as a hybrid model that combines your roadmap and backlog into one easily digestible format.
Lean Coffee
What makes a great meeting (other than donuts)? It’s appreciating everyone’s skills, resources, and time by making the very best use of them. That’s what the Lean Coffee approach is designed to do. Great for team brainstorms and retrospectives, Lean Coffee breaks the meeting into three basic stages: what to discuss, what’s being discussed, and what’s been discussed. This template makes it easy for you to collect sticky notes and to update the columns as you go from topic to topic.
Executive Summary
Pique their curiosity. Get them excited. Inspire them to keep reading, diving further into your proposal details. That’s what a good executive summary has the power to do—and why it’s a crucial opening statement for business plans, project plans, investment proposals, and more. Use this template to create an executive summary that starts building belief, by answering high-level questions that include: What is your project? What are the goals? How will you bring your skills and resources to the project? And who can expect to benefit?
Target Audience
The Target Audience template helps you to understand your potential customers. Who is interested in your company or service? What types of people might buy your product? How can you market to them effectively? Target audience analysis involves describing your audience in terms of a variety of demographics, including age and gender, as well as income, education, and location, or psychographics like interests and opinions. Analyzing your target audience provides valuable insights for most business functions.
Product Roadmap (Basic)
Product roadmaps help communicate the vision and progress of what’s coming next for your product. It’s an important asset for aligning teams and valuable stakeholders – including executives, engineering, marketing, customer success, and sales – around your strategy and priorities. Product roadmapping can inform future project management, describe new features and product goals, and spell out the lifecycle of a new product. While product roadmaps are customizable, most contain information about the products you’re building, when you’re building them, and the people involved at each stage.