What Does It Take to Start a New Digital Project?

The online community across Southeast Asia is rapidly growing in size. As the market is flooded with affordable smartphones, the rate at which consumers in the region access the Internet has increased.

As many as 40 million people across six countries in the region went online for the first time in 2020. In total, the number of Internet users in Southeast Asia has reached 400 million, or about 70 percent of the entire population. The majority of those who accessed the internet for the first time last year were households in non-metropolitan areas in Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

Singapore still has the highest number of internet users in the region, with almost 90 percent of the population regularly going online as of the data from 2019.

There is, therefore, a demand for businesses to launch digital content to capture the attention of the increasing number of internet users across Southeast Asia. There is also a need for talent who can create and collaborate on successful digital projects.

What Do Digital Projects Achieve?

There are different types of digital projects that organizations can utilize. There is software development for desktop or mobile, website design and development, UX/UI design, digital marketing campaigns, content strategy, and many others. Each of these digital projects requires different sets of skills. A business that wants to undergo software development, for example, will need to recruit developers. On the other hand, a business that takes on digital marketing campaigns will have to work with a digital marketing agency.

Everyone involved must first identify a purpose to determine which digital project would suit it best. It is not as easy as it looks. The goal is not to have more money, but to improve brand image, for example, or increase brand recall.

The purpose should be in line with the mission of the entire organization to create a cohesive outcome. It will also motivate workers and help them understand the task, the role they play, and how it will impact the organization.

Draft a Plan

It should come as no surprise that the secret to the success of any project is careful planning. Without, the team will be working aimlessly. There would not be collaborations because everyone will do their responsibilities on their own. In the end, you will have an output that looks and feels fragmented. Moreover, the team might miss deadlines and milestones, putting the entire digital project at risk of failure.

Set up expectations by creating a timeline. Make it clear what you want to achieve in every step of the process. For example, you want a market research to be conducted in the first week and then testing and reviews to be done by weeks three and four.

The plan should be succinct. You can go as detailed as you want, but it should be easily understandable so that everyone is on the same page. In addition, the deadlines and milestones should be achievable. You cannot ask your team to finish certain tasks for one or two weeks when they need at least a month to complete them.

Before implementing a plan, you need to run it by your team and hear their thoughts.

Provide Space for Scaling

Scalability is the ability of the project to grow bigger or smaller as needed. For example, a project that can scale does not need to start from the beginning to downsize if it does not turn out to be a big success that managers expected it would be. Or, if it is garnering more attention, it should be able to expand. It would save the organization time and money if the project were designed to scale.

Time to Get to Work

After undertaking all these preparations, the digital project can officially begin. The success of the digital project is determined through several factors. The morale may rise and fall throughout the duration of the project because of failures or shortcomings. It is necessary to acquire early gains to boost confidence among the members of the team.

That is why you should set a short-term and achievable goal right at the beginning of the project. It will garner optimism and even convince doubting higher-ups to fund and support the project.

A digital project will help businesses reach their goal, especially in places with broad access to digital products and services. Southeast Asia might have lagged in going online, but the region is rapidly catching up with the West. It means that more businesses will pursue major digital projects in the coming years.