Session 01: Project Kick-Off Part I
Hi there! Welcome to this session of the PM Branding project where I create a brand for the Cryptiquest project management documents (including guidelines and tools for measuring objectives). This is the initial session intended to identify the needs, goal, and objectives of the project.
This project was introduced during the 2019 Road Map project while drafting the copy for Cryptiquest’s strategy. It became clear that since project management documentation was a core product of Cryptiquest, it should be branded just like the studio’s other core products to reflect as such.
Here are notes from the session that sparked this project:
[Branding the project management documentation] offers three things: it increases product identity and awareness, cements project documentation as a core brand of Cryptiquest, and opens an opportunity for personality that would otherwise seem unexpected. This last part – the personality – supports a new idea: designing guidelines in a fun, approachable way.
– from Session 04: Page Copy of the 2019 Road Map project
So there were three opportunities identified in that paragraph: increase product identity and awareness, cement project documentation as a core brand, and open an avenue to make documentation more approachable; but ultimately, the need (and goal) is to create a branding identity for Cryptiquest project management documents.
Looking at vision and mission statements, there isn’t a clear need to support this decision. As a reminder, here they are:
Vision:
To responsibly unlock and inspire creators of any and every identity.
Mission:
To CREATE immersive MEDIA with inclusive fiction;
To SHARE content creation TOOLS with the world; and,
To MODEL corporate humanistic POLICIES for the industry.
It’s true that a case can be made that the project documentation itself supports the vision and mission statements, but nothing directly points to a need for project branding.
The strategy is of no use either regarding supporting needs as it lays out the project structure but not anything about branding. And what is branding? Ultimately, isn’t it a way to communicate with an audience?
The reason there is no mention of how branding fits into the strategy is that the Cryptiquest Guide to Marketing has not been defined yet (it’s currently scheduled as the project to do after the Cryptiquest Guide to Project Management).
I believe this branding guide needs to be put on hiatus until the Guide to Marketing is complete.
Action Items
- Move CQ Guide to Marketing to top of project queue.
- Ensure the PM Branding Kick-off session remains in the queue after the CQ Guide to Marketing.