Your Complete Template for Team & Project Management

📌About This Series:

You’re about to get the exact framework we use to run projects and manage our team without losing our minds. Weekly plans that don’t fall apart. Check-ins that aren’t a waste of time. Meetings that people don’t dread. This series shows you the whole map and gives you the turn-by-turn directions.

📌Part 1 of 4: Your Complete Template for Team & Project Management (System Overview)

I asked a very busy interior design studio owner how they manage their projects to see if they need help.

His answer was "we are okay."

They casually meet every Monday morning to "check in." The owner asks how things are going. Everyone replies "good but…" Someone mentions a delay, another a brand new problem. They dig into it for sometime. Meeting adjourned.

He did eventually admit most meetings concluded with less clarity and more confusion based on lots of team chat questions that followed.

And here's the thing: For a small team with a handful of projects, that might feel like enough.

But it's not a system. It's just reactive conversations.

And the moment you have a bit more than what you're used to, it collapses.

The "Just Talking" Trap

Here's what I see all the time in creative firms:

✅ Monday morning meetings

✅ Verbal updates

✅ "Let me know if you need anything"

✅ Owner carries the mental load of every project

It feels like oversight. But it's actually just managing the aftermath of the work, not the work itself.

You're not getting ahead of problems. You're responding to them after they've already caused delays.

And the cost? Cognitive overload.

The owner spends the weekend thinking, "Did I forget something? Is anyone stuck? Are we going to miss that deadline?"

There's no system. There's just hope and caffeine.

It's the business equivalent of keeping your receipts in a shoebox. Sure, it's technically a method. But it's not a strategy.

What We Do Instead

I'm going to share the exact system we use ourselves and implement for our clients.

It's not complicated. It's not expensive. And you can start next week.

Here's the plan:

📌 Daily: One focused task declaration (in team chat)

📌 Fridays: Self check-in form + 15-min sync with leadership

📌 Thursdays: Team Lab (bagels/culture/strategy meeting)

📌 Quarterly: Internal + client projects with milestone tracking

📌 Quarterly: Celebration of wins

Let's walk through each piece.

🎯 The Foundation: Quarterly Planning (How We Set Weekly Goals)

Before we get into the daily and weekly rhythms, let me show you where the goals come from.

Because if you don't have clear project plans with weekly milestones, your check-ins become aimless status reports.

Here's how we do it:

Step 1: Break Down the Project (With AI)

When we assign a new project (client or internal), I don't spend hours manually planning it out.

I use AI.

I give it:

• The project goal

• The constraints (budget, timeline, resources)

• The unknowns (what we need to research)

• How many hours per week the team member can dedicate

Then I ask it to break the project into week-by-week milestones.

It takes about 10 minutes. The AI does the heavy lifting. I review and tweak.

Why this works:

It solves "blank page paralysis." Big projects feel overwhelming. But when you see "Week 1: Research vendor options. Week 2: Draft proposal," suddenly it's manageable.

Step 2: The Team Member Refines It (Week 1)

I don't just hand them the plan and say "go."

In Week 1, their only job is to review the plan and make it their own.

They adjust timelines. They flag unrealistic expectations. They commit to the weekly goals.

By the end of Week 1, they own the plan. It's not something I imposed. It's something we built together.

Step 3: Weekly Check-Ins Keep It On Track

Starting in Week 2, we use the Friday Rhythm (more on that in a sec) to check: Did you hit this week's goal? If not, why? What's the plan for next week?

The project plan gives us the roadmap. The weekly check-ins keep us from drifting off course.

(I'll share the exact AI prompts I use in next week's article. It's a game-changer.)

Now that you know where the goals come from, let's talk about the daily and weekly rhythms that keep everything moving.

📅 Daily: The "One Big Thing" Declaration

Every morning, when our team says "good morning" in our team chat (we use Slack, but this works in Microsoft Teams or Google Chat too), they also post one thing they're focusing on today.

The format:

"Good morning team! Today I will focus on [specific task]."

Why it works:

• Public accountability. The whole team sees it.

• Clarity. No multitasking fog. Just one priority.

• No end-of-day check-in required. We're not micromanaging. We're setting intention.

Enforcement:

If someone posts something vague or skips the format, I drop a reminder with a link to the template.

Consistency matters more than perfection.

📋 Fridays: The Rhythm That Keeps Us On Track

This is the heartbeat of the system.

It has two parts: a self check-in form and a 15-minute one-on-one sync.

Part 1: The Self Check-In Form (Friday, 12:00 PM)

Every team member fills out a short form. It takes 3 minutes.

We keep it to 5 to 7 questions. They're designed to feel natural and non-overwhelming.

We use star ratings for things like energy levels and how client work is going. Then there's space for any blockers or notes.

Why it works:

It's "automating empathy."

I can spot burnout or frustration before the meeting starts. I'm not blindsided. I'm prepared.

And here's the thing: Team members tend to be more relaxed when filling out the form. They share things they might not feel comfortable bringing up face-to-face.

(I'll walk you through the exact questions and how to set this up in a future article.)

Part 2: The 15-Minute One-on-One Sync (Friday, 2:00 PM)

This is not a group meeting. Everyone must report to someone.

The structure:

First 5 minutes: Personal check-in (based on the form responses)

Next 5 minutes: "Planned vs. Actual." Did you hit the project goal we set last week? If not, why?

Final 5 minutes: Set the specific goal for next week

The accountability piece:

If someone didn't hit their goal, we don't just roll it forward. We pause. We talk about what blocked them. We make a plan to catch up.

And if it's a recurring issue, I flag the project as "at risk" in our project management tool so there's visibility across the team.

If the issue keeps happening, we dig deeper:

• Bad timing? Reschedule this project. Switch them to something else from the backlog.

• Bad plan? All-hands session to rebuild the plan.

• External factors? Learn the lesson. Cut losses fast. Reassign.

• Mismatched assignment? Figure out who made the mistake. Adjust. Move on.

Why it works:

It's proactive, not reactive.

You're not hearing about problems on Monday when it's already too late. You're catching drift on Friday and adjusting before the weekend.

🎯 Quarterly: Setting Goals and Celebrating Wins

Here's a principle we live by:

Everyone needs a win every 90 days.

It doesn't matter if it's a completed project or a major milestone. People need to feel like they're making progress.

So here's what we do:

Every Team Member Gets a Quarterly Goal

Whether it's a client project or an internal one, we set a clear goal for the quarter.

For a client project that will span multiple quarters, the goal might be: "Complete design phase by end of Q2."

For an internal project, it might be: "Build and test the new client onboarding process."

Why milestones matter:

In creative work, projects can take forever. An architecture project? Eighteen months minimum. A rebrand? Six months of revisions.

Without internal markers, your team never feels like they're winning.

So we break big things into quarterly chunks. And we celebrate when we hit them.

Internal Projects: Everyone Contributes

Here's something most firms don't do:

Every team member also gets one internal project per quarter.

Not client work. Work on the business.

Examples:

• Testing a new client-facing process template

• Reorganizing our file storage system

Why this matters:

Everyone should contribute to making the company better. Everyone should add their own skill and perspective to the mix.

It's not just about billable hours. It's about ownership and improvement.

Quarterly Celebrations

At the end of each quarter, we hold a special edition of Team Lab (more on Team Lab below).

We recognize:

✅ Every project completed

✅ Every milestone hit

✅ Every team member who shipped something

It's not just about productivity. It's about momentum and morale.

🤝 Thursdays: Team Lab

This is our company-wide meeting. It's not about project updates (that's what the Friday sync is for).

It's about culture, strategy, and alignment.

Whether we're serving bagels and loads of cream cheese or focus and loads of empathy to someone on Zoom, the goal is to stay together and connected.

We record these meetings so anyone who's out can catch up later, and new hires can watch past sessions to get up to speed.

Here's the structure:

Part 1: Bagels and Social (30 minutes)

No work talk. Just connection.

This is where we're human beings, not just task machines.

Part 2: Company News

• Internal updates: Policy or system changes

• External updates: New clients, wins, project kickoffs

• What's on our radar: Anything that impacts the company (a project that's going sideways, a resource crunch, a big opportunity). This is where we ask for help and share what needs attention.

• Upcoming: Out-of-office schedules, holidays, anything the team should know

Part 3: Knowledge Sharing

Each team member shares one major lesson learned, something they figured out this week that others can benefit from.

Not everyone will have something every week, and that's fine. But we ask everyone to contribute at least every other week.

The rule: If a topic needs a longer conversation, we schedule it separately with the people who need to be there. We don't hijack the whole meeting.

Why Team Lab works:

It keeps people connected to the "why," not just the "what."

It reminds everyone they're part of something bigger than their task list.

And it's a forcing function for the owner to communicate clearly and consistently instead of assuming everyone just "gets it."

(I'll break down the full Team Lab structure, including how we handle the quarterly celebration edition, in a future article.)

📊 Project Dashboard: How We Ensure Smooth Flight, Maintain Altitude, and Arrive on Time

Here's how we track everything:

We use a project dashboard in our project management tool.

It shows:

✅ Closed projects (what we've shipped)

🟢 Active projects (what's in motion)

🔴 At-risk projects (what needs attention)

🟡 Scheduled projects (not started yet, but assigned and planned)

⚪ Backlog (requires assignment and planning)

Plus we have:

• Timeline view (so we can see load month-by-month)

• List view (so we can review everything fast)

• Kanban view (so we can see everything grouped by status)

• Visual graphs for quick analysis

• Numbers representing open projects and projects at risk

• Year-ahead graph so we can see what's coming

Why this works:

It's all the gauges you need to keep your eyes on to fly your plane no matter what comes your way.

No guessing. No "I think we're on track."

Why This Works (And Why You Need It)

This system is:

✅ Manageable. You can start next week.

✅ Sensible. It solves real problems (drift, burnout, invisibility).

✅ Simple. No MBA required.

✅ Proven. We use it. It works.

But here's the real reason it works:

It replaces guessing and hoping with systems and structure.

You're not carrying everything in your head anymore.

You're not clenching your jaw through the weekend wondering if something fell through the cracks.

You have a rhythm. A system. A way to know, really know, that your team is moving forward.

What About New Hires?

When someone joins, they spend their first quarter learning the rhythm.

Training. Exposure. Observation.

Quarter two? They're in. They get their first project. They're part of the system.

We also have a "How We Flow" video where I walk them through the principles, the why behind the system.

Because if people just follow rules, they'll cut corners. But if they buy in, they'll protect the rhythm themselves.

Start Here

You don't have to build all of this at once.

Start with one thing:

The Daily Declaration in your team chat. Or the Friday self check-in form. Or just the 15-minute sync.

Pick the piece that solves your biggest pain point right now.

Or do it right from the start: Put together the plan, let your team know, and set a start date in the near future so you can introduce the new flight path once and for all.

Because here's the truth: Consistency beats complexity.

A simple system you actually use is worth more than a perfect system you abandon in two weeks.

What's Next

Over the next few weeks, I'm going to break down each piece of this system:

📌 Next week: The AI prompts I use to turn big projects into week-by-week plans

📌 Week 3: The exact Friday self check-in form and the one-on-one sync process (questions, workflow, how to review in 5 minutes)

📌 Week 4: The full Team Lab structure (how to run a meeting that actually matters, and why it's worth the cost of having everyone in the room)

Each article will stand alone, so if you just need one piece, grab it and run.

But if you want the full system, you'll have everything you need.

You don't have to keep flying blind.

There's a way out. And it starts today.

Need help setting this up for your team? Let's chat.