The REX team is basically three kids in a trench coat, except there’s five of us and we all wear hoodies. One of our strengths however is project management, and we knew the only way to get from egg to full on dinosaur was to follow a plan.

This meant we all needed defined roles and someone had to lead. We already had a project plan in place the Innovate UK grant application which had objectives set within fixed timescales, with agile sprints in between.

We invested in some fancy project management software to help us track the project which we promptly forgot about as trello was actually better for this one, and also free. The regular reporting requirements for Innovate UK dictated how we measured the success of the project, and we have now adopted their technical readiness level scale across all our projects.

As this was a grant funded project there were specific requirements that we needed to fulfil, but this really helped us to scope, monitor and deliver the project. It turns out having someone external to report to, in this case our Innovate UK Monitoring Officer, is not only a great motivator, but can also provide an objective perspective on how things are progressing.

Our advice for smaller teams and projects:

• Don’t waste money on fancy software for smaller projects like REX, Trello works just as well and its free.
• Set high-level milestones and that you can add requirements in to. We moved a ton of stuff around to accommodate unforeseen additions and delays.
• Don’t double up on responsibilities, its inefficient, but also super easy to do. Empower people to be responsible for their objective and let them get on with it.
• Pairing is caring. Having people working together on subprojects means more innovation and particularly for people who’ve been isolating provides much needed interaction.
• If you’re running a funded project read though all the guidance, the webinars, and read emails carefully. They have very specific reporting requirements which can be complicated and getting things wrong can really hold up claims.
• Work out the skills you think you need to fit the requirements before you start. Getting people with multiple skills or backgrounds can be more efficient. Don’t underestimate how time consuming recruitment is, it can really hold you up.
• If you don’t have a very specific domain expertise within your team, but it’s project critical, it can be way cheaper to buy it in from a consultant than try figure it out yourself. Times is money and learning new skills takes time.