Achieving the company’s five-year goals in just eight months is an impressive feat. This is exactly what Populytics has accomplished. However, this also raises the question: how do you maintain control over your projects during such rapid growth? This blog delves deeper into Populytics’ successful approach and offers insights for other service-oriented companies.
Populytics: innovation and participation
Populytics emerged from academic research and has not slowed down since. The company applies an innovative methodology to better involve citizens in government decision-making. Through the use of Participatory Value Evaluation (PVE), citizens can digitally take the place of ministers, politicians, and other decision-makers. They engage with an issue and advise decision-makers, ensuring citizens are effectively involved in government decisions. Shira Hollanders, director of Populytics, explains: “Our goal is to truly make the voice of the citizen count. With our methodology, we can present complex decisions in an understandable way and make meaningful participation possible.”
Calmer waters
Since its founding at the end of 2020, Populytics has grown rapidly. “After five months, I fully committed and became a co-owner of the company, and we now have 14 employees, 12 of whom are in the research team,” Shira says. “Our clients are mainly ministries, provinces, and municipalities. We are now in calmer waters, which is what we wanted. We no longer need to move at the same frantic pace as the past years.”
In addition to government agencies, Populytics is now also targeting the business sector as a new market to involve employees in decisions that affect them. “We remain ambitious,” Shira adds.
From little insight to calm and clarity
At the start of their journey, Shira and her team had little insight into their finances and were dealing with a labor-intensive bookkeeping process. This changed quickly when they were introduced to Enbition in the spring of 2021. “Tjitze from Enbition helped us largely automate our bookkeeping and brought structure to our financial planning and project management. That brought us a lot of peace,” Shira says. Tjitze from Enbition adds: “Starting a business out of passion is fantastic, but in the long term, it’s necessary to have good control over your projects. This helps you manage costs, monitor results, maintain satisfied customers and employees, and, above all, ensure profitability!”
Project Control
How do you, as a consultancy company, maintain control over your projects? Tjitze offers three tips:
- Monitor projects from the lead phase. Your first conversation with a lead is the start of the project. How big is the deal? How much time can you spend on it? Does the client have a budget? Also, include the financial goals of a project from the start so you’re not surprised later.
- Make one person responsible for the project. This person should report on everything, including finances. This is what we call project control. Even if this person doesn’t execute all tasks, they maintain an overall view.
- Set clear goals for margins and results. How much margin do you want on a project? Do you always aim for 10% or 30%? Clear goals are essential for effective project management—make them measurable.
Sharing goals
A crucial element in aligning your entire organization is making your goals clear within the company. Tjitze explains: “Populytics has done this well by applying the Objectives and Key Results (OKR) methodology, setting goals, measuring and tracking them regularly. They also share their goals with the entire organization, so everyone is aware and involved in working toward the common goal.”
Enbition tailors its approach to you
“Enbition is an accessible and pragmatic organization,” Shira says. “They consider the stage your company is in and adjust their approach accordingly. They are flexible in their thinking, which is great.”
Want to experience what Enbition can do for you in terms of project control? Contact Tjitze!