How to apply one of my all-time success factors - modularity

Welcome to Success Factors Discovery, your weekly email connecting you to moments of inspiration. Enjoy delivering highly successful projects.
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This week: Understand what modular means for your project, and a free/quick tool to identify your modular options.

🔶 Quick Request: Can you help shape the future of project delivery?
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​I am working on an online tool. Its aim is to make it really easy for you, me, all of us to apply Success Factors.
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To work, it needs to be built against challenges project managers face.
In case you can spare 5 minutes to support this movement to make it easier to do what matters the most: ​

​👉 Take the short survey​

Building with lego

Have you ever worked on something big, only for things to begin to unravel as soon as it was built or went live?

If so, there’s a high chance that one cause may have been this: your project wasn’t repeating what had worked before.

Sounds easy - and it can be. Fixing this is also a lot of fun.

I’ll quickly explain the concept, then give you a tool that may help.

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Quick version: What is modular design?

• Modularity means building your project out of small, repeatable units instead of one big all-or-nothing solution.
• Think of it as using Lego blocks rather than sculpting a single giant statue.
• Each block can be built, tested and improved on its own.

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Examples

Modular:

• Reusing the same design you used on a previous project with almost no changes.
• Rolling out a change one department at a time.
• Construction where each floor or unit is a repeatable design.

Non-modular:

• A big-bang IT launch where everything goes live at once.
• A one-off, fully bespoke building or system.
• A rail or road project that only works when all sections are complete.

Why this matters

Studies show that you’re much more likely to deliver on time, to cost and with less risk if you use a modular approach.

• Learn from each block, so every next step becomes easier and better.
• Deliver faster because small parts can go live while the rest is still being built.
• Reduce risk because problems show up early, not at the end.

It's also a lot more fun, experimenting on something small and low risk. Who doesn't want that?

📆 Tuesday Action

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👉 Click the link and brainstorm modular options for your project. Even 5 minutes will help you see your choices more clearly and avoid big-bang risks.

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Ask this ChatGPT - What's your lego →

What's your lego?
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This one's a game changer.
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See you next Tuesday.

Greg

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