A number of our members use their Manual of Me for Teams for people outside of their business. Rather than inviting their colleagues to complete and share their manuals, they invite their clients to complete a short Manual of Me, so they can get to know their new partners rapidly.
Using a Manual of Me with clients is a brilliant use case. When you're starting work with a new client, it's essential for you to understand how they work, what motivates them, how they need to communication information, and understand the way in which you can collaborate effectively.
One of the approaches is to invite your client to your Manual of Me account - and ask them to complete a series of questions. Our platform allows you to invite external members of a project, not just your colleagues.
An alternative approach which we've seen used frequently is hosting a project kickoff session, using the Manual of Me as a framework for getting to know your client, and helping your client to get to know you and your team. We host kickoff sessions for organisations too - helping everyone in the group connect and start collaborations effectively - creating a Manual of Me for a project team, listing people's needs and preferences, and some shared goals and values for the project itself.
Some of the questions you might like to consider in a Manual of Me for clients might include operational aspects, for example:
- What timezones do you work on, and when are you based in the office?
- When do your internal status meetings happen?
- Do you prefer polished finalised outputs or getting involved in the process?
- What are the biggest challenges in getting projects completed within your organisation?
Questions could include motivational goals, such as:
- What makes this project important to you and your organisation?
- What would make you hugely proud about this project's success?
- Why are you excited about this project happening?
Questions could be as simple as getting to know the core members of the team, for instance:
- Who in the team is the best at generating new ideas?
- Who would you like to work more closely with and why?
- Who within your organisation would you love to get involved?
- What surprising skill might you bring to the project that we don't know about?
Many of these questions are fantastic to include in a face to face kickoff session, and capturing them in a Manual of Me helps you refer back to the motivations and needs of your clients, but also helps everyone in the team to be more aware of the dynamics in the group - not just those who could attend a kickoff.
Use the Manual of Me platform to create a team, invite your colleagues, manage privacy to keep their responses private or public within your team, or invite us in to host a project kickoff session making the most of your Manual of Me.
