Major vs. Minor Projects: How Our Portfolio Companies Can Engage with OpenView Labs

August 26, 2014

OV portfolio work
When it comes to working with our portfolio companies, there are two primary ways that the OpenView Labs Team can help: with major projects and minor projects.

Major Projects

Major projects have a clear, “S.M.A.R.T.” end goal, and will require multiple steps over multiple weeks from start to finish. There are typically numerous people from both the portfolio company and the OpenView team(s) involved, and the project is 100% aligned to a major business goal that the CEO has confirmed as being a top priority.
We’ve completed a wide variety of major projects for our portfolio companies over the years, spanning from lead generation to market research to sales and marketing operations and recruiting.
Specific examples include:

  • Candidate searches across all functional business areas
  • Quantitative lead modeling and lead prioritization
  • Identifying, evaluating, and prioritizing potential market opportunities and segments
  • Building and training outbound and/or inbound lead generation teams
  • Auditing a company’s website and inbound marketing strategy, and helping to implement an optimization plan

A Quick Note on Workplans

Any major project will have a workplan that all stakeholders agree on prior to kick off. In the workplan, each step of the project is clearly articulated with the following components:

  • Phase
  • Task
  • Ownership
  • Deadline
  • Dependencies
  • Expected Time

Here is an example of how that type of project might play out between the Labs Growth team and one of our portfolio companies:
Screen Shot 2014-06-21 at 11.32.30 AM

Minor Projects

Minor projects typically don’t require a workplan, as they will likely only take 1-2 weeks to complete. Minor projects don’t require sign off from a CEO, and while there still is an end goal, they are more about helping fix a small problem that a mid-level manager might be having that is holding them back from achieving their business objectives.
Examples of minor projects include:

  • Job description creation/editing support
  • Competitive compensation analysis
  • Marketing strategy advisory calls
  • Portfolio sales workshops at OpenView
  • Helping to select, configure, and/or optimize sales and marketing technologies

Regardless of the type of project we work on with our companies we strive to make impact — and quick impact at that! Major or minor, we will always ask the question, “Will this really move the needle, or is there something that is a greater priority that we can be helping you with?”
You can learn more about how we work with our portfolio companies by checking out our OpenView Labs brochure.