Describe your current approach to project management in a handful of bullet points.
Now ask your team to do the same.
Writing it may be challenging enough, but now compare it to what your team wrote.
If you're like most teams, those bullet points don't match up.
You're missing a fundamental shared approach – or methodology – to how you deliver great work on time and in budget.
And without a shared methodology, you can't solve the pain and chaos you're feeling.
All the tools in the world, all the templates you can buy, and all the consultants you can hire can't solve for your lack of a simple, clear methodology that is understood and shared by all in your organization.
So let's fix that.
"A clear methodology is the first step to turning chaos into predictable success."
It's impossible to effectively scale when knowledge is scattered. (expand to read why)
This principle has 3 core pillars:
Let's take these one at a time.
(if you've decided not to use ClickUp, replace it with your tool of choice)
This is a catchy mantra that teams quickly latch onto. Your people are hungry for it.
It doesn't matter how great your system is if your team doesn't use it religiously. It’s another way of saying "garbage in, garbage out."
Everyone is required to track all work in ClickUp. Every working day, no exceptions.
The only way to create a true single source of truth is to capture all project and task-related activity and key information in a single system.
We can't just start throwing everything into a tool without structure. There must be a logical framework that is easy for your team to understand and that produces the reporting needed for smarter decisions.
Your project management system should mirror your organizational structure. For example, if you're running an agency, you have 3 main areas:
The hierarchy of your project management system should reflect that structure and be consistent for ease of use.
For example, here is a sample ClickUp Hierarchy for an agency (using the Delivery team as an example):
Embracing a single tool is the first step, but it's incomplete without a consistent, coherent structure.
Your team is bought into planning, doing, and tracking their work in ClickUp. With the right structure in place, it’s time to follow the framework.
Everyone commits to making your single source of truth useful by planning work in the right place and with the right principles. You’ll hold each other accountable (see principle #5) — but it all starts with a clear shared vision and buy-in across the team.
Commit and execute.
Example: Here is an example of following the framework.
"If it’s not in ClickUp, it didn’t happen."
Every team needs a shared approach to prioritizing work. Some teams use daily standups, some use a priority flag in their PM platform, and some even use sticky notes.
But if your team truly shares and follows one prioritization approach, you’re in the extreme minority—and that’s commendable.
Start with a due date-driven approach: every actionable task in your PM system must have a due date, and tasks should be completed on or before that date. This is what we mean by "Due Date = Do Date."
(Yes, exceptions happen—and when they do, rules are in place to handle them. But if exceptions become the norm, then estimation, resource management, or priority setting isn’t working.)
This approach saves time and provides clarity. Even if you use another method, you’ll likely return to due dates as your primary means of prioritizing.
There’s a great feeling when someone tells you they’ve finished a task for you—but it’s awful when their work isn’t what you needed.
Often, unclear expectations are to blame. For repeated types of work, clear processes help you quickly communicate exactly what is expected.
When done well, these processes save time and consistently produce high-quality outcomes; when done poorly, they drain efficiency and lead to inconsistent results.
The biggest driver of quality is a team’s ability to create, follow, improve, and simplify processes.
This principle emphasizes the Follow part: your team shouldn’t have to stop their work to hunt down lengthy SOPs—they need easy, accessible "how-to" resources integrated into their workflow.
We've worked with thousands of teams. Almost all have had the best of intentions, but few have truly healthy, shared habits across the entire team.
You might have the best project management tools and processes, but if your team doesn’t follow them, all is for naught.
So, how do we build healthy shared habits?
Decide on the simple set of habits your team must follow. For our clients, we start with the 10 commandments of project management:
Start with why. Paint a picture of a more efficient, less frustrating environment for your team:
But building these habits requires commitment to new ways of working.
The 10 commandments are brief to be memorable. Now train everyone so they know exactly what that means for their daily routines. Show them what is required and test their understanding to ensure habits stick.
We’ll dive into this further in principle #5, but know that without daily accountability, these new habits won’t take root.
Building any habit is hard—multiply that by the number of team members you expect to change at once, and it becomes even tougher. That’s why accountability is our best tool.
Our tip of the spear is the ClickUp Champion, a person who plays both a reactive and proactive role:
To cement this accountability, the following 4 habits are key:
Investing in tools without investing in habits and accountability is like buying new workout gear and never going to the gym.
"Without accountability, even the best systems fall short."
There are a few additions to the ZenPilot Methodology that many teams benefit from. Here are the 3 most common:
Time tracking is critical at professional service firms—it’s about intentionality, accurate billing, improved estimates, better resource allocation, profitability insights, process improvement, and scope management.
There are hundreds of excuses for poor time tracking, but the main issue is that teams often don’t gain meaningful insights from it. If you can’t point to a decision made because of your time-tracking data, then it’s a colossal waste.
Time tracking must be done well—or not at all.
It creates benefits in three key areas:
When teams understand the “why” and see positive changes from time tracking, it becomes a powerful driver of better decisions.
No team can predict every hour of work in advance. Even teams with repeatable processes know that some work will always be unplanned.
The key is to plan for what you can and allocate a portion of your capacity for the unpredictable. For example, aim to have 80–90% of each team member’s capacity pre-planned, leaving room for those unexpected tasks.
This percentage should be tailored by organization, role, and season. For instance, an accounting firm might have 70–80% of its workload planned during tax season, with the remaining 20–30% reserved for ad hoc work.
The goal is to avoid booking team members 100% of the time, which inevitably leads to overload when new work appears.
Resource management is one of the top issues many teams face. Balancing client demand with the available supply of skills, time, and budget requires clear ownership and strategy.
Instead of relying solely on fancy capacity planning software, teams benefit from using both:
For example, consider this simplified workload estimate for a new website project over 6 weeks:
| Role | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strategist | 6h | 2h | 1h | 1h | 2h | 4h | 16h |
| PM | 4h | 2h | 2h | 2h | 2h | 2h | 14h |
| Designer | 2h | 10h | 5h | 1h | 1h | 1h | 20h |
| Developer | 2h | 2h | 18h | 18h | 10h | 10h | 60h |
| QA | 0h | 0h | 4h | 8h | 8h | 10h | 30h |
| TOTAL TIME | 14h | 16h | 30h | 30h | 33h | 27h | 140h |
Bottom-up resourcing handles day-to-day work, while top-down helps with long-term strategic planning. Together, they ensure you’re prepared for both predictable and unforeseen workload fluctuations.
There's great news - you don't have to do this all by yourself!
ZenPilot exists to build productive, profitable, and healthy teams. We help your team fully adopt the right methodology — not just at a high level, but fully implemented across your tools, processes, and habits. Want help?
Book a call today to get your team fully aligned and doing their best work together inside a single source of truth.
ZenPilot helps teams get the right tools, processes, and habits in place to double their productivity and fix their project management once and for all.
We are ClickUp's highest-rated Solutions Partner, and have helped over 3,000 teams streamline their operations with the ZenPilot Methodology.
