The Iron Triangle: How To Understand This Crucial Project Management Model
Have you ever heard of the Service Triangle? Sometimes it's represented as a Venn diagram. In both cases, you are presented with the three qualities of service; Good, Cheap, and Fast. When it comes to getting services, you can only pick two! Let's break it down.
What Is the Product Management Triangle?
The Product Management Triangle is a model used by digital marketing agencies and other service businesses around the world. The three points of the triangle are "Good", "Cheap," and "Fast." These three factors are generally what clients look for when deciding to work with you for services. For example, a business might choose one digital marketing agency over another because they offer cheaper prices, better work, or faster results. But have you really ever encountered a situation where you can find all three? Odd are, you haven't because it's pretty impossible. You can have any two of the options, but not all three. You may also have seen the Iron Triangle represented as a Venn diagram instead. On Venn diagrams you can see the tiny section in the very center where all three elements overlap. However, that midpoint is just saying that all three elements are average; your service will be adequate (from good), reasonably priced (from cheap), and passably quick (from fast). If you want exceptional service in these areas, you'll have to pick just two!
Why can't you have it all? That's an excellent question! Think of it this way, If you have a team of six digital marketers working on your project, you can assume that there are two focused on each point of the triangle; two want the work to be good, two want the work to be cheap, and two want the work to be fast. If you want your project to be faster than normal and higher-quality than normal, those two elements will need help. Suddenly you've lost both teammates focusing on affordability! There's only so much effort that can be put into one account, so when you ask for more of one quality, we have to sacrifice another for it.
Good + Fast = Not Cheap
Let's say you chose Good and Fast as the two qualities from the Project Management Triangle that you want to focus on. Well, that means that the extra effort has to be taken from the Cheap section! This makes perfect sense in a business standpoint, or really any project. If you approach a digital marketing agency and ask them to provide excellent social media marketing on a rushed timeline, you should be fully prepared to pay top dollar for it. In this scenario, you are requesting their best work faster than they typically provide it. It will take them a lot more man power and time to get that done, which will cost you a fee. If there weren't rush fees or higher costs associated with rushed work, digital marketing agencies would be taken advantage of regularly and the team would burn out. As we said, you can't have everything, and something has to give when you take more. In this case, you trade affordability for speed and quality.
Good + Cheap = Not Fast
Let's take a look at scenario two; you want good work that's affordable. No problem! However, getting results like this won't be a fast process. If you're not willing to spend more money, it doesn't make sense for your team to rush your account. There are other accounts the digital marketing agency is handling that is paying large sums of money that will take priority. Of course, any reputable agency will do everything in their power to provide social media marketing and other work as quickly as possible, but we all know that money talks in terms of business. Your team of marketers will work to get you the high quality that you want, but because you aren't willing to pay more, it will take them longer to accomplish it. If you're asking someone to give you 150% effort without offering them compensation for it, you can't expect them to get the job done in one day. Think about any other service industry; if you take your car to the mechanic to have 15 repairs done at once but you're not willing to pay them a higher hourly rate, they'll tell you the job will get done, but not as quickly as you may like.
Fast + Cheap = Not Good
Our last example is the most tragic in our opinion. As a digital marketing agency, we take pride in putting our best foot forward for all clients. There are times when clients approach us asking for rushed social media marketing at a lower price. We tend to decline these requests simply because cheap work done fast is never good. When you mix rushed work with cheap work, the results are less-than-ideal. At BusySeed, we never want to produce or publish work that we are not 100% proud of. If we allow clients to choose these two elements from the Iron Triangle, we're setting us all up for failure. Not only will we not be pleased with what we are able to get you, but you'll be disappointed in the lack of results. If you're wondering which choice is the worst, this is definitely it. You'll get work cheap and fast, but it won't be good work, and you could end up wasting money because you don't get any results.
What Does The Iron Triangle Mean For You?
How does the Iron Triangle affect you as a client? The choices you make determine the work that you get. You need to prioritize what you want from your digital marketing agency; quality, speed, or affordability. In our opinion, the focus should always be on quality. The best work is what will get you the results you want. Far too often we see clients wanting the last option of fast and cheap. We can guarantee that no one involved will be happy with what is produced. Why do clients flock to this option so often? It does make sense from their point of view; you want to spend as little as possible and believe that faster work will get you results faster. Many clients have been led to believe that this is feasible and effective because they've worked with or had offers from freelancers promising that the client can have all three elements. Trust us; they are not telling you the truth. Freelancers who offer rock-bottom prices will not produce good work, or it will take forever. The marketing world is constantly searching for ways to make all three elements available to you, but it's so much harder than you'd think. While larger agencies can handle more rushed work because they have larger teams, most agencies can't reasonably ask their teams to work twice as hard on each account. Of course, we will always do what's in our power to help you out, but it can't become an everyday occurrence.
If you're on the hunt for a digital marketing agency that will provide you with the highest quality work, look no further than BusySeed! We offer over 20 services at very competitive prices, and our timelines are always as short as possible. We do offer rushed services when needed, but most clients find that our usual speed is more than sufficient! We've helped over 300 brands build their online presence, and we'd love to welcome you into the family. Call (888) 353-1484 to get started with us today!
