What is your biggest challenge when starting a project?

Biggest challenge? Clarity. A lot of projects start with a vague goal — like “make it better” or “get everything.” Sounds fine, but unless everyone agrees on what success looks like, you end up spinning your wheels or fixing the wrong thing.

Let me know if you want to dig deeper.

one of my biggest challenge when starting project, it's when the goals are not Clear and the find a Realistic Scope. i remember i was working on a project and i suppose to deliver some structural advise and structural design but the client wasn't clear about what he really need to build, therefore starting this project was a challenge and also respecting the delail was a challenge as the deliverable was not clear

Unclear objective and lack of proper planning at the initial stages of the project are my biggest challenge when starting a project.

From experience, the biggest challenge when starting a project is unclear roles and responsibilities — in simple terms: "Who owns what?"

When this isn't defined, it leads to:

- Tasks falling through the cracks
- Project delays due to a lack of ownership
- Micromanagement and duplicated effort, since no one knows who’s responsible for what

I've seen cases where two people unknowingly work on the same task, or worse — nobody does it at all. It creates confusion, wastes time, and erodes team trust.

A strategy that’s worked well for us is defining which "hat" each team member is wearing at the start of the project. That means:

- Clarifying their role
- Outlining their key responsibilities
- Setting expectations and measurable outcomes

This simple step eliminates ambiguity and gets everyone aligned from day one.

Happy to chat more!

Projects stumble out of the gate when teams don’t share a clear vision of success. That’s why I start every job by defining what “good” looks like—from both the client’s and the internal team’s point of view. That shared vision drives the scope, schedule, and risk plan—anchored in strong communication practices.
Need help setting that up on your next project? Let’s jump on a quick call and lay the groundwork together.