This video is about mapping your company's activities in Leadtime through projects. The focus is on ongoing internal projects – everything your company does to organize itself.
First, the basic principle is explained: Every company has internal activities (marketing, accounting, IT, etc.) and external activities (customer orders). External projects finance everything else. As long as internal activities aren't systematically tracked, it remains unclear how much capacity actually flows into value-creating work – and that's not enough for strategic decisions.
In Leadtime, every department is set up as its own project. The key concept is the four value groups: Value Group A (green) represents directly value-creating activities like customer orders. Value Group B (yellow) represents indirectly value-creating activities like marketing or sales that prepare future revenue. Value Group C (orange) covers necessary but non-value-creating activities like accounting. Value Group D (red) is waste – technical failures, waiting times, or failed projects.
These value groups serve as a strategic steering instrument: You can shift capacity, cross-finance, or optimize in a targeted way. The recommended strategies are: expand A, balance B with A, minimize and automate C, eliminate D.
The video walks you through creating an ongoing internal project step by step (project type: Ongoing Internal, category, status, value group, description, team assignment) and shows what a sensible project structure could look like. Finally, you're encouraged to brainstorm with your team, collect all internal topics, assign them to value groups, and transfer the structure into Leadtime.
In the last videos we've accomplished quite a bit. You set up your own team, your employees with all the important data. You created organizations, all the companies you work with. And you added the contact persons of these organizations.
Now comes the next step: Mapping the activities of your company. And in Leadtime this happens through projects.
By activities I simply mean all topics that consume working time in your company. In this video we focus on ongoing internal projects. Everything your company does to organize itself.
I'm now showing a visualization.
You see two areas: On the left the internal activities, on the right the external activities for customers.
On the left side you see typical internal topics: Sales, Marketing, Accounting, Human Resources, IT Administration, Product Development, Office Organization.
On the right side are the customer orders. These are the projects that bring direct revenue.
And here's the crucial point: The customer orders finance everything else. Everything on the left must be paid for by what comes in on the right.
That sounds obvious. But here's where the problem often lies: In many companies, internal activities are not systematically tracked. Everyone is busy, no question. But how much time actually flows into value-creating work? And how much into internal topics?
As long as you don't track this, it remains pure guesswork. And if you want to make decisions about investments, personnel or processes as a managing director, that's simply not enough.
That's why we're now bringing structure to your internal activities.
In Leadtime, every department can be understood as a project. That makes complete sense.
For the work of the marketing department you create a separate Leadtime project. Same for accounting, sales, HR, IT administration.
These projects are ongoing. They have no fixed end. Here it's about managing topics that come up again and again in day-to-day work.
The advantage: Your employees can track their time not just on customer projects, but on everything they do. Seamlessly and without detours.
I'm now showing a second visualization.
You see four categories: A, B, C and D. These are the value groups. They help you allocate the capacity available in your company strategically at any time.
Value Group A is green. These are value-creating activities. They bring revenue and are done on behalf of a customer. These are your external projects. This is where you make money.
Value Group B is yellow. These are indirectly value-creating activities. They aim to improve revenue in the future. For example sales, marketing or product development. They don't bring direct revenue, but they create the basis for future business.
Value Group C is orange. These are non value-creating activities. They have no impact on revenue but still need to be done. Typical examples: Accounting, administrative tasks, HR.
Value Group D is red. That's waste. Activities that bring neither revenue nor any other benefit. Technical failures, waiting times, failed projects. This happens for various reasons but should be tracked.
Why is this so important? Because it lets you steer your capacity strategically.
A few examples:
You need more revenue? Then shift capacity to A. Fewer people on internal projects, more people on customer projects.
You're wondering if you can afford a product development? Look at A. Is A generating enough revenue? Then you can put an employee on B and cross-finance it.
You notice too much time disappearing into C? Then optimize, automate or outsource.
You regularly see high times in D? Then identify the causes and eliminate them.
Remember: Projects in Value Group A pay for the whole party. Your job as managing director is to balance these things against each other.
Below each value group you also see the recommended strategy:
For A: Rationalize and expand. You want more here.
For B: Evaluate precisely and balance with A. Do we really need this right now?
For C: Minimize and optimize. Automation, standardization.
For D: Eliminate and reduce. You want to get to zero here.
I'm opening the project list now. You find it in the main menu under Projects.
The tabs at the top help you filter. What's interesting for us now is the tab Internal Projects.
Here you see all internal projects of your company. In a new workspace this list is still empty.
I go to the area Your Company and then Internal Projects. This is where we'll build our structure.
I click Create Project.
The dialog is important, so I'll go through it step by step.
First icon and name. I choose a megaphone and call the project Marketing.
Then the project type. There are four variants here: Single Internal, Ongoing Internal, Single External and Ongoing External.
We want to create ongoing internal projects. So I set it to Ongoing and Internal. The field for the deadline disappears because an ongoing project has no end.
For project category I choose Internal Activity.
For project status I choose Ongoing Implementation. That fits because these projects run permanently.
Now to the value group. Marketing aims to improve revenue in the future. It doesn't bring direct revenue but creates the basis for new customers. So Value Group B.
For the project description I briefly write what it's about: All regularly occurring tasks in the marketing area.
I set the default responsible to the person who keeps an eye on this topic.
On the right side I can select task types and activities. For marketing, Management fits. I can deselect the others.
Finally I add the relevant employees or teams.
Save. The project appears in the list with the abbreviation INT-1.
Let me show you what a typical structure could look like.
For the area with indirect value creation, so Value Group B: Marketing, Sales, Product Development, Quality Management.
For the area without direct value creation, so Value Group C: Accounting, Human Resources, IT Administration, Office Organization, Legal Affairs.
For waste, so Value Group D: A project for Technical Issues. Here employees book time when servers fail or systems don't work.
I'll now create a few more projects.
Accounting. Ongoing, Internal, Value Group C. Because accounting must be done but creates no direct value.
IT Administration. Ongoing, Internal, Value Group C.
Technical Issues. Ongoing, Internal, Value Group D. This is important: When a server crashes and three people wait for two hours, they book the time here. This way you see at the end of the year how much capacity was lost to disruptions.
Now it's your turn.
Do a brainstorming session with your colleagues. Collect all ongoing internal topics that exist in your company. Sales, marketing, accounting, IT, human resources, and so on.
I would use a mind map for this. Miro or Figjam work well. Or a Google Sheet if you prefer working in table form. Also works on a flipchart or with pen and paper.
Assign each topic to a value group. B for indirectly value-creating, C for non value-creating, D for waste.
And then transfer the structure to your Leadtime workspace.
You now understand how ongoing internal projects work in Leadtime.
Every department can be a project. The value groups help you steer your capacity strategically. A pays for everything else, so keep your system in balance.
Take the time to build your structure now. The earlier you do this, the faster you get transparency about your internal activities.
In the next video we'll look at external projects. The customer orders that bring the revenue.
See you there!
