Hey its Rarabeast,

You’ve made it to the final stretch—your project is wrapping up, and it’s time to take a step back and review. But before you start celebrating (or sighing with relief), there’s one crucial step left: the project review and debrief.

This step is where the magic happens. It’s where you reflect on what worked, what didn’t, and how you can improve for next time. But here’s the thing: a good debrief isn’t just about pointing out problems—it’s about learning, growing, and making sure your future projects are even more successful.

So let’s dive in and make sure you’re conducting reviews that will lead to real progress.

Why Conduct Project Reviews?

At the end of every project, it’s easy to rush through the debrief just to check it off your to-do list. But skipping this process is a missed opportunity. A good review helps you:

Identify what went well—so you can repeat those successes
Spot areas for improvement—so you don’t make the same mistakes next time
Ensure continuous learning within your team, making everyone stronger for the next project

And the best part? You don’t have to do this alone. The review is a chance for your team to come together, share insights, and collaboratively plan for better outcomes in the future.

How to Conduct an Effective Project Review in Notion

Here’s how you can structure a meaningful review with Notion to make sure you capture the right insights and data:

1. Create a Project Review Dashboard
Start by building a dedicated Review Dashboard in Notion. This will be your central hub for all feedback, lessons learned, and action items. You can break the dashboard down into these sections:

What Went Well: This is your opportunity to highlight successes—whether it’s meeting deadlines, staying on budget, or smooth team collaboration. Don’t just list accomplishments—reflect on why those things went well and how you can replicate them.
What Could Have Gone Better: Get real here. Where did things fall short? Were there delays? Budget overruns? Poor communication? The goal isn’t to blame but to reflect and find ways to improve.
Action Items for Next Time: What will you do differently next time? Capture key takeaways and strategies for improvement. This could be anything from adjusting your workflow to improving communication channels or incorporating new tools.

2. Use Feedback Templates
For a more structured review, use feedback templates in Notion. These templates can be used by each team member to submit their thoughts after the project ends. Here are a few prompts to get them started:

What were the biggest successes of this project?
Where do you think we could improve?
What tools or processes helped the most (or least)?
Was the project timeline realistic? If not, how can we adjust for next time?
What would you recommend for future projects?

Pro Tip: Create a “Team Reflection” page where everyone can leave their feedback in real time. This allows everyone to voice their opinions without a formal meeting, and you can refer back to it when writing the final debrief.

3. Build a Timeline of Key Events
Use Notion’s Timeline View to document the critical milestones throughout the project, as well as any key decisions or changes made along the way. This allows you to see what went well (or poorly) at each point in the project and identify areas where you could streamline processes or change course next time.

4. Set Up Actionable Takeaways
Don’t let all the great insights go to waste. At the end of the review, make sure you have actionable takeaways that you can implement immediately. For each problem identified, create a solution and assign a team member to own it. This ensures that the learning doesn’t stop once the project is over—it’s a springboard for future improvement.

Why This Works

A solid project review process isn’t just about reflecting on the past. It’s about proactively improving the future. By capturing feedback, identifying pain points, and setting action items in Notion, you ensure that your projects continue to improve over time.

Pro Tip: If you’re working on a series of projects or ongoing initiatives, revisit your project review dashboard regularly. Over time, you’ll start to spot recurring patterns that you can fix before they become problems.

What’s Next?

In our final email, we’ll wrap up this series with A Recap—how to apply what you’ve learned from this project and implement those lessons across all your future projects. You’ve got this!

P.S: If by this point you haven't tried Notion, you don't know all the advantages you can give yourself by just trying. I did and I have never ever ever looked back. So far, I'm loving it.

Until then,
RARABEAST🗲

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