Project Management

A Project Manager (PM) job starts right after a new project has been sealed and assigned with a starting date, a deadline and a Team. As a PM it is absolutely fundamental you are an expert about our working methodologies, processes and communication

Be organised

Keep everything neat and things where they are supposed to be. Being organised and keeping track of everything will make your life much easier. Create tasks and document them straight away. Don’t let things get lost nor un-acted upon.

Keep everything on record

After every meeting or every relevant chat, create a new entry at the Client Communication block. Getting every change request or feedback recorded and saved means it won’t be lost either in your memory or on Slack’s feed.

Manage expectations

This is a tricky one. Managing client’s expectation has no recipe. In fact, it is more of a sensorial, gut-feeling capability rather than a technical skill that can be acquired.

Of course, delivering things on time will have the greatest impact. Keeping open, steady communication channels and things transparent will be important too.

But there’s one big-little detail you can leverage in your favour: let the clients know, from the get-go, what we expect from them during the whole endeavour of working with us.

Things like providing feedback on time, providing content and/or assets in advance, being reachable frequently for any further clarification and whatever fits the case, will help you on transferring some of the pressure to the client – as well as manage their expectations.

With this, you’re letting the client know they have their own responsibilities on a successful, smoothly running project.

Be the wall

Don’t let the clients put pressure on the team. Reassure them if necessary.

Even though we encourage each Team member to assess any ongoing issues directly with the client – and you should do the same – we don’t want any extra pressure upon them.

In such event, you must intervene and steer the communication from that moment on. Schedule a call if necessary, but don’t let conversations spiral out of control between the Team and the client.

Make sure the Team has everything they need, at all times

As a PM you want the project to unroll as smoothly as possible and to be completed in a timely fashion. One key factor is the amount of time the Team will be blocked while waiting for you – either waiting for documentation, for the tasks to be created, for a conversation with the client or whatever it might be.

Anticipate problems

Anticipating problems will help you Make sure the Team has everything they need at all times.

Your ability to predict any unseen problems and act upon them in advanceby adjusting the planning in real-time will make the difference between a PM and a great PM.

Manage Team Progress

As a PM you must be the one person who knows everything about the project you are managing.

Managing and tracking the Team’s progress will help you determine whether or not you’ll have to adjust your planning based on whether or not the Sprint will be completed successfully.

With Mid-Sprint catchups you can make sure the Team is working accordingly, on-track and make use of such meetings to address and solve any existing blockers.

Don’t micromanage

It’s hard watching someone make mistakes, especially if you already know how to avoid them. Staying silent while they slip up (or even do things in ways you would not) is harder.

That doesn’t mean you have an excuse to micromanage them.

Micromanagement is the ultimate controlling management style. It’s demoralising and counter-intuitive, as the desire for control to make sure everything goes to plan only creates more problems in the long-term.

As a PM, imagine what your reaction would be if your manager kept on asking for constant, often needless progress reports? You would be mad!

Therefore, you must not watch and control the Team’s work like a hawk.

When you micromanage you’re telling the Team that you don’t trust them enough to let them work on their own and still produce good results. This leads to annoyance and damaged trust.

Always keep the client up-to-date

Everyone likes to feel they’re in control. Our clients are no different.

The best we can do is cope and keep the client in the light, every time. To achieve that, there’s a couple of things you can do:

Over-communicate rather than under-communicate. If you have any questions or any information you reckon is worth sharing, go for it. If you think it would be a nice touch to say. Good morning every day and give the client a head-up for the day’s tasks and the previous day’s progress, no one will stop you.

Never assume clients know what’s happening. It is up to you to enlighten them;

Never leave a client message un-replied. It regards the entire Team, but you particularly. As the person in charge it is up to you to take the lead and demonstrating how to behave; If you feel like scheduling a call at the end of each sprint and showcase the outcomes, we encourage you to do it.