Your mom’s best friend’s project manager! Key skills for a successful career in project management and management

Project milestones and areas of responsibility

Of course, an ideal PM knows the main stages of any project: preparation, planning, execution and completion. He has a detailed project launch template with decomposition of the main stages, goals, timelines, resources, risks, artifacts, templates, etc. He knows how to customize it for each project so that he doesn’t spend too much time on the launch and doesn’t forget anything. The ideal PM is not a working hand that executes regulations according to a described process. Through all major project phases, he analyzes, plans, manages, communicates, systematizes, optimizes, and reflexes to orchestrate a focused project workflow for results. He is responsible for goal setting, product production, team, quality, timelines, finances, documents, communication, client relations, company reputation, product development and removing obstacles to the result. It’s as if he took a loan from a drug cartel to launch the product and there is no chance of failure, only positive results, period. Like in the Eminem song, “Success is my only option, failure’s not”. By the way, Dr. Milestone, do you know the name of that song?

Doctor: I’m not a fan of rap. I prefer something soothing. Like Lorna Shore.

Project triangle and other shapes

Project managers have a favorite figure: the triangle. It’s not simple. It consists of three constraints that define the quality of a project: scope, budget, and schedule. The ideal PM knows that these are not just project control areas. It’s a balancing act of project management. The simple analogy is “fast, cheap, quality.” Every variable affects every other variable. And it’s not a math problem. The client is spending real money, and the real reputation of the company and the team is at stake. The ideal PM understands the consequences of unbalancing the triangle, so from the very beginning of the project works with the client’s expectations and chooses an approach of working with balance. People have invented other shapes – project squares, hexagons, etc. But they are more like project control tricks, and working with balance is not the main thing. For example, there is a heptagon: plan, cost, scope or scope, quality, customer satisfaction, risk and resources. Who likes what you like. At least a circle, if it works well.

Control of project milestones and process adherence

No one likes the word “control”, it carries negativity. But if the PM is perfect, he or she has made preparations for the project, set goals, outlined project milestones, milestones and key metrics, and loaded the team with what will be done and how it will be done. Then control has a positive intent. Traffic rules are also control, but they are only useful. Either everything goes beautifully according to the process or there are problems. PM provides monitoring and control of process compliance at all stages of the project to detect deviations and problems in time. Of course, not to find fault, but to make decisions to fix them. I mean problems, not blame. An ideal PM is not a supervisor or a babysitter. He knows how to set up process monitoring in such a way that he needs minimal effort to know about problems in advance. This can be done in many different ways. Through culture, rituals, and Google Sheets. The main thing is to make sure that no one suffers. Then it will no longer be control, but management.

Team effectiveness

The job of the ideal PM is to make the team productive. To do this, you don’t need to develop KPIs and make dashboards for tracking. An effective team works on the principle of minimax. Maximize results with minimal effort and cost. An ideal PM makes sure there is nothing unnecessary and useless. No unnecessary communications, no processes, no downtime, no rework, no wrong decisions, etc. Nothing should get in the way of people working and showing team qualities that individually team members don’t have. If the PM is really good at his job, the team will be effective. It simply can’t be otherwise. Just having the perfect PM on a team does not make it effective. Any new team goes through 5 stages: formation, confrontation, normalization, functioning and breaking up. By the way, Dr. Milestone, this model was coined by your fellow psychologist Bruce Tuckman. Therefore, the task of the ideal PM is to get the team to the functioning stage faster, when the team reaches its potential and starts delivering results. You need to understand what stage the team is at and give it enough time to go through this cycle. How long the cycle takes depends on the team and the context. If the team is going to go on a quest before going to a bar, the team will go through all the cycles in a couple of hours, but if there is a big project to be done, it can take several months to reach a good level of performance.

Translation of principles and culture

The worst thing a PM can do is to make up rules and force everyone to follow them. Moreover, if at the same time he will not follow them himself. An ideal PM carefully and permanently communicates the principles of work to the whole team, because it creates a common understanding of how work should be done, what is bad and what is good. Like Morpheus, he should plug a bio-port into everyone’s head and download the team’s cultural code. Even earlier, the company’s HR brand, recruiters and onboarding should do this, but we understand that everyone likes to sugarcoat reality. At the project level, the ideal PM broadcasts his cultural code and demonstrates it by his own example. He may not completely copy the company culture. This applies not only to the team, but also to the client. For the client, this process has a special job of teaching the client how to do the job in a cool and efficient way. At a minimum you will keep the client within your principles. At most, you’ll teach the client or their team something new. There can’t just be one perfect PM. The more the better.

Communication management

Without communication management, you can forget about the effective and comfortable functioning of the team. Consequently, you can forget about the results. Communication is the foundation of interaction and maintaining context. An ideal PM knows how to organize communication between all stakeholders and participants so that it is clear where and how everyone communicates, what meetings are for what and what is discussed at them, what is done, how it is done, when the key milestones are, and what responsibility each participant has. It’s not about communication skill, it’s about interaction design. The ideal PM doesn’t have one that talked to someone somewhere but others didn’t know or didn’t understand. He makes sure that from the very beginning there are no uncontrolled communication flows, everyone knows their roles, expected results, when important deadlines are, who can be brought together directly without mediation, and for whom you need to be an information broker.

Change management

Since “eliminating uncertainty” is the second name of an ideal PM and risk management is routine, he cannot be intimidated by any changes. Therefore, he is characterized by quick and adequate response to changing conditions and unplanned situations. He does not sow panic in the team himself and does not let others sow it. Does not lose focus, but takes responsibility for solving problems that arise. Overall, it’s unclear what else there is to explain. He is able to adapt to new conditions and revise plans, while maintaining the quality and timing of the project. And when a PM is like that, the team is flexible. He reacts calmly to everything and comes to the rescue. The ideal PM identifies possible sources of change from the beginning of the project, and systematically transitions from old conditions to new ones, smoothing out resistance and loss of team productivity. Of course, he’s not Dr. Strange who can roll everything back and get away with it. He’s cooler than that! He’s the perfect PM who is ready for change. And is willing to apply his skills and tools to deal with change depending on context and scope.

Document flow

Of course, it’s too boring for turquoise organizations and should be handled by special people. But no matter how perfect a PM you are, what good is it if you signed a contract with postpayment in 5 years and endless revisions. There are lawyers and financiers almost everywhere, but the ideal PM understands the documents himself. Why they are needed, what the approval process is and what you need to pay attention to so you don’t get caught in an endless hell of client manipulation. Naturally, your clients are different, you have a great relationship, and it will never come to a shootout with wording from the contract. But trust me, sooner or later it will, and you’ll be visiting Dr. Milestone afterwards. Lawyers can help you check strange wording, signatories, and the date of the power of attorney, but the ideal PM knows how to organize the paperwork process and always pays attention to the subject matter of the contract, terms and conditions on time, payment, liability, and acceptance of work. And when the time comes to meet the horseman of the apocalypse – the start of work without a contract – he knows where to lay the straw and how to communicate with the client even in the mail to minimize problems.

Closing gaps and conflicts

I’d like to say about problem solving skill, but it’s a complex skill, we’ll talk about it later. But I would like to point out that the ideal PM sets up transparent processes and teams where everything that is hindering the project comes up. Then he or she systematically removes any obstacles to keep the team steam locomotive running on the tracks. Whether it’s a bottleneck in the process, client-side bureaucracy, or a designer didn’t like the way a developer reacted to his zodiac sign. If it’s hindering the project, you need to fix it or eliminate it. And if it’s not working, then you need to escalate. PM is perfect, but not omnipotent. Until it’s time to escalate, he’s always focused on improving the process. Drives it and helps the team solve problems. As Churchill said, “I love it when something happens. If it doesn’t happen, I do everything I can to make it happen”.

Decision-making

The ideal PM avoids intuitive decisions and stomps for rational thinking. He analyzes, considers all factors and chooses the best option. A decision is a choice with consequences. And the PM is responsible for them. He is not afraid to make decisions and doesn’t procrastinate because he has a system for making decisions in general and specifically for the project. This helps to neutralize cognitive distortions and escape the quagmire of inaction. This approach works in all complex and uncertain situations. It helps in making constructive and informed decisions. For an ideal PM, decision making is the courage to just take everything upon himself, because the decision is his, not a way to show his coolness, like, I’m the boss and I make decisions. It is above all knowledge about thinking and decision making process. An ideal PM can easily explain the logic of decision making and his/her actions in case of negative consequences.

Project portfolio management

A project doesn’t come alone. More often than not, a PM has one large project or several medium-sized ones. In every company, the size of a project is a subjective concept, but it doesn’t matter, because every project has a different team, client, rhythm and dynamics. There are times when five projects can be safely controlled by coming once to a meeting with the team, and there are times when one small project sucks all the energy until the end of the working day. The ideal PM knows that the ideal project is the one he doesn’t need right now. If he sees that his resource is critically short, he will reason with you at the beginning. Often, though, you have to save the world and take on a new project. At least temporarily. Then you need to talk about risks, a backup plan and the period until the load stabilizes. When an ideal PM leads several projects, he doesn’t jump between projects like a wolf after eggs. He strives for harmony and organization between projects. So that there is no overlap in communication, resources, and key milestones. Often you can’t get everything set up in unison and have to juggle priorities, meetings, time and resources. But for the ideal PM, this is not a problem. Once you’ve juggled, you can continue to work smoothly, because he knows what he can adjust in the project to manage his workload. Sometimes you have to take a risk and delegate without preparation, but it helps to gain experience for ideal PMs who are starting out.

Session 4.

Team management

The goal is clear – to ensure that the team works efficiently and comfortably so that project, team and company goals are achieved. Managing roles and assigning responsibilities in a team contributes to more efficient work, better communication and reduced risk. But to do this, you need to realize that a team is not just about the roles needed to achieve results. There are people on the team. With their values, experience, cockroaches, expertise, strengths and weaknesses, attitude to you, to the company, etc. It is not possible to describe roles and assign tasks to everyone. Everything is much more complicated. A team of ordinary specialists can achieve super results, while a team of stars sometimes can’t even start doing something. We are dealing with human nature and efficient processes. The ideal PM knows how to bring these things together. He knows how to lead the team according to Bruce Tuckman’s model and not interfere with the work, so that everyone in the team reaches his goal and gives 100% for the overall result.

Atmospheric management

Kurt Cobain said, “You can survive anything if you pick the right song”. I’m saying that any difficulties on a project can be survived if you find the right PM. And if he picks the right meme, the team can survive anything. No kidding. Maintaining a cool atmosphere in the team is a tough task. The PM should definitely eliminate all the problems and blockers that depend on what the PM and the team can affect. Uncertainty, bad processes, problems, etc. Everything else is an art that allows ordinary people to do incredible things. It could be the culture, the atmosphere, or the PM’a leadership skills. Everyone finds their own approach. A key metric for me is how people on the team relate to each other. PM will explain the goals, plan and organize the process, but if there is no atmosphere of support and mutual assistance in the team, there will be no unified mechanism. And neither the values on the company website nor supervision will help. The people you saw at the interview, where they told you how they want to grow and do good for society, disappear on the first day of work. The work is done by other, real people.The ideal PM understands this. He creates a positive environment where every team member feels comfortable and important. He maintains open communication where people can express ideas and opinions and resolve conflicts and disagreements constructively. Where no one is afraid of making mistakes and doesn’t make the same mistakes twice. Atmosphere is closely related to culture. Together they allow PM to create an environment and positive social pressure. Where you don’t have to specifically motivate someone or be demanding. Where you don’t look for blame or reasons, but decide what to do. Where everyone understands each other’s strengths and weaknesses, comes to the rescue and helps you grow. Doing cool results should be fun. For everyone, not just PM.

Infrastructure and teamwork

Once roles and areas of responsibility are assigned, processes, approaches, principles, rituals and communication are aligned, the ideal PM needs to provide the infrastructure and information sharing, i.e. create the physical part of the system that the team will work with. This can include folders in cloud storage, accesses, a task manager, a financial model, collaboration services, and so on. The team should be provided with everything they need to work. Then you have to build the interaction with the system and between team members. It’s cool when a project is done and someone goes on vacation, but the work doesn’t stop. Because the vacation is accounted for in the plan, everyone knows where the necessary artifacts are and where to put new ones. Anyone has access to where they need to go, without too many questions in chat. An ideal PM doesn’t build big systems, he looks for a balance so that there are no services for services’ sake. He also skillfully divides the system into parts and divides responsibility between team members. Everyone keeps the system running, simplifies and fixes it if needed. An ideal PM has a backbone of basic artifacts and solutions for organizing the work of the team under his cloak. He does not reinvent the wheel every time, but adapts proven tools.

Facilitation

There is always a lot of communication in a project. The ideal PM doesn’t mind discussing pets and talking about any topic. He is not a douche who interrupts a smol-talk with the words, “Colleagues, let’s get down to business already.” For every meeting, he has a purpose, an agenda, a lineup of attendees, and the materials needed. But when the discussion starts drifting away from the purpose, he can non-toxically bring everyone back to the purpose of the conversation. This kind of PM knows how to make meetings effective. So that there is no discussion for the sake of discussion, and the amount of uncertainty, tasks and questions after the meeting is reduced, not increased. And if he does everything right, but participants still don’t talk in the right direction, avoid solutions and the next steps are unclear, then it’s a difficult topic. The ideal PM will always ask the right and uncomfortable questions so that the substance becomes easier to talk about. And problem identification and decision making was done through constructive discussion.

Task setting and delegation

Management is the art of doing other people’s work. In a good way. There is no way to do it without task setting and delegation. An ideal PM sets tasks so that no one has any questions about the purpose of the task and the expected result. He makes sure that the task is understood and accepted correctly, taking into account the overall context, workload and the peculiarities of the performer. The ideal PM does not have a situation where a task is set, done, and on the day of the deadline it turns out that the wrong thing was done or nothing was done at all. If you need to delegate, the PM doesn’t fight fear or micromanage. He has a well-established process for smooth delegation and monitoring the transition of responsibility. For some reason, for many, it’s easier to burn out doing everything themselves than it is to delegate and give corrective feedback. It’s important to learn people skills to understand who you are tasking and delegating to. Someday there will come a point when you just have to trust, and the cost of making a mistake will be high. By understanding people, you will be able to better assess the risks and not lose out. And don’t forget about the support of the people you delegate to. They are more scared than you are.

Resources inside and out

The ideal PM manages internal and external resources, and his prime version always knows in advance when everyone on the team is on vacation. He always knows the actual and planned workload of the team. He keeps track of deviations from the plan, allocates resources to project tasks, accounts for vacations, rotations and onboarding of new specialists. He communicates important changes and plans to the resource manager of the company. There is no such thing as a team suddenly being abruptly released or work extending for several months due to his fault, but no one knew about it in advance. Otherwise, managing expectations is simply not possible. If there are not enough resources and external specialists or services are connected, their load or costs are also taken into account in the project. Usually the main resources are team hours and money. They are never infinite, so the ideal PM controls them to make the best use of them. If resources are shared in a company, conflicts are inevitable. Communication and willingness to help each other to agree is important here. The better a PM works on load predictability, the less such conflicts will occur. For this to happen, this is what every PM should do, not just one PM.

Feedback and motivation

Feedback is a very cool and useful thing. Many times I have seen teams where they decided to give honest feedback. They have a culture and honesty is one of the most important values. As a result, half of the team ends up with feedback like “this is shit, we need to redo it, can’t you do it properly, do I have to do everything for you?”. It’s fashionably called toxic. In a perfect PM, feedback is part of the atmosphere and culture. He doesn’t have toxic feedback. He has honesty used to build trust, adjust behavior, get in sync, and help grow. He knows when and how to give out feedback. Negative feedback is given out in person and praise is given out publicly. He has no favorites, celebrates employee accomplishments and objectively evaluates the contribution of each project team member to the success of the project. This process is called “feedback” for a reason. Communication works both ways. And it should have a supportive, corrective and developmental function. It’s like WD-40 for the social mechanisms in the team. The right feedback can have a tremendous impact on a team’s self-esteem, and motivation will be a natural side effect. You don’t need to look for motivation externally, you need to create the conditions for it to appear internally.

Knowledge sharing

Given what I said earlier, you’ll have a team of “sweet cats”. In this situation, knowledge sharing between team members is inevitable. An ideal PM encourages such processes and at the end of the project he will discuss with the team who has learned what. He is a professional mentor himself. He helps people to systematically pump up their skills. Not only with tales from the field, but also with the help of a development plan and mentee support. He can turn an ordinary PM into an ideal one in a clear time frame, and enrich the team with managerial skills that will increase its maturity. Such a skill makes the ideal PM very important for the company as he is the custodian and dispenser of the right culture and knowledge in the company. And if the company has a knowledge base that will store all this and provide people with information through easy search, then it is a fairy tale in general.

Session 5.

Financial Management

When it comes to finance, many PMs cringe and turn the tables on accountants, financiers or a process called “I don’t know, I plan the tasks and someone else does the math”. The ideal PM knows that he/she is not working in a hobby circle. The company is doing business and making money. For money to be made, there must be more revenue than expenses. He understands what revenue, inflows, expenses, and profitability are. Knows what affects these metrics in a project and how to work with them. All resources and tasks have a cost and their effective allocation affects the success of the project. This understanding of the financial aspects of a project helps him make informed decisions to optimize costs and increase profitability. And also not to get into preemptively failed or unfeasible projects. A general understanding of finances and managing the financial model of the project helps in better bagging, not…

Doctor: I see, Mr. Gregory. Please continue.

Financial modeling

When it comes to launching or deciding to launch a project, the ideal PM uses financial tools and programs to create detailed financial models. At least on a napkin, at least in Google Sheets. He or she knows how to create budgets, analyze financial metrics, and forecast future revenues and expenses. A project financial model describes project parameters in money, allows you to interpret financial data and draw reasonable conclusions. The ideal PM always keeps the financial model up to date. At any given time, he or she knows what the projected profitability of the project will be and what will happen if a developer is suddenly removed from the project or a client takes several weeks to coordinate the color of a button with his wife. If due to the specifics of the project the financial model also becomes complex or individual calculations are needed, PM quickly finds a common language with financiers to make a tool convenient for all. Since the concepts of PL, CF, CM and COST for an ideal PM are not TikTok slang. We can say that a financial model for a PM is like a unit-economy for products. It gives you an understanding of the parameters at which the project will succeed, and at which parameters it is not even worth starting and you need to change the conditions. The financial model fixes the indicators at the beginning of the project, always shows the planned figures, the forecast of hitting the plan and the actual figures. The PM monitors deviations and makes decisions. The head of such a PM or CEO may not even communicate with him if he is sure that the financial model is up to date and the numbers do not give alarm bells. Financial modeling makes the ideal PM an entrepreneur in his project, and this is a completely different level of thinking and management.