Project Manager Four Tips That Works

Project Manager a key position in Web Development:

Project Manager is not an easy task. A Project Manager has to be able to manage the team the best way possible in order to get excellent results for each project. A project manager is an important asset because you are the one that handles the responsibility of the project. The manager has to deal with and please the customers while managing the team, solving problems, and handling the budget.

Here are some tips that can help you to succeed as a Project Manager:

1) Communication is a key:

Good communication is a must to avoid failure. Think about different ways that work for you in order to communicate in an effective way with your team and clients.
The project manager is the middle person that has to keep the flow of the communication between the two parts. I recommend using video conferencing like Skype to interact with team and clients. Last but not least calls and reports are useful to keep records of job. I think good software where the Project manager can share content, images, links, comments and more is a valuable tool. The reports can be given to customers every week. Using weekly reports will help you to avoid saying you need extra time to complete a task.
Reporting to customers will help you communicate any issue that the team is facing such as: why the banner is not ready yet? The web designer needs more time to finish images, or the team has not found enough relevant images to purchase.
Keep in mind that some customers need more attention than others. Some customers want to talk even though you send them reports. So get on the phone and give them the attention they need. Don’t forget to write down everything customers say. Sometimes a small comment can become a big issue like if a customer is not 100% happy with the logo. Then you can improve the job by providing a few more options.

2) Project set Up:

Make sure you are clear when you set up a project. Write a well description about work, scope and timeframe. Adding notes of customer comments. It is also useful to use a questionnaire that you will send to customers to fill out so that you can ask questions for example: Name 3 competitors’ websites. Using software like www.asana.com will allow you to share all this info and more with your team. Using emails back and forth can be annoying and overwhelming. This can cause some important information to be misplaced. Therefore, the proper software will allow the team to have it all in one place.

3) Managing Customers and Team:

The project manager is the one who communicates with customers. Sometimes someone from the team is needed to be involved. For example, when the layout is not what the customers expect, you have to try hard to communicate with customers. Then you may need a person on the team to explain better the issues. You will still need to manage this part because programmers and designers are better working in their fields than meeting with clients.
Creating a website, Ad Words campaigns, social media campaign or SEO Plans are a lot of fun. Being in constant touch with clients will provide you a lot of updated feedback and will also engage the customers to give more ideas. As a result, the team will provide a job that fits into customer expectations.

4) Managing multiple customers on a single project:

It is a big challenge to manage more than one customer for a single project. Imagine having three or four decision makers for a website development job. Each one of them has different ideas. Then you as a Project Manager have to carefully listen to everybody and try to put all the ideas together in a single project. There is always one decision maker who has expressed more and communicates better with you.
Besides their ideas, you can suggest other ideas and explain to them why you consider these ideas better than the others. For example: developing a website for a specific industry for which you can suggest colors that are more appealing to the target customers of that specific industry.
A good Project Manager has to keep the team on track by focusing on job quality and deadlines. Being a Project Manager involves listening to the customers and to communicate effectively with the team to explain what customers need. It is important to praise a developer when he does a good job. “Wow you have done a great job”. It is a nice way to express your approval when someone of the team has performed well. On the other hand, communicating with customers can be quiet difficult when translating the language of the web design to customers. It is needed quite often. Therefore, follow up with each step of the web development process to succeed as a Project Manager.
“All things are created twice; first mentally; then physically. The key to creativity is to begin with the end in mind, with a vision and a blue print of the desired result.” — Stephen Covey