A few months ago I wrote an article on the dozen or so qualities I think it takes to be a great account manager (AM). I thought I'd do something similar for what I look for in project managers (PM).
The subject is very much front of mind for me at the moment: I've taken on the job of helping the IPA's Digital Business Group create a series of training courses and qualifications for project managers working in the more complex areas of digital delivery.
PMs and AMs - the flip side of the same coin?
Re-reading my article on account managers I'd say that almost all of the qualities I've listed also apply to top rate project managers. Perhaps in larger agencies, the commercial and client relationship responsibilities are less important, but in a smaller outfit like 3Sixty we need our PMs to be as switched on to making money and to be as good with clients as our AMs.
That said, there are three additional qualities I would add to the list:
Tenacity
In my experience, the best laid project plan normally needs revising within about a week. Assets don't arrive on time, sign offs are missed, the scope changes, meetings are postponed...and yet deadlines are still expected to be met. It can be pretty demoralising to see a painstakingly constructed Gantt chart go up in smoke!
The best PMs take all this in their stride and seem to be able to perform miracles juggling all the bits of the jigsaw puzzle to keep the project on track despite the ground constantly shifting beneath their feet.
Attention to detail
As a generalisation, this is often one of the qualities that divides great PMs from great AMs. Great AMs have an instinctive feel for the bigger picture but I've found that they are at their best with a detail and operationally focused PM as their wingman (or more often than not, woman).
In a large and complex digital project the number of 'moving parts' that need to be co-ordinated and not overlooked can be mind-blowing. Missing just one small thing (oh no, we forgot to change the DNS settings and the site's due to go live in 2 hours!) can jeopardise the whole project; and not to mention all that hard earned client goodwill.
I sleep a lot easier at night when I know my best PMs are dotting the Is, crossing the Ts and stewarding things over the line.
Enabler
It's stating the obvious — but needs frequently repeating nonetheless — project management is a means to an end not an end in itself.
The best PMs instinctively understand this.
They almost become invisible to the delivery teams, working quietly and efficiently in the background. One of the real arts in a small and busy agency like 3Sixty is to organise the schedule so that teams can have decent blocks of time to work collaboratively on a project whilst at the same time keeping all the other projects in the schedule moving forward.
The best PM exhibits a complete lack of ego and never gets overly precious about their project plan. Of course, it's hugely frustrating when deadlines are missed or work goes over budget, but it's amazing how the PMs who are flexible and cajole seem to deliver more projects on time, to budget and of a high standard than those whose methods are less benign.
Digital project management
The personal qualities required to be a project manager no doubt apply to just about any discipline; whether you are delivering a website, building a bridge or arranging a hen weekend, I suspect that the core attributes required are broadly similar.
What marks out a project manager from one sector to another is their knowledge of the processes involved. Here is a list of the core competencies I think PMs working in the more complex ends of digital need to have:
Methodologies
A good grasp of the main project management methodologies (e.g. waterfall and agile) and an understanding of their pros and cons.
Scoping
PMs needs to know what functional and technical specs look like — and even contribute parts of the spec themselves — and they need to keep abreast of the ever changing world of user experience design.
Technical know-how
I've come across some excellent PMs who started life as programmers. It helps enormously if a PM is not totally out of their depth when developers start talking tech. At a conceptual level at least, PMs need to feel comfortable with the main front and back end technologies (e.g. HTML/CSS, AJAX, CMS systems, relational databases, APIs etc). Ideally they will have a good technical grasp of other key areas such as accessibility, mobile and SEO.
Creative know-how
Core to the digital agency proposition is the fusion of the technical and the creative. So as well as understanding how developers work, great digital PMs know a good deal about the creative process too. A pretty good place to start is reading James Young's classic book, A Technique for Producing Ideas.
Fundamentally, PMs need to appreciate that the creative process doesn't work in straight lines and have worked out how to accommodate this awkward fact into how they run and deliver projects.
Costing
By blending together their knowledge of all four areas listed above, PMs are best placed to work out the estimated internal cost of delivering a project. It's then down to the AM to decide at what margin that project will be sold to the client. In my experience, selling projects based on their value rather than the units of input is not a skill most PMs excel at.
QA/testing
PMs need to know about different QA and testing procedures.
Managing teams
More of a generic competency this one, but their are some specific challenges in blending creative and technical teams that apply specifically to digital.
Legal
I'd expect a PM to have a good overview of the key legal requirements affecting our industry (e.g. Data Protection Act, Disability Discrimination Act).
Anything else?
What have I missed out? I'd welcome your feedback ahead of my first meeting in January with the Heads of PM from DBG member agencies. We're planing to scope out what an IPA digital project management course and qualification could look like, so any constructive input ahead of that meeting would be much appreciated.