7 pitfalls to avoid as a project manager


  1. Never loose site of bigger picture. Remember the goals of why you are doing a certain project. Ensuring that execution is in sync with goals is super critical.
  2. Don't panic when things start look out of hand. There are always always ways to salvage unless you choose to ignore all trigger points. Things will go wrong but be ready to handle and recourse from any unfavorable situation. Re-scoping , resourcing, re-prioritizing can help you reach a new favorable ground.
  3. Manage stakeholders coercion: Don't let stakeholders sway things in their favor against interest of overall project goals. Call common stakeholder meetings on regular basis to share project status. Let it be a forum where if a decision is to be made can be done in agreement.
  4. Make no assumptions about communications. Always double check if intended audience is leaving with clear understanding. Send out minutes of all important meetings.
  5. Save your time. Don't let others eat into your personal work time. As a project manager you are bound to get used as proxy for many things but make sure you are not doing others jobs. Empower and delegate.
  6. Missing project pulse: Don't hesitate to ask for updates as well as results. No need to be overtly nice. Strike the right balance. Create an environment where updates flow to you systematically.
  7. Don't get lazy. For example, don't skip critical plannings meetings / discussions. You are responsible to keep the momentum going. So avoid the slack and always have work planned for future.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The "Big Heart" leadership

Image
As part of my current role, one thing that has really changed in me is to be able to handle my responsibility towards people with more care. Numerous situations and incidents have helped shape me better to play my role today. Here are few thoughts from my journey over the last few years. Via your feedback/comments, we can learn more from each other. Finding your way : I think it is very important that one find their way of leadership. As you work with your seniors and leaders, you will imbibe some of their ways. At the same time, it is important you also think about how you would have handled a particular situation if you were in that role. What would you do differently or perhaps better? What works with your inherent personality (which will also evolve)? Every leader ends up developing a personal brand, and that brand should relate well to your ways (walk the walk). Handling mistakes and failures: How you handle mistakes and failures, defines you best as a leader. If you are in leade
Read more

Product Management Challenges in Small Sized Companies

Based on my own experience of doing product management for a small sized company over the last couple of years, I feel there are some distinct challenges this type of set up offers. Listed below are top 3 challenges I have come across: Balancing short term wins vs long term product goals:  When you are working for a small sized company which typically is trying to make a mark in the market in terms of getting new customers, renewals and up-sells, there is lot of push to include features what will make a certain customer happy. While that is a perfectly fair thing to expect from product, the problem arises when there are plenty of such requests bombarded at you putting at risk a well thought out plan. What I have found is as Product Managers we tend to react first to this pressure by assuming how can all of this be part of deliverable's and that product cannot respond to numerous custom requests.  But  if you talk to your customer management team, you are going to find out tha
Read more