We are now in Day 2 of 3 for our first client project and as the project manager, I must say that I felt very lost during most of day 1 as to what exactly my team was working through, yet I was somehow expected to steer the ship. I felt like I was supposed to be the party planner and organizer, but I was also the last one to show up to the party, constantly playing catch-up. (If you’re interested, check out Day 1 here!) I definitely had to remind myself several times that it is not my responsibility to know all of the ins-and-outs of what everyone was working on, but rather that it was my responsibility to keep track of progress and to keep that progress flowing, redirect when needed, and ensure that all issues were addressed. Adjust Randee, adjust and take deep breaths.
On the morning of, I checked in with my team and informed them of the initial to-do’s for the day:
- Team - Review client email
- Set up a Google Meet and schedule client meeting for 10:45 am
- Collect feedback/questions from team on client email
- Team - Review client question list to see what client asks we were already addressing and what options remained (for team members who had scraped ideas from the previous day)
- PM - Finalize question list from team to be presented to client during call
- Decide which team members should join the call
- Team - create mockups of hypothetical dashboard
- PM - Collect mockups from those who are able
- PM - Create a slide-deck containing all information and screenshots for call
- CLIENT CALL TIME
They informed me that most of the to-dos were reasonable, but they were not sure if they could meet the mockup request since most were still working through data kinks. In addition, they requested the design template for the dashboards so that they would have a format to work with if they were going to be able to create mockups. I added this to the to-do list and we pressed on, checking off boxes from the list one at a time.
Edited to-do list:
- Review client email
- Set up a Google Meet and schedule client meeting for 10:45 am
- Collect feedback/questions from team on client email
- Review client question list to see what client asks we were already addressing and what options remained (for team members who had scraped ideas from the previous day)
- PM - Finalize question list from team to be presented to client
- Decide which team members should join the call
- PM - Create design template for dashboards
- Team to create mockups of hypothetical dashboard
- PM - Collect mockups from those who are able
- PM - Create a Client Check-In slide-deck containing all information and screenshots for call
- CLIENT CALL TIME
10:45 AM - Client Call Time!!
After some initial small talk, I informed the client of the team’s current plan and my proposed deadline for any last minute requests. Once all information delivered was agreed upon, we moved into addressing the general questions from my team and the specific questions from two invited team members. Lastly, we finished up with a visual of the dashboard template that I designed for my team to use and a mockup that one team member was able to provide!
After the call, I checked in with my team on their progress and then I continued finalizing the design for the final presentation slide deck.
During my lunch break, I sat with some older sibling cohort members and a DS coach. I shared my experience thus far and they reassured me that all of my feelings were valid. In addition, I also received two pieces of wonderful advice:
- Have all members upload their Tableau Workbooks to Google Drive at the end of the work day so that if there is an unexpected absence, another team member (or the PM!) can pick up where they left off and/or present for them, if needed.
- Carve out time for the team to sense check. It is crucial that the story being told is consistent amongst all dashboards and so therefore all numbers should line up.
This concluded Day 2. At the end of the day, I reviewed our progress and thought about the insights that had been shared with me to create a to-do list for my team to jump into during our next and last available project time slot.
Next session to do:
- Have team sense check in with each other to make sure numbers and findings line up
- PM - Finish slide deck for final presentation
- Noon: Dashboards should be getting put together
- PM - Circulate for design coordination (put up on TV)
- PM - Make sure all share about design ideas/features
- 1:30 pm: Set aside 1 hour for rehearsal
- 2:30 pm - final touches
- 3:30 pm - presentations 🎉
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