We all know that the two sides of the brain have different roles. The left brain dominates rationality, exploration and meticulousness; The right side of the brain is responsible for creativity, instinct and empathy. Therefore, the two core project management principles I give project managers (PMS) are also based on the left-brain vs. right-brain difference:
A. Constantly enhance task effectiveness: You need to master A methodology for managing events, with sufficient information, to enhance the impact on the core objectives of the team.
B. Leverage: PMS do not directly deal with projects themselves. Instead, they promote project growth by empowering team members.
Strengthening task effects
In a team, all employees should be focused on achieving the company’s core goals. Whether the goal is to make billions of dollars, make the world a better place, or both. By now, however, most of the team has been busy dealing with customers, doing feature development, packaging cases, providing technical support…
It is important to note that the approach I offer to project management is not about dealing with clients.
In general, the central responsibility of project management is to find the right way to achieve goals and to provide appropriate advice to project leaders and developers. The best way to quickly find the right direction is what I’d like to call the Item System.
It’s hard for me to explain to you exactly what an Item System is, but I can tell you what a good PM should do. It requires you to know three things:
- What are the project objectives?
- What signals are emitted by the environment?
- What are the constraints in terms of people, money, and time?
What are the project objectives
It all starts with a goal. If you don’t know where you’re supposed to be, every step you take could be a fish in the woods. One of the biggest problems I see with PMS is that they don’t take the time to really understand the goals. They may be able to recite the mission statement, but do they understand the basics of it all?
The PM also needs to know how other teams are contributing to the goals. Especially in large companies, having all teams on the same page ensures that conflicts are avoided and better opportunities for teams to work together and accelerate progress.
Only when PMS determine that they know the goals of the company and the goals of other teams around them can they effectively set their own team’s goals, which must be clearly elevated to the broader mission.
What signals are being emitted by the environment
Most plans start with a straight line to a goal. But the path is never over, and sometimes the goal is too far away to tell if one is off course.
To avoid this, the PM must always be aware of the project’s surroundings to detect, predict, and correct the implementation path.
Customer signals Accumulate qualitative and quantitative data sets about how customers use products. This data is like a ping back from the target, and when you hear the feedback become stronger and more positive, you know you’re not too far off course.
The market signal is an “asteroid warning,” which represents a change in the path of a project by external factors. They include changes in market competition, policies and social and economic patterns, etc., and always affect the development of companies and projects.
What are the constraints in terms of people, money, and time?
How far a rocket ship can go is limited by the fuel it carries, the quality of its crew, and the time it has to take advantage of the gravitational lift of other bodies like Jupiter.
Similarly, product development teams are constrained by the amount of people, money, and time on the project. In any given task, the product team will be constrained by all three.
Money is a potential constraint related to the team’s ability to hire the right people (salary), to enable them to work (overhead like office space), to operate the product (support like servers), and to distribute the product (marketing). Using all the money to hire the best team but not having an office for them to work in, or any money for marketing so the business can’t expand, is just stupid.
Most companies have taken the complexity of overheads, operations, and marketing costs out of the PM’s work (so they can focus on product and operational rhythms). But it is still important for a good PM to understand that money is limited.
Time is the ultimate limit. Unlike those two, once time runs out, you can’t get any more. Time represents the fact that unreleased products are producing no value, while competitors are grabbing market share every day. It’s cruel, but it’s the reality. So: **PM must manage the time cycle. ** They must make sure they don’t miss big opportunities, make the right trade-offs, and find healthy ways to facilitate team execution.
Develop the right product strategy
When PMS know the goals, understand the environment, and respect the constraints, they need to gather a lot of relevant information to build a great product strategy, and the best product strategy is where this information intersects.
Of course, getting the right strategy is always easier than getting it right. The fact that I’m confident enough to write this article doesn’t mean I’ll always find the right strategy in practice.
The core message I want to convey is that a PM needs as broad a knowledge base as possible to efficiently gather and understand information from all parties and incorporate it into the final strategy. Understanding r&d, user experience, data, finance, organizational design, operations, market research, marketing, etc., can help PMS organize information more effectively to develop successful strategies with high feasibility.
Many PMS, under pressure, choose to focus on one area or outsource that area to another team (e.g., “The Marketing Department will figure out how to distribute the product”). I think this kind of thinking is counterproductive and limits your potential. Try to learn to assuage fear, even if we don’t know everything.
A force
In the rocket ship metaphor, who do you think PM is? The man who planted the flag on the target planet, or one of the astronauts on the ship? The answer is: neither.
PM is actually mission control on Earth. Their job is to support astronauts who risk their lives on missions. As a project manager, you must never forget your responsibility — empowerment.
I’m sorry. You weren’t even on the spaceship 🚀.
I have never understood why so many PM articles advertise that project managers should be “hexagonal warriors” and should know everything from coding to marketing to design.
An “whatever it takes” mentality won’t make you a great product manager, but it will make you a great employee. When a PM begins to write code, write supporting documentation, or design a product, they have violated their responsibilities as a project manager and become a project member.
Everyone, not just PM, should have an inclusive mindset. If the engineer happens to be good at marketing, and marketing is a constraint on the team, then they should come in and help. But that doesn’t make them better engineers.
As the only member of the team who shouldn’t be involved in building tasks, the PM often finds himself building a bunch of stuff. The reason should be that they should be the first to volunteer when they fall behind; But this in no way means that the job is part of the PM’s responsibilities.
Empowering teams to achieve goals is the irreducible first principle of product management.
To explore it more deeply, here’s another analogy:
A product manager is like a coach for a sports team
There is no better metaphor for how PMS should view their roles than the coaches of team sports such as basketball, volleyball, soccer, etc.
Coach out
The coach is not playing. They are hired to support the team and do so by helping them improve their individual and collective potential. The measure of their work (both as teams and owners) is victory. Generally, if a team doesn’t win, the coach gets fired, not the player.
PMS do not build, market, or support anything. We are employed by the support team to achieve corporate objectives. We do this by keeping everyone aligned to the product strategy (Principle A) and fostering healthy team dynamics that enable teams to maximize their individual and collective potential. In general, the project manager (not the team) should be fired if the team doesn’t produce something great.
The style of coaching depends on the relative skills of the coach and the players
When I first wrote that PMS are like sports coaches, what came to your mind? Not all coaching roles are created equal. Do you see the coach as a parent and the team as a child? Or is it like lebron, where the players tell the coach what to do?
For example, if you’re a project manager fresh out of college and you join a product team of experienced engineers, do you want to take on a leadership role? No, because you have no experience to back you up. But that doesn’t mean you’re worthless.
PMS need a strong sense of self to identify when they are better suited to lead, collaborate or support their teams.
In this framework, “skills” is shorthand for the sum of people’s abilities, experience, achievements, and work ethic. Here’s how I’ve applied it in my career:
When I was a project manager on a team of recent graduates, I took a very direct leadership style. I will define the framework, the goals, and even how to organize the execution of the project. It makes sense that I have mature project experience and they don’t.
When I work with a team with the same skills as myself, BY default I collaborate on all key decisions and want everyone’s support on strategy and execution. To be clear, a PM should accept collaboration in all situations, but this relative skill dynamic is the most noteworthy.
When I’m working with a team that’s more experienced and accomplished than me, I revert to an assistant coach or coach mentality. I ask: How can I help? What burdens can I help team members solve? At this point, I will play a purely supporting role.
For example, I would first ask experienced teams about their vision and then follow up with lots of questions to gain insight into their first principles and strategies. I then put all of this information into one document and communicate with them to ensure that the content of the document always represents their vision.
Note that in all cases, the PM is still responsible for the product strategy; the approach to implementation may differ. No doubt, not understanding this relative skill dynamic between the team and the PM is also a cause of PM failure. If you lose trust in your team because you misread the situation, it takes ten times longer to win it back.
When the team wins, celebrate the players, not the coach
When the team wins, people rarely talk about the coach. Product teams should do the same. If your team does an incredible job, they should be noticed — don’t steal.
The coach needs to know the best position for each player
You can’t coach a team without knowing everyone and the rules of the game.
You need to have empathy and respect for all the work that everyone on your team does. You also need to understand how to create interesting, intellectually stimulating jobs.
No team can stand to do the same type of work for a long time. Repetitive work gets tiring, and then there’s less creativity and inspiration.
The PM needs to respect that and constantly create the conditions for people on the team to grow and fulfill the mission of the company. When you create these conditions, then everyone has more emotional involvement and a sense of ownership. Later, when there is a team leader, the coach needs to step back and let them lead.
It’s one thing for a player to hear from a coach that you don’t execute, but it’s quite another to hear it from someone who does the same job as you.
As a coach, when one of the players on the team starts to take responsibility and push those around to be better, you have the foundation of the highest performing team. On product teams, this person is usually the head of r&d or UX. When that happens, take their influence to the next level and make them your co-coach.
The coach makes sure the team is working and in top condition
Coaches don’t spend all their time watching video replays and strategating with the team, and they also make sure the team practices regularly so they can perform at their best.
Whether in an Agile development project, a traditional project, a “processless” genre, or somewhere in between, coaches should make sure they are doing their best to support their process. Note that the best way for each team to interact with the coach will vary.
Coaches develop the team’s energy level and mental state
For many PMS, this is an uncomfortable concept of authority and responsibility. But whenever I see a team that doesn’t seem excited about their work or looks tired, I put pressure on the project manager to develop healthier motivation.
Of course it’s hard, because people are complicated. We all strive to be our best for different things: some of us need encouragement, some of us need challenges, some of us need friends, and some of us need all three at different times.
This concept may be slightly exaggerated, but it is the right concept for coaches and PMS to have. Creating a dynamic and committed team is the foundation of success, and achieving this repeatably is the pinnacle of good PM and leadership.
In conclusion, the core skill of project management is balance.
It requires equal effort from both sides of the brain. It is the intersection of science and art. It requires you to be extremely rational and at the same time extremely sensitive to emotions. It is the antagonism of these two ways of thinking that makes project management both exciting and daunting.
I hope you can become a better PM.
Brandon Chu
Translated from:Blackboxofpm.com/the-first-p…
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