My First Year as a Project Manager
Episode 1
Prior to my life as a PM, I spent six years teaching design to children, and before that, I was a UX Designer. Product management brings together so many of the things I enjoyed about my past in design and education. That’s why every month, starting today, I’ll share something that’s essential to PM-ing that I learned in my past lives.
Today marks the end of my first year in Design Operations/Project Management. I’ve been so fortunate to have a fantastic manager/mentor at Funsize and to have amazing support from Louder Than 10. It felt like time to reflect on what I’ve learned; particularly on the skills that have I brought to this field from past experiences.
Humans find comfort in routines, whether they’re five years old or thirty-five years old. Most people, whether consciously or not, have morning and nighttime routines where they can process the events of the day. It’s a time when your mind is free to wander. Routines don’t require much mental energy, or what design calls ‘cognitive load’. When you are learning to do something for the first time you’re paying attention to lots of details and it’s a heavy cognitive load. This might come up the first time you try a new recipe. You’re constantly referring back to the cookbook to see the next steps versus making a bowl of cereal where you’re not even thinking about it. So how does this translate to projects? Let’s kick this thing off with something all teachers (and parents) are familiar with- everyday routines! We’ll work our way from clients to teams to self.
CLIENTS
How many of your clients are busy? Like… all of them, right? You want to minimize that cognitive load as much as possible so the little energy they have is pointed at the work your team has done. The key is to keep routines simple and regular:
Schedule regular meeting times (e.g. we always meet on Tuesdays and Fridays at 10 am)
Use an agenda template for each meeting type, keep it to three types at the max. Always share the agenda at the same time, for example, post it in slack or email it over 24 hours before the meeting.
Have a clear decision-making routine. Does the whole client team vote or do you collect feedback and then the lead makes the final call? Write it down and do the same process every time. It’ll get faster the more you do it.
TEAMS
The value of regular routines rings true for internal teams, as well. Here are some easy ways to incorporate them:
Use regular agendas and structures for internal meetings. If it’s a design critique, collect feedback in a specific way every time. If it’s a post-review recap make sure you always close with the next steps. (You can even use notion templates for your agenda so all you have to do is click a button and it auto-populates 🙌🏽)
Use the same project management template for all projects. No one wants to spend more than a few seconds looking for meeting notes. Keep the structure the same for all projects so as they switch back and forth they know exactly where to look.
Use the same format for meeting notes and other documents. My meeting notes always have an agenda with notes under each item and a separate section for the next steps. Find a format that works for scanning, because let’s be honest, no one is reading every line of those notes.
Share all high-level summaries with clients and your internal team. I have a tiny template for posting meeting recaps in slack. I always post it for our team first so they know exactly what’s expected of them before I share it with the client.
YOU
There is just no way my working memory can hold all the details I need to get through the day. Here are some routines I have for myself to keep from being overwhelmed by context-switching:
For any one-off requests, I schedule a slack message for myself for the specific time. For example, ‘Remember to ask Joe about that thing when he gets back on Tuesday’. I pop that sucker in a message, schedule it for Tuesday morning, and bam- it’s out of my head.
For regular reminders, such as ‘post the agenda for x meeting’ I actually create a recurring reminder in slack so I can be consistent with my timing.
Carve out prep and wrap-up time before and after client meetings. Before a meeting, I often need a few minutes to review the agenda, get my notes ready to go, and pick the right intro song (Yes, I pick the hold music for the first few minutes and it’s SO FUN!). After the meeting, I need about 10 minutes to wrap up the notes and post my follow-up messages.
Find the things that trigger your memory and refer to them frequently. I’m not sure about you but I consider myself to be a context-dependent learner. This means that I use clues in the environment to remember things. Usually just looking at my calendar and slack channels will help me retrieve extra project details.
Now that you have used up most of your mental energy learning new strategies, go ahead and take a brain break. You’ll be able to noodle on it tonight when you’re brushing your teeth and then take action in the morning.