As a product manager, one of the inevitable tasks is project management. whether a project can be successfully completed or not requires project management to be constrained and guaranteed. based on his own work experience, the author puts forward three key points and three tools for the product person to carry out project management, which i hope will be helpful to you.
Project management this thing is a bit subtle, you have to say is the product manager's professional skills category, it seems not, after all, the difference between the project manager and the product manager is still quite large. You have to say is not the category of product managers, many companies are product managers responsible for project management, of course, there are technical responsible for project management. So that's an added skill.
Let's talk about project management today, and hope to help you all.
Is project management important? of course, it is very important, after all, whether the project can be successfully implemented is also dependent on project management to carry out constraints and protection.
Track project progress
This is very easy to understand, any project is time node, for the project progress tracking is actually to see the actual completion of the project and the development of the schedule is not consistent, there are no problems, there is no risk of delay.
In the actual research and development process, if it is within the department, in fact, the risk of extension is very small, the general problem is not big, so this is not to talk about, according to the normal schedule to go on the line.
However, if it is a cross-business or cross-company research and development projects, delay is very likely to occur, scheduling estimates to set aside a certain amount of redundancy.
Why set aside redundancy? because there may be more than one requirement in each development in different departments, it is likely to be multi threaded.
this leads to one project coming up with problems that affect other projects, and more people involved in cross-sector collaboration are more likely to have problems.
Teamwork is not when the clock goes, minutes and seconds are very precise, people are not an accurate machine, the more people involved in the project, the more variables you need to consider in advance.
Some people disagree, arguing that the timetable is to be estimated in the shortest possible time, with no redundancy, so that the project will be fast paced and efficient. if there is not keep up with the progress of that is the technology's own problem ah, because time is also the technology itself to give ah.
The truth is true, it's the technology itself that gives the time. but the world does not work according to the facts, if there is a risk of delay, then of course, the risk of delay colleagues will have a negative evaluation or even deduction of performance, but for your project manager is also a negative evaluation, you are responsible for project management, but your project is postponed, you have management responsibility.
In this situation you usually ask the corresponding colleague to work overtime, if the colleague can work overtime, if he has been working overtime every day to the extreme, what do you do? he's already off work in the morning, and you're asking him to keep working overtime? this is unrealistic.
The original intention of improving efficiency is of course no problem, but it must be reasonable and moderate. the extension is unreasonable, so is overtime reasonable? it's not reasonable, it means the estimate is wrong.
Of course, i know a lot of companies have overtime culture, but this is not a normal phenomenon, you can not take an abnormal phenomenon as a reason and basis, very far-fetched.
and i said, if it's just about promoting a culture of overtime, but not for practical purposes, it's not worth doing for a long time.
Leaving a little redundancy is to address the various deferred risks, which are very high in cross-pectoral or cross-company collaborations.
You must remember that your goal is to ensure high quality, on time to complete the project, so that the schedule as compact as possible is not your most important purpose, your most important goal is high quality and on schedule, and then can be fast and fast, in other words, how fast and good, first good, then fast and save. at this stage, it's good to be the baseline, it's not.
Of course, good is not all, not that you must make a big move, this can not, easy to accident. good meaning is the minimum closed loop as simple as possible and easy to use, good reliability.
Of course we're talking about the general situation here, and if it's an urgent need it's definitely with the highest priority and the shortest time.
Coordination of resource conflicts
Project resource conflicts, if small companies may not be obvious this problem, because there will not be many simultaneous needs. teams of a small size will encounter this problem.
This conflict can be a sudden occurrence of a higher priority project, or it may be that something else is suddenly out of the picture and requires more resources, which can affect your project.
In either case, resources need to be coordinated.
Product manager can pull on the corresponding project leader, department leaders, and then open a short meeting to discuss how to adjust, generally speaking, a person's schedule to adjust the words means that a string of people's scheduling to adjust, first set the priority, and then see if the affected colleagues have no other colleagues can be replaced, if there is the best, change a colleague, small tune on the line, no need to re-schedule.
Generally speaking, there are general rules of judgment within the company, just follow the rules, such as business priorities and so on.
This problem is not big, mainly is a coordinated process, to quickly reschedule, and then to the relevant colleagues in sync, to the relevant leadership report.
Control product risk
product risk, generally in the process of doing to increase demand, this kind of words is not at first did not think clearly, but the business side may appear a new scenario, so the need to increase demand points, this is a more common situation, the business side did not anticipate;
This is possible to happen, if the demand is not large can be considered to add, if the demand is large, we must grasp the rhythm, put into the subsequent version, if allowing the business side to add demand at any time may have a huge impact on project management, because you may have to follow other projects, and then management will be very confusing.
Of course, in my experience, some business-led companies are actually very difficult to resist this situation, so in the daily process need to communicate and instill as much as possible in this non-infused concept of demand, the disadvantages clearly.
Very small probability of the case will find the original design of the part, technical implementation is difficult or too expensive, may need to change the scheme or re-evaluation, if this is the case according to the actual needs to see whether to adjust the program or adjust the schedule, can be.
Sometimes the technology will put forward the plan, said that this way can not, this depends on whether it can meet expectations, can not reach the not. in my experience, it's mostly impossible, so try to make that expectation as clear as possible and then make it clear why his plan doesn't work.
Generally speaking, this happens, we will give priority to whether additional manpower can be invested, and if so, to add people. if there is no surplus manpower or add people is useless, then consider whether it must be delivered on time, if the deadline is fixed, then consider cutting demand or splitting the version. if there is no deadline is not fixed, then it is best to extend it.
How to do a good job in project management?
let's talk about it in two pieces: the system and the tools.
The tools are simple, JIRA, Zen Tao, teamwork, work tile, seal list and so on, very much, choose one on the line.
Systems are key. with regard to systems, different systems for project size, urgency and project progress are also different.
Generally speaking, there are three kinds of system: daily standing meeting, weekly project weekly meeting, weekly project weekly report.
Standing meeting, as the name implies, is standing in a meeting, every morning about 10-15 minutes, everyone to progress and problems encountered on the end of a talk, the purpose of this meeting is to quickly pass the progress, see if there is a big problem, if not over, if there is a big problem then after the meeting to pull a special discussion and solve the corresponding problem, or find the need for coordination of colleagues to communicate. note that there is no discussion at the meeting.
Meeting every day is a very annoying thing, so be sure to set the tone of this meeting, not simple reporting, more emphasis on synchronous information and coordination and cooperation, and how to solve problems quickly.
Keeping the time at 10-15 minutes is also designed to avoid the problem of inefficient and formal meetings.
Weekly meetings, this is also very common, the project every week to meet the overall progress, while highlighting the previous problems, and then discuss some project-related issues at the meeting, and finally say next week's focus or focus on the time node.
The purpose of the weekly meeting is to synchronize the situation with the team's colleagues and then clarify the issues and follow-up.
Don't go into too much detail at the opening week, talk about some of the key things you've accomplished this week, then talk about what's wrong, what departments you need to work with in the future, and then talk about the priorities for next week or what you'll do.
Week meeting time should not open too long, generally do not exceed 1 hour, too long is also easy to be inefficient.
The weekly meeting does not clapboard on urgent matters, does not clapboard on important matters, does not discuss details.
weekly report, this is the written part, generally written after the weekly meeting, the project leader write on the line, generally like the superior leadership, department heads, project team colleagues synchronized project situation, the simplest words can be the weekly meeting content organized into weekly newspaper content.
Note, do not let the team colleagues to write a weekly report to the product manager, without this reporting line, the need to communicate the problem at the weekly meeting communication.
The bigger the project, the more you write a weekly newspaper, and the smaller the contrast, not the more important it is.
Specific i will not start speaking, meeting and writing a report i think you will still.
Finally, i am talking about the system of individual projects, if it is a multi-project i suggest is separate management, product managers are not professional project managers after all, do not have the ability to do integrated management.
How to apply these three Tools?
Regular project weekly meeting and weekly report on it, if the project is not big, even do not have to open a formal weekly meeting, simple communication, and then organize the weekly report can be.
Regular projects generally don't last more than two weeks, and there's no need to be that complicated.
If it is a long-term project, such as a fixed project team, then it is the same as the regular project to deal with the line, weekly meetings and weekly reports.
If it is an emergency project or key project, then it is necessary to use the form of standing meetings and weekly meetings and weekly reports, emergency projects or key projects, generally time-critical tasks, rhythm requirements are relatively fast, for the management of the requirements are higher, and the relevant leadership is also more important, it is best that you report briefly once a day, so you can start a standing meeting before reporting to summarize the situation, so that we have a number in mind will not have any problems.
In addition, some long-term projects or key projects in the day-to-day use of weekly meetings and weekly reporting system, when nearing the end or major changes in the project can temporarily join the standing meeting system, so as to better manage the project.
Therefore, in principle, the higher the management requirements of the project or stage on the use of standing meetings, daily use of weekly meetings and weekly reports on the line, if the number of people directly with weekly reports on the line.
Other related issues:
Shouldn't project management be done by a product manager?
there's nothing to be done, if someone does it, you can leave it alone, if no one does it then you're in charge, your goal is to make sure your plan goes live, any situation that happens in the middle you need attention, anything that no one does but needs to do you need to do.
How do i do project management without management authority?
The product manager himself is a position that does not have management authority but needs to perform some management functions, such as design colleagues and technical colleagues who disagree on the details of interface interactions, and ultimately you decide. you don't have the power to manage them, but you need to exercise management functions.
In addition, no management power does not mean no leadership, the market on leadership books are very much, always up is proactive, concerned about things, advice, floor implementation. Gently put the right to speak in your hands, gradually let everyone ask more of your opinion, this is leadership.
Since you'll be asked for your opinion on many things, it means that your opinion will influence everyone when you make a choice, and that's leadership.
What if other colleagues often complain or have a bad attitude during project management?
I think of an old thing, and i remember when i was at the last company we had a new person in project management in the early days.
one of her jobs is to check with her colleagues on time nodes of the project if they are on schedule, when individual colleagues complain that they are dying every day.
for a long time that the colleague felt that he was a debt collector, colleagues unfriendly emotional feelings more, so the initiative to leave.
There are two problems, one is that individual colleagues attitude is not correct, since you did not do a good job, others urge nature is a very normal thing, with the project progress of colleagues just do their own work, but he obviously does not have such a self-conscious, meet such colleagues can only do business;
Therefore, if this happens, we should talk to the corresponding colleagues as soon as possible, correct the mistakes, and at the same time, the colleagues in charge of the project to affirm and motivate.
Of course, i am a horse gun, in fact, we are not able to pay attention to this problem. if it is now encountered naturally can be handled well.
Is project management better to hire a dedicated project manager?
If it's a small team it's completely unnecessary, it's not that complicated.
On the case of large teams, we also recommend that products or technologies within the team be responsible as much as possible.
I tell you about my experience, i used to do products in a catering company, when we have 7 or 8 product managers, project management work is more onerous, project often conflict and extension, so hired a project manager to do project management, but came after the discovery that can not solve this problem, because the root cause of the conflict is regular compression scheduling and demand, this is difficult to find project managers are not the focus, reasonable scheduling system and demand control is the focus.
Project management is not the core skill of the product manager, but it is usually also the product manager's area of responsibility, so doing a good job of project management to ensure that the project is high quality and normal online is one of the core issues that product managers need to focus on.
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