How to Develop Project Management Skills

März 20, 2014 7 mins to read
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Probably one of the most important things when starting a business on the side is developing project management skills. This means being able to handle customers, tasks, marketing, calculations, etc. – just the typical project management stuff.

When you want to start a business on the side, it’s likely that you’re offering some service to others or work as a freelancer. With that said, you’ll have to learn how to manage projects to make your business a success. Otherwise, you’ll feel stressed, won’t see any happy customers nor money coming in.

Coming from a job in business consulting, I have some project management skills. I lead a project implementing a new ERP system with a wholesaler, but that project didn’t go well in the beginning. I had to migrate 450k customer and order records from their very old system to our new one, which took longer than expected. But it’s those challenging projects that grow real project management skills.

The Basic Project Management Skills

When I started my first web design project, I learned the following lessons the hard way. I had no idea how to handle the customer, the freelancer, and my work, how to plan accordingly or how to price my job. I just started, did my work and luckily survived the project.

Handling Clients

Your customer is the most important person in your project. It’s not you, nor is it a freelancer or contractor you might work with.

Your client is the one paying you and thus he deserves your attention. However, customers don’t necessarily know what’s good for them. Hell, they sometimes even have no idea about the result of the project. Here’s where project management skills are life-savers.

Give your client the feeling that you understand him. You have more in-depth knowledge than your customer, who just focuses on his benefits. When you’re communicating, use words your client can understand and resonate with. Clarify that you understand the main requirements and the desired benefits.

Lead into the right direction. Clients aren’t always right, even though most of them think they are. It’s your job to steer the project in the direction that results in the biggest benefits for your client. Don’t argue with him, but explain your suggested changes and show how the results will improve for your customer. If he still insists on being right, then just follow him without thinking too much about better alternatives. Some people don’t want to get the best results; they want to get their results.

Planning the project is also imperative and arduous in the beginning. Most clients I’ve worked with stuck to a pretty loose schedule, but things tightened up quickly. Expect not to hear from your customer for days or even weeks, even though you depend on their input. But once the customer comes up with a deadline in two days, he thinks that you’ll just magically make it happen.

It’s your job to get the customer input that’s necessary. Train your project management skills and explain to your client that they need to do their part of the project so that you can do your work. Make this clear right from the beginning, and you’ll reduce the risk of getting under pressure in the end. Plan at least the double time you’d typically need to finish the project. It’s likely that you’re working on several projects at the same time, and life will get in the way more often than you might think.

Task Management

Projects normally consist of several tasks, some of which depending on each other. You need to have the right project management skills to control the workflow, the number of tasks and the progress of the project.

In my experience as a web designer, clients like to change their opinion on design, layout, texts, graphics or whatever pretty often. They see it as minor tweaks, and they don’t think about the efforts necessary to do the change.

Gather all requirements at the beginning of the project and have your client sign them. This brings both of you to the same level of understanding for the project. And most importantly, it’s your proof when your client wants a new feature that you didn’t know about and thus didn’t plan for.

Manage your projects accordingly to always be in control. I like to break down my projects into milestones with tasks assigned to each of them. Then I estimate the workload for each task, calculate the timeframes for each milestone and thus know how long the project will take. Knowing how long each task should take enables you to control whether you’re still on track or not.

Tools like Asana, Trello or Basecamp, allow you to manage your projects with ease and have the data accessible online, also ideal for teams.

Prioritize your tasks in a way that allows a smooth project flow. Don’t respond to every question, feature request or change request from your client immediately. It’s tough to reject those and to put them on hold until you’ve prioritized them, but it will save your project! Explain to your client why you’re putting his requests on hold and how you will properly respond later. This is where you really can challenge your project management skills.

Handling Freelancers or Contractors

I’m working with a development/design company from Pakistan, called i-Intellect, for almost a year now. Their co-founder became a friend of mine and together we’re rocking web design and app development projects. [Update: another year later, they, unfortunately, let me down on some projects. I discontinued working with them after they simply stopped answering my emails and requests.]

But to make the projects run smoothly, we need to clarify all requirements in detail. Everyone needs to know exactly what he or she has to do, to complete a certain task. Don’t take anything for granted but explain every little detail. Assumptions regularly kill projects, just because some details weren’t discussed properly.

Also, make sure that your developer has fully understood all requirements. Have them explain the project to you and ask questions about all the important (and not so important) details. Mail is a dangerous place for this, Skype or Hangouts are way better. You’ll want to get in touch with your contractor personally!

Define a deadline that is before your project timeline, so that you have time to react to changes. My web design clients love to come up with new ideas two days before the website is finished – and those plans frequently require massive layout changes or equally drastic things. Reserving some time for your contractor to include those changes after his „deadline“ can save projects.

After all, there’s a lot more to say about working with virtual assistants, freelancers, and contractors. Therefore I’d like to point you to the new book of Mr. Outsourcing himself, Chris Ducker. Virtual Freedom shares everything you need to know about this topic!

Other Project Management Skills

Besides the two kinds of project management skills I just mentioned, you also need to be aware of the following items:

  • Calculating profit margins and project costs
  • Motivating employees, freelancers, and contractors
  • Getting in uncomfortable discussions if necessary
  • Know your tools, like performing a SWOT analysis for example

There is more to say on this subject, so I might use this as another blog post in the future. I’d like to hear how project management influences your daily business and whether you agree with my thoughts on project management skills or not. Please leave a comment if you have something to say!

20 Comments on “How to Develop Project Management Skills”

  1. Hi Jan,

    As an entrepreneur myself, I feel that the most important thing to have is organization skills – unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to be a skill listed in your post.

    Nevertheless, I think this is a good post and I would like to share it on PM Hut so that many project managers will benefit from it. Please either email me or contact me through the contact us form on the PM Hut site in case you’re OK with this.

    1. Jan Koch
      März 21, 2014

      Hey,
      I agree that organizational skills are very important. I didn’t include them, because I wanted to focus on project management skills first and wanted to keep the length of the post reasonable. At least they are covered a little bit in planning projects and prioritizing tasks – but they deserve a more specific explanation in a future post.

      I’m honored that you want to share it on PM Hut, I’ll get in touch with you!

      Cheers

  2. Hi Jan,

    As an entrepreneur myself, I feel that the most important thing to have is organization skills – unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to be a skill listed in your post.

    Nevertheless, I think this is a good post and I would like to share it on PM Hut so that many project managers will benefit from it. Please either email me or contact me through the contact us form on the PM Hut site in case you’re OK with this.

    1. Jan Koch
      März 21, 2014

      Hey,
      I agree that organizational skills are very important. I didn’t include them, because I wanted to focus on project management skills first and wanted to keep the length of the post reasonable. At least they are covered a little bit in planning projects and prioritizing tasks – but they deserve a more specific explanation in a future post.

      I’m honored that you want to share it on PM Hut, I’ll get in touch with you!

      Cheers

  3. Nice, helpful article Jan! I eagerly wait for the blog post on calculating profit margins and project costs and getting in uncomfortable discussions, since you’ll surely have a lot of insights and ideas up your sleeves to share.

    1. Jan Koch
      März 24, 2014

      Hey Berty, thanks for stopping by!
      I added the topic you requested to my list of future blog posts 🙂 In fact, I suppose those will be two posts, you’ve touched on two interesting topics.

      Cheers!

  4. Nice, helpful article Jan! I eagerly wait for the blog post on calculating profit margins and project costs and getting in uncomfortable discussions, since you’ll surely have a lot of insights and ideas up your sleeves to share.

    1. Jan Koch
      März 24, 2014

      Hey Berty, thanks for stopping by!
      I added the topic you requested to my list of future blog posts 🙂 In fact, I suppose those will be two posts, you’ve touched on two interesting topics.

      Cheers!

  5. Hi Jan,

    Great article! I agree with your points here.

    I see you mention Trello, Asana and Basecamp. Which tool do you prefer?

    I use Trello for project management and Toggl for tracking the time spent on an specific project.

    I had a hard time estimating the hours needed for a project, but I found out that using tools like these helps a lot.

    If I thought I would need 3 hours, I then realized I would need 20% more.

    I would love to read more about the way you calculate profit margin/costs!

    1. Jan Koch
      März 25, 2014

      Hey Karen,
      thanks for stopping by!

      I prefer Asana for team based project management. Trello and Basecamp are also great, but Asana is the best fit for me personally. Great to hear that those tools help you estimate your project volume. With just 20% you’re quite accurate in planning, sometimes I even hit 50% difference 😉

      In fact, you’re already the second person asking for calculating profits margins and project costs. I’ve added that topic on my list of blog posts that are waiting to be written, you’ll definitely read about that in the near future!

      Cheers,
      Jan

  6. Hi Jan,

    Great article! I agree with your points here.

    I see you mention Trello, Asana and Basecamp. Which tool do you prefer?

    I use Trello for project management and Toggl for tracking the time spent on an specific project.

    I had a hard time estimating the hours needed for a project, but I found out that using tools like these helps a lot.

    If I thought I would need 3 hours, I then realized I would need 20% more.

    I would love to read more about the way you calculate profit margin/costs!

    1. Jan Koch
      März 25, 2014

      Hey Karen,
      thanks for stopping by!

      I prefer Asana for team based project management. Trello and Basecamp are also great, but Asana is the best fit for me personally. Great to hear that those tools help you estimate your project volume. With just 20% you’re quite accurate in planning, sometimes I even hit 50% difference 😉

      In fact, you’re already the second person asking for calculating profits margins and project costs. I’ve added that topic on my list of blog posts that are waiting to be written, you’ll definitely read about that in the near future!

      Cheers,
      Jan

  7. Awesome, helpful and to the point project management skills.

    1. Jan Koch
      April 7, 2014

      Thanks Lucy!

  8. Awesome, helpful and to the point project management skills.

    1. Jan Koch
      April 7, 2014

      Thanks Lucy!

  9. Arlen Mark
    April 15, 2014

    Hey Jan, Nice blog but I want to recommend you to try proofhub. Features like time tracking, to-do’s, calendar and sub tasks makes it very useful + this tool is present in multi languages too like French, English and Spanish. Very simple but powerful.

    1. Jan Koch
      April 15, 2014

      Thanks for the recommendation Arlen!
      I gave it a look and it looks pretty usable, the time tracking functionality is really useful.
      But I think it’s pretty expensive for the provided functionality, if I want time tracking and team collaboration I could combine Asana and Mite. It’s the service of having the functionality in one platform that you pay for at Proofhub – and that’s fine 🙂 I think it’s awesome to have so many different platforms, so everyone can use what works best for him individually.

      Cheers,
      Jan

  10. Arlen Mark
    April 15, 2014

    Hey Jan, Nice blog but I want to recommend you to try proofhub. Features like time tracking, to-do’s, calendar and sub tasks makes it very useful + this tool is present in multi languages too like French, English and Spanish. Very simple but powerful.

    1. Jan Koch
      April 15, 2014

      Thanks for the recommendation Arlen!
      I gave it a look and it looks pretty usable, the time tracking functionality is really useful.
      But I think it’s pretty expensive for the provided functionality, if I want time tracking and team collaboration I could combine Asana and Mite. It’s the service of having the functionality in one platform that you pay for at Proofhub – and that’s fine 🙂 I think it’s awesome to have so many different platforms, so everyone can use what works best for him individually.

      Cheers,
      Jan

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