Charlie Davidson

Digital project management

Dad x 2. Husband. Digital Project Manager.

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Charlie Davidson © 2018–2019

Personal brand

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We all have our own brand.

It’s the perception people have of us. We can shape it, for better or worse.

And we can also apply the same marketing techniques from the business world to improve it.

My wife took a photo for me today to use as a profile shot, the old ones now out of date.

I had it taken behind a clear colour background to be recognisable from the crowd. I used the same shot across my networks for consistency. It somehow worked for my core values; approachable, hardworking, balanced.

It’s these little things, small but often, that help give us a fighting chance from standing out from the very busy crowd.

Capitalism

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Rows of T-shirts for sale

Years ago I bought a new lawnmower because the one I owned lost it’s small plastic blades.

I was too lazy to understand that all I needed was to spend a few pounds buying a bag of replacements.

I threw out the old lawnmower and still cringe at that waste now.

It wasn’t even very old.

In his blog today, Seth Godin talks around the benefits capitalism has given us.

Capitalism is an extraordinary engine. It has remade every corner of the Earth, and done it in the course of two or three lifetimes. Together with its cousins, technology and industrialism, capitalism is an evolving system that changes whatever it touches.

But he counters.

But the purpose of our society isn’t to optimize capitalism. The purpose of capitalism is to allow our society to become better. A culture that opens doors for and nurtures the people we care about.

Think about what went into building that lawnmower.

The materials for parts.

The energy to transport.

The time in selling it.

All to be crushed by the bin mens lorry.

I’m sure like me you’ll be buying Christmas presents for loved ones soon.

Before you do, have a read of this harrowing post by George Monbiot, I won’t spoil it but it paints quite a picture.

This year I’ll make homemade gifts, buy experiences, and choose things that will be used.

I won’t be buying presents to be binned without a thought.

Like my lawnmower.

Changing habits

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Man on surfboard

When did you last introduce a new habit into your life?

I have, and can, but not consistently.

For every positive new habit in my life, there are several I tried and failed at.

A life of well-intentioned changes forgotten.

Why is that?

I once joined colleagues learning to surf for the first time.

It was North Scotland in December and Lossiemouth Beach was white instead of yellow.

Squeezed in a winter wetsuit, and the gloves and boots, I crunched through fresh snow heading to the waves.

A few hours later I was heading the other way, having had the time of my life.

To this day I can’t quite describe why I enjoyed surfing so much but knew I wanted to make it a regular experience.

Ten years later and I’ve been back twice.

But why?

I went through a similar process with swimming but here you’ll see me down the local pool every lunchtime.

It’s down to routine and ease of use.

Not long after that snowy surfing day, I moved to one of the most inland points on the British Isles.

In Oxfordshire, it’s impractical to surf regularly.

A fare excuse; more so than failed websites and running routines.

But why the reflection on changing habits today, well it’s day two of daily blogging.

Will there be a day three, with the weekend now up and back to work tomorrow.

It’ll be down to routine and ease of use.

The art of writing regularly

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A pen on top of a note pad

Have you ever visited Seth Godin’s blog?

It’s one of the most popular on the internet and I’m embarrassed to say I only discovered it today.

He writes on it every day.

Think about that; he writes, every, single, day.

I can’t imagine having the willpower to write something every day.

But Seth does.

I spend a lot of my working day writing emails, but somehow that doesn’t count.

A blog post is more permanent, more considered than email.

Seth describes writing daily as clarifying, and I guess he means we can use it to self-reflect.

That’s probably easier if you do it daily and I can see the benefits.

It would help to exercise and improve my writing skills.

It would also be nice to finish a day, self-reflect, and get words down to help tomorrow.

Does that mean I will start blogging daily?

No, probably not.

If I promise that, I’ll just end up breaking it.

But this blog post is shorter and an opportunity to try something new.

Let’s see how tomorrow goes.

Digital Project Managers – are we just expensive telephones?

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Old fashioned telephone

Most people suffer moments of professional doubt and Digital Project Managers are no different.

My common doubt is being a glorified middleman and team blocker.

Have you ever been stuck between client and project team, passing on messages and adding no value?

You are new to an organisation and don’t understand the setup, joined a project late, or new to DPM life?

I did earlier in my career and sometimes still do after a bad day, though luckily it’s rarer.

I read an article where digital project managers were interviewed about the future of our profession and Carson Pierce said.

The problem with the existing model is that it’s often not terribly efficient,” he explains. “You have a team doing the work and then this PM person moving around the periphery trying to connect all the dots. The client asks them how things are going and they have to refer to their standup meeting notes to provide a status report. They’re just a communication middleman and it ends up being an expensive game of ‘telephone’.

This single paragraph epitomises my negative thought process.

Are Digital Project Managers expensive telephones?

Carson’s comments are a broader piece on the evolution of Project Managers and an interesting read.

He later says that future PM roles should.

The main person doing the work on a project is the one that acts as the ‘project lead’. When the client asks for an update, they can answer immediately because they’re fully immersed in the work. They can make strategic decisions about direction, quality, scope, etc and are much more invested in the project outcomes. In this way, ‘project management’ becomes a skill rather than a role.”

I agree and would suggest we’ve been moving in this direction for a while now.

Let’s dig a little deeper.

Digital Project Leaders or Digital Project Managers?

The Leader versus Manager debate is important but also generic and overused.

Leaders Influence. Managers Direct. Blah, blah, blah…

A little unfair but we’ve all cringed at those LinkedIn posts.

We should look at it differently, systems replace Managers over time.

At DPMUK15 my manager said we shouldn’t call ourselves “Project Managers” but “Project Leaders”.

But how do we move to a more leadership-focused role?

The T-Shaped Digital Project Manager

Have you heard of the T-shaped developer?

They focus on one core area like front-end development.

Yet they also have broader skills; such as systems, testing, and back-end coding.

If you are struggling to get the T-shaped reference, check out this image.

The T-shaped Developer is a common phrase but I’ve not heard it used for Digital Project Management.

Why can’t we have a T-shaped Digital Project Manager?

We specialise in running complex digital projects.

Yet we work in UX, Design, Technical, Systems, and Account Management / Business Development.

This helps give us a better “finger on the pulse” with projects, talk to clients with authority, and gives the team someone to discuss issues with.

This isn’t easy and your colleagues takes years perfecting their skills.

How do you do it as a DPM?

It comes through reading, delivering projects, and challenging colleagues on their work.

It involves self-discipline and challenging outside your comfort zone, two things I’m not always good at!

You need a passion for the work you produce and not be only a project facilitator.

Here are two great articles I’d recommend starting with, one technical and another creative.

The Digital Consultant

The most successful Digital Project Managers I work with eventually take consultancy roles.

They fill team gaps and build on client relations.

They expand the T-Shaped model by using broad skills to translate requirements to digital strategy.

The most important tasks a digital consultant does is gather requirements and agree project goals.

Let’s look at a tool used when gathering requirements.

MoSCoW Rating

The MoSCoW Rating approach is useful to prioritise requirements.

It’s simple, with clients assigning requirements to four categories; Must, Should, Could, and Won’t.

You could have four categories, most important to least, but MoSCoW makes customers justify each placement.

You often need to cut requirements, for budget or time reasons, but MoSCoW helps triage which requirements stay.

My projects typically aim to get Musts and Shoulds in scope, and some Coulds.

Somehow we often only get Musts and some Shoulds in.

Going further with Technical Complexity

You can expand MoSCoW by cross-referencing requirements with technical complexity.

The most common approach doing this is either a 1-10 rating or a RAG traffic light system.

This will give you something like this:

  • Requirement: Homepage hero image
  • MoSCoW rating: Should
  • Technical complexity: 4 (or Amber)

This approach helps choose requirements from a category.

If you can’t afford all Shoulds, choose less technical requirements, which are quicker and cheaper.

Smart Goals

OK, so we’ve looked at gathering requirements, but what about defining project goals.

Agreeing project goals can be difficult but there are tools to help.

SMART is useful in making sure project goals are relevant and attainable.

There are five key points to the SMART model that goals need.

  • S – specific; is the goal focussed on a specific point?
  • M – measurable; is the goal quantifiable and metric driven?
  • A – agreed upon; has the goal got buy-in from all stakeholders?
  • R – realistic; is the goal something that is achievable?
  • T – time-bound; has the goal got an end-date?

There are other ways to define SMART too but I feel the above work best.

Automation and Digital Project Management

Why are the points above so important?

In the future automation will remove mundane tasks, including with Digital Project Management.

Self driving will replace lorry drivers like machinery did farming labourers last century.

Systems will replace repetitive knowledge worker tasks in the next decade.

Unless you retire by then, and the digital industry is full of young people, we must be adaptive in our roles.

Feedback welcome

I realise that this post is focused on long-term skill improvements.

Do you have any thoughts or feedback?

I’d love to add to this post, especially day-to-day role improvements.