You could have any agency filed with the highest performing professionals in the game. But without a functioning project management system, their skills can become riskily underutilised.
Project management plays a key role in operational and outcome aspects of any project. With a person or software filling the position of project manager, your team can experience a variety of major productivity benefits that impact both workflow and customer satisfaction.
If you’re not sure exactly what a project manager does or are considering implementing a project management tool for your business, we’re here to clear it all up.
What Does a Project Manager do in an Agency?
The role of a project manager is to deliver projects in the most efficient way possible using the people, tools, resources, and time frame available to them. They focus on breaking down larger goals into smaller, actionable steps, and overseeing the workflow of a project from start to finish.
Without a project manager even the most cohesive teams can struggle to meet deadlines and hit client briefs properly. When you have a project management system, it becomes a lot easier for teams to work efficiently and deliver outcomes that keep clients happy.
While in the past, the role of project management was typically delegated to an individual person, you can now use smart project management tools and software to help streamline productivity. Let’s hear it for technology!
Project Manager’s Responsibilities
Now that you understand a little bit more about the general purpose and mission of a project manager, let’s break-down their exact responsibilities. From day-to-day operations to reaching long-term objectives, project managers are typically held accountable for the following factors:
Budgeting
A major part of project management involves budgeting. This can include budget development, analysis, and making sure funds are allocated in the right areas for the best results.
For example, a project manager might look at the budget for a client’s proposal and develop a strategy for how to utilise it in the most valuable way possible – for both the agency and the client.
Resource Planning and Task Management
Another important responsibility ascribed to project managers is that of assigning resources and delegating tasks to specific team members. They might come up with a project scope, complete with information regarding viable resource distribution and then bringing that scope to life.
Time and Expense Monitoring
According to a 2022 report from Acuity Training, only 18% of people feel they have an efficient time management system and 82% say don’t have a time management system at all.
These staggering rates highlight the need for more strategic time monitoring in the workplace, which is exactly what a project manager can help with. By organising and monitoring the time frames allocated for each project, your agency can experience significant less time wastage in the workplace.
Communicating with Clients
Client communication is really important for maintaining good relationships with the public and ensuring that each project is fairly conducted for both the parties involved. Project managers will often take on the role of communicator (and mediator, if needed) between clients and agencies.
Reporting KPIs to Management
Setting and hitting KPIs is a core part of any functional agency or team. But that becomes a lot easier when you have a project manager at the helm.
A project manager can not only help you hit essential KPIs throughout the course of a project, but they can also determine which ones to set and report their progress to other managers at the agency.
Agency Project Management – The Best Practices
Like most things in life, there are helpful and unhelpful ways to go about executing great project management. Knowing the best practices for agency project management can help your team reach its goals more efficiently and make the most out of every task.
Set Clear Objectives and Tasks Ownership and Responsibilities
Having clearly outlined goals and objectives is key to successful project management. Without clarity, other team members may struggle to understand what is required of them, which can lead to a lower standard of work. Be clear and intentional about approaching task organisation and responsibilities.
Manage Expectations, From Start to Finish
Managing expectations is important for clients and agency professionals. Project managers can help align client expectations with agency capabilities by making sure everyone is on the same page.
From the get-go, your agency and its clients should share the same understanding of how the project will be executed and what the outcome will be. A project manager should take this seriously.
Look For Ways to Streamline Communication and the Next Steps
As we’ve briefly touched on, communication forms a big part of efficient agency-to-client communications. Finding ways to streamline this communication link can be a huge advantage for project managers as it allows them to speed up the productivity process.
Manage (Avoid) Scope Creep
Scope creep. It sounds undesirable because it is. It describes a series of sudden or uncontrolled changes made to a project while it’s being worked on. Learning how to avoid scope creep is essential for time management.
Project managers can avoid the slowing, frustrating effects of scope creep by clearly defining project requirements, setting up change control parameters, and developing a firm project schedule.
Use Time-Tracking Tools to Get Consolidated Data
Luckily for us, we live in a time where digital tools are widely accessible. Time-tracking tools are one of the most popular for boosting productivity and should be utilised to get the most out of consolidated data. By using these tools, agency project managers have one less thing to worry about.
PMs Keep The Wheels Moving
Every agency team needs someone (or something) to focus on optimising workflow and making sure they stay on track for success. This is what project management does.
Whether your agency uses a project management tool or real-life professional, everyone needs a PM to get them from A to B.