The Interactive Project Manager Recipe

Project management in the advertising industry is an often misunderstood and under appreciated position. At their best, project managers can streamline communications between clients and company staff, ensure time lines stay on track, and keep the project scope in check. If they’re really good, they can even create new business opportunities within the client relationship. Although at their worst, they complicate the process, have a hard time explaining the needs of the clients effectively, suffer from multi tasking inefficiency, piss off the production staff and can bruise the relationship with a client.

If finding a good project manager is like finding a needle in a haystack, then finding a good interactive project manager is like finding a needle in field of haystacks, among several fields, across several states, in the middle of the night, without a flashlight and wearing a blindfold.

Interactive project managers, like all project managers, succeed when they are detail oriented, when they respect and understand the company’s process, and have a knack for handling the requests of clients as easily as they handle the needs of the development staff. Although beyond those attributes, being an interactive project manager requires a deeper understanding and appreciation for technology. And not just the fun side of technology, like how to use a blog, or understanding the benefits of Facebook vs. Twitter… but a real appreciation for technology, including grasping database configurations, content management software platforms, hosting implications and 3rd party software integrations. Have I lost you yet?

The other benefit of an interactive project manager, and in our case a necessity, is to be able to quickly and effectively juggle many things at once. Many project managers are task oriented, which is helpful if you have them working with 2 clients. Although in the interactive space, in the course of a week, you may have to work with 20 to 30 different clients, all with completely different requests. And each request requires interfacing with a different member of the development team or marketing team.

So with summer upon us, when entertaining is at its peak, we thought we’d share one of our favorite recipes with you.

Ingredients for Interactive Project Manager:

• ¼ cup marketing
• ¼ cup business development
• ½ cup personality
• ½ cup technical knowledge
• 1 cup of organization
• 1 cup multi tasking
• 2 cups accountability
• Dash of writing capability
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Garnish with a healthy dose of optimism and humility

These ingredients are best when mixed beforehand and marinated, then sautéed lightly and served warm. And make sure you wear an apron because the ingredients can often get a little messy while preparing. Enjoy and share amongst friends and clients!