A Day in the Life of a Project Manager at Vaelynn Studios
Andreas, a Project Manager at Vaelynn Studios, emphasizes that "communication is the most important thing," requiring the ability to adapt messaging for different audiences, from executives to team members. This involves not only clear communication but also cultivating empathy to understand team members' perspectives and manage expectations effectively, sometimes requiring "private, more closer level" conversations beyond formal team settings.
Communication, Project Management, Empathy, Problem-Solving, Teamwork
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Andreas Lopez
Project Manager
Vaelynn Studios
Western Governor's University (WGU)
WGU Master of Business Administration (MBA)
Engineering, IT, Math & Data
Gaming
Cyber Security and IT
Pell Grant Recipient, Took Out Loans, Immigrant, Worked 20+ Hours in School, First Generation College Student
Video Highlights
1. Effective communication is crucial for project managers, involving various mediums and adapting to different audiences (executives vs. team members).
2. Empathy and understanding are essential for managing teams, requiring the ability to gauge team members' situations and adjust communication styles accordingly.
3. Strong intuition and the ability to switch between formal and informal communication are valuable skills for conflict resolution and team management.
Transcript
What skills are most important for a job like yours?
Communication, hands down. It's all about people. As a project manager or scrum master, you'll be talking to people every day, whether it's through email, text messages on platforms like Slack or Microsoft Teams, or on video calls via Zoom. Projects are built with people, so constant communication is essential.
Another crucial factor in communication is adapting to your audience. I've seen project managers struggle with this, which can cause problems. You're often in the middle, not doing the direct work, but collecting all the information as developers funnel it to you. You absorb this knowledge to build timelines, like estimating a project will be done by the end of June.
You're positioned between management and your team. The challenge is talking differently to an executive than you do to your own team, as executives have different motivations. They might ask for timelines because they need to convey that information to the rest of the organization, especially for projects that impact many people.
Consider a company changing its entire login or warehouse system. This disruption affects how departments work daily and requires everyone to learn new processes. Being able to scale communication and switch gears between talking to an executive versus a team member, team lead, product owner, or customer service is crucial. Understanding where people are coming from is key.
While hard skills can be taught, softer skills like sympathy and empathy are harder to instill. Truly understanding why people say what they say is important. For example, when you ask a developer for a status update on a feature and they say "end of day," even after telling you that three times, you need to develop the acumen and empathy to understand.
You need to realize they might feel pressured and are not being realistic about the timeline. As a project manager, it takes intuition to know when to pause, break the process, and engage with someone privately, rather than in front of the team. Addressing the whole team in a meeting is different than a private direct message to work something out.
Hands down, communication is the most important thing for a project manager.