Favorite Parts of Being a Project Manager at Vaelynn Studios
Andreas, a Project Manager at Vaelynn Studios, identifies "people" as the biggest challenge, citing unexpected events like developer absences and shifting stakeholder priorities as major disruptions. Effective communication is key to mitigating these issues, as it allows for proactive adjustments and prevents situations where "the development team has spent two, three months developing something" only to have it rejected due to unforeseen changes.
Project Management, Communication, Problem-Solving, Teamwork, Overcoming Challenges
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. Project management involves adapting to unexpected changes and challenges. Plans rarely survive initial execution due to unforeseen circumstances such as employee absences or shifting priorities.
2. Effective communication is crucial in project management to mitigate the impact of changes and keep projects on track. It helps prevent misunderstandings and ensures everyone is aligned.
3. The ability to motivate a team and guide them back on track after setbacks is a key skill for project managers. This requires strong communication and leadership abilities.
Transcript
What is your biggest challenge in your current role?
Communication has been key. When you manage projects and know exactly what you want, you've done user research and received clear answers. Users might request work be done quickly, automated, or to alleviate manual tasks for employees.
You go in with a plan, but it rarely survives execution. You have your plan, goals, and tasks mapped out. You kick off the project, start working, and then things happen outside of anyone's control. Your key developer, who has all the domain knowledge, might go on vacation or get sick.
Alternatively, an emergency might arise due to a detected security vulnerability in other software. This requires pulling your developer from your project, as it's considered more important and could affect the whole organization or stall data.
Typically, the number one issue that gets in the way of projects is people. On the other hand, people change their minds. You start executing, implementing, and showing certain features through technical demos.
Halfway through, people might say they don't like it, that it doesn't work as they want, or that it needs to look completely different. Other things can happen in the meantime, like branding guidelines being updated.
This means the design you've been working on no longer matches the new branding guidelines. You couldn't have anticipated this, possibly due to a lack of communication, guidelines being released earlier than expected, or a desire to implement them sooner.
By the end of the day, communication skills are important. Project managers can get annoyed, but imagine a development team that has spent months developing something only for the stakeholder to say they don't like it anymore, or for company guidelines to change making it inapplicable.
You need to go back to the drawing board and improve it. This is why you need people to step up and say when something is wrong. Then, you need to guide the team back on track and motivate them. This is why communication is key, so these issues don't occur.
If everyone is informed, like hearing about new branding guidelines, they can either adjust the design work or be involved in the process to incorporate them. The biggest challenge will always be people, because people make projects happen.