Biggest Challenges Faced By A Senior Project Manager At Delve Inc
Jenn's biggest challenge as a Senior Project Manager at Delve, Inc., centers on "client management and stakeholder management," particularly with large corporations who view their relationship as solely transactional rather than collaborative. This often manifests as internal communication silos within client organizations, forcing the project team to mediate internal disagreements, hindering project timelines, and highlighting a need for improved client-side collaboration.
Project Management, Client Communication, Stakeholder Management, Teamwork, Interpersonal Skills
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Jenn Knaus
Senior Project Manager
Delve, Inc.
University of California, Santa Barbara - 2004
N/A
History, Art History
Biotechnology & Pharmaceutical, Consulting & Related Professional Services
Operations and Project Management
Worked 20+ Hours in School
Video Highlights
1. Managing client and stakeholder relationships effectively is crucial for project success and requires strong collaboration skills.
2. Large companies often have internal silos that hinder communication and project progress, highlighting the importance of cross-functional collaboration.
3. Clearly articulating project needs and expectations is essential for both clients and project teams to ensure alignment and avoid misunderstandings, underscoring the value of effective communication.
Transcript
What is your biggest challenge in your current role?
Client management and stakeholder management is challenging. In design services and client services, some clients view our relationship as customer and vendor, or customer and service provider. Others, however, view us as collaborators.
The projects where clients see us as collaborators are so much easier and more successful. Often, when a client sees us as just a vendor, they either don't know exactly what they want and can't communicate it, or they know what they want but cannot articulate it in a helpful way.
In addition to that, I work with very big companies, multi-billion dollar corporations with thousands of employees. The trend seems to be that they use our projects as a conduit for their internal teams to talk to one another.
We'll be in meetings where their teams discuss or argue about things that we've raised as a need for information based on the project. For example, if the project is design and engineering, we create a team of industrial designers and mechanical engineers. On their side, their engineering and design teams are separate and never talk to each other unless they're talking to us.
This often leads to conflict. Bigger companies tend to have more silos, which creates hurdles to working together effectively within their desired timelines. It is much easier to achieve the timeline and scope when they are truly collaborative and invested internally, talking to one another. Client services, as a whole, is very challenging.