Battle No 1: There is no left today.
Surely it has happened to you that it is Friday, the last hour of your work day and a client asks you for urgent changes. You look at the clock and then you run to your team to ask for their help, but that change will definitely not take one or two hours, or even three, and your team responds: there is no time left.
At that moment you feel tears coming to your eyes because you already have at least 3 “URGE” emails and you wish your team would feel sorry for you and understand all the pressure you have on you, but do you know? The reality is that today there is no.
And the thing is, you would like to say yes to everything the client asks for because you have to keep them happy, and when your team tells you that the requirement is not going to be met when you ask for it, you get overwhelmed and feel that everyone turns their back on you, that they don't put themselves in your shoes, that you are the victim and you start to think, what are you going to say to the client? How are you going to say no? How do you say no to a client?
Calm down. Take a deep breath and keep reading.
Surely at that moment it doesn't make sense but in time you will understand that one of the great lessons you will have to learn is that your role is not only to look after the interests of your clients, but also those of your team.
Sometimes, when clients ask for urgent things, they do not have in mind what they need or why it is not possible to have them ahead of time, which is why it is important to tell them. Imagine that you have a restaurant and a customer asks you for a dish that is not on the menu urgently, the customer wants a dish in 10 minutes and is even willing to accept it in 15, but you know that it takes your team to prepare that dish about 3 hours, definitely if you give him a pseudo dish in 10 or 15 minutes it will not even be to his liking and it may even be raw, missing ingredients and making him sick.
When you have to weigh the well-being of your team and your client against a requirement that clearly can wait another day, or that even needs to wait longer to come out with the quality it should, you will not mind losing this battle, because then you will no longer be against anyone, but you will be part of the true team that you lead and your commitment to the client will go beyond just following their orders.
In due time, if you are able to explain to your client the importance of doing the work in the time it deserves, I am sure they will understand and thank you and your team for doing things the right way.
Obviously there will be times when you and your team have to get busy for something that corresponds to you and perhaps you will have to stay late, but evaluate that those times are really worth it and not only the quality of life of everyone is sacrificed.
Battle No. 2: It was perfect! Now let's change everything! (Once a client)
What would be your world as a Project manager if you never had to change the entire project when in fact it is already finished?
It would probably be wonderful, but you would also have been left without experiencing those very beautiful things like nightmares with the client, express deliveries, everything that worked yesterday due to a change no longer works (big sigh)... anyway.
We will have to lose this battle many times, because although we love to control everything, not everything controllable is in our hands.
For these occasions always remember to implement your change control plan, which must consider additional times and costs in reference to the initial scope.
Also prepare a defense argument for the work they have already done and suggest that the new changes be justified with hard data to avoid them being just subjective changes, with this at least the changes to be made could be reduced and leave the most important and necessary ones, eventually the remaining small changes can be made.
For those times, also prepare a speech in recognition of the work of your team who spent several weeks of work that now must change, give them a big hug and lean on them, if you have done well as a leader, they will help you move everything forward no matter how difficult it is.
Battle No. 3 That's what they asked for, but they don't want it that way.
I swear! That's what they asked for! You yell at everyone when they look at you with disapproval because at the last minute you changed their request, and what they did no longer works.
But don't worry, I believe you, and so does your team, what's more, you even have it by mail, only the client actually made a mistake.
The thing is that sometimes clients also have a life, and normally that life is also busy like yours, and while they are doing business or running an international brand, they also check your emails, and it happens that sometimes their ideas get messed up and they ask you for things that are not.
If it has already happened to you, don't worry, if it hasn't happened to you (you don't have to wait to learn either) now you know that you have to check your client's requirements before asking your team for them, then you can prevent your team from working double; But to be honest with you, we will not always be able to avoid these mistakes that do not come from you, simply because we are human.
So if you have to do everything again because your client did not explain it well, try to explain the impact of redoing the requirement so that additional costs, times or resources are taken into account. You can also analyze which elements of the requirement can work for your client so that everything you and your team worked on is not lost.
Don't feel sad when you lose this battle, raise your head and give it your all to release that project that you already have a little more experience at least.
Battle No. 4 The system was not designed for that. (Once a programmer)
The project is already finished, the client is reviewing it and zaz!, he asks you why his system does not allow uploading files format .nobody knows, because it is obvious that he needs it, he has ever discussed it with... someone at... some time. And when he gives you his reasons then it sounds quite logical to you too. Of course!
You go with your team and they answer the classic: The system was not designed for that.
And although it all sounds logical, if the express requirement was not in the work order or in your delimitation of the project scope, your team is right, the system was not designed for that.
On these occasions you will have to evaluate with your team what things can be considered as guarantees of the project and what cannot, but surely you will already have enough experience so that in your next project you take these types of requirements into account.
What I recommend is to keep a log of your lessons learned by type of project so that you implement them in the following ones and they do not go unnoticed, so you don't have to stumble over the same stone.
Battle No. 5 Do you speak CLIENT?
It's your first week at the agency and you start receiving emails from your clients in... Spanglish?
Dear Lulú, I need this to be done ASAP.
Or in your inbox is a forwarded email that just says FYI.
Or how about the famous one: This is ON FIRE.
And you wonder WTF? (Where’s the food?, of course )
Don't worry, even if you hate these expressions either because you are a passionate defender of our language or at least of tranquility (because why always set everything on fire?) you will have to learn to identify them and keep track of them.
ASAP: As soon as possible, or in Spanish, as soon as possible. (What does it cost for people to write clearly and beautifully?). This expression is written to you by clients and suppliers (of course) to ask you for something urgent.
FYI: For your information. Or rather: For your information. These emails tend to be somewhat misleading, sometimes they have everything to do with you and sometimes they have nothing to do with you. If you receive one of these, I suggest you read it to the end because you never know if the last line of the email includes your name with a task for you, even though everyone else doesn't tell you anything ;)
ON FIRE: On fire. (Really men? :P) It means that everything is chaos for the client, it is like the bat signal that tells you that it is time for you and your team to solve something immediate and control that chaos. If you ever wanted to be a hero now is your time. Wink your eye at that person you like, snap your fingers and work your magic.
Just like these, there are many more words that you will learn from many people in the industry, maybe you like to use them and maybe you don't, even if you don't like them, you won't actually be able to make your clients or suppliers stop using them, but you will surely learn a lot about what ideal communication should be like if you try to transform them into something clear and direct for your team.
I recommend that although they are often used in the industry, you do not use them with your team. Try to have simple, clear and efficient communication, establish the terms of your requirements, do not stress them with that ASAP thing, tell them explicitly what you need them to do instead of an ambiguous FYI, and try to work with them so that, as far as possible, they do not have to attend to the famous ON FIRE, but instead they learn to work with prevention. The best planning teams are those that work to prevent and not those that work to solve emergencies that they could not prevent.
How about now?
Are you breathing better now? I hope so, and I also hope that these points are of some use to you now that you begin your adventure in the fabulous world of project planning. If you want to enrich this little manual, write to me at cristina.pineda@masclicks.com.mx surely your experience will help more than one project save its day.
