Great Project Management

By Tim Thurston

Project management is the critical function that brings together all the various parts of a study to ensure seamless execution. Aside from exceptional communication and team-building skills, great project managers are organized and personable, and they have good common sense. They understand how to serve multiple sets of wants and needs at the same time and strive to become more effective.

The key to developing a strong group of project managers is regular communication about project successes and challenges. This is especially true for those managing specialty projects such as healthcare market research.

Just as analysts select appropriate methodologies to address specific marketing questions, project managers must appropriately apply best practices to assure that a client’s project is completed on time, on budget, and within scope. Project managers learn best practices and how to apply them by sharing success stories and challenges as a team. This process identifies operational efficiencies and ways to strengthen relationships—with suppliers as well as with internal and external clients.

No matter how much experience a project manager has, (s)he benefits from team-wide communication; new ideas emerge and the team as a whole grows stronger. That said, successful project managers take the following eight steps for every study. They:

• Make sure—at the start of a project—that the entire project team agrees on and understands its scope, budget, and timeline
• Gauge and enhance the level of trust among all team members, which includes the client, analysts, and supplier groups
• Define the project and explain why it is being conducted
• Ensure that project tasks and plans are realistic, visible, and accessible
• Maximize the accuracy, professionalism, timeliness, and communication of information among all team members
• Document deviation between planned and actual events, and then adjust and redirect the project as necessary
• Provide support to the project team in a timely manner
• Share project successes and experiences with other project managers

The bottom line is that regular communication—within project teams and among project managers—improves every study. It achieves cost- and time-related efficiencies by keeping the project on track. It also equips project managers with the knowledge they need to make situational adjustments quickly. It’s good for everyone.

About the Author
Tim Thurston is vice president of operations management at G & S Research. In this role, he is responsible for managing the project and data management teams. He oversees all aspects of a project—from managing project scope, budget, and timeline parameters to assuring implementation of best practices that meet the highest market research industry standards.

Tim has more than 17 years of experience in the market research industry. Having worked for both small and large market research firms, Tim offers a balanced perspective to his work. Prior to joining G & S Research in 1998, he held positions in project and client management with Market Solution Group and Winona Research—both in Minneapolis, Minnesota—and at Walker Research and Emmis Research in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Tim earned a BA in political science and international studiesfrom Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and he has completed courses toward a Master degree in management.

http://www.gs-research.com/