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Dear Aunty

I’ve started a design project with a new client. How often should you contact your client or contact them with updates and do you have any tips for this?

Yours

Emo Fudd

Dear Emo

Remember: A client wants to feel loved like everyone else. Even if you have no news, a brief email every day or two days, even to say ‘hello’, is a non-intrusive way of letting the client know that you are thinking of them and have the project in your mind. This also keeps you fresh in their minds — flow-on work usually happens this way.

It’s a good idea to submit a weekly work-in-progress update once the project has started. Try and submit this at the same time each week –- Friday afternoons are good as a ‘close-off’ for the week. Continue Reading

Photo by Please! Don't smile.

Dear Aunty,

We’re halfway through a project and I think the Art Director is going to kill the Technical lead. We can’t get through a day without constant sniping, terse words or snippy emails cced to the whole office.

Yesterday, the technical lead poured his slush puppy over the art director’s head and unplugged his laptop in the middle of a presentation causing the art director to cuss wildly about the cost of his suit and the state of his hair. It didn’t help that the client was sitting in the meeting room watching the presentation at the time.

Is there any advice for this? I’m the PM by the way. Continue Reading

Dear Aunty Entity,

I’m convinced my client hates me

I took over an account from someone who had been with the client for 3 years and they were disgruntled about them going. The last few weeks have been difficult in terms of establishing a relationship and getting things done because of this negative vibe. Today when I phoned to ask about an approval for something I got yelled at before having the phone slammed down on me.

Am I being paranoid and how can I get out of this? Continue Reading

Dear Aunty Entity

I recently started with a new client on a project. As well as normal project management duties I attend at least two hourly client meetings a week and spend as much time again on the phone. As the project is potentially a long-term one I can see a lot of unpaid hours stacking up already. How much can I charge back as a project manager and do you have any tips on how I should present these to the client?

Flat Eric

Dear Mr Eric

Whatever made you think that meetings and phone calls are not part of a project manager’s duties? Unless you have agreed to a fixed fee, billable time can be defined as any task you undertake for a client as part of the project. For instance, if you attend a meeting at a client’s request it is perfectly fine to charge for this. Phone calls and email communication are necessary and time-consuming co-ordination tasks relating to your job as are tasks such as archiving and filing. Continue Reading

Dear Aunty Entity

I’m project managing a large project for a client who, although are the nicest bunch of people, are so disorganised that sometimes I can wait three months for payment. Although I have steady work and not a lot of time to spare for other clients, two minute noodles more than 5 times a week is getting to be beyond a joke.

What can I do to get paid on time?

Cassy Stoner

Dear Cassy

Not getting paid on time is unfortunately one of the biggest problems freelancers face. Being the norm doesn’t make it right but instead of feeling powerless there are some things you can try to make sure your invoice stays in the front of the queue. Continue Reading

Dear Aunty Entity

I’m just starting a project for a new client. We are having our first meeting in a few days time to make introductions and formally kick start the work.

Do you have any tips for making a good impression, conducting a successful; meeting or questions to ask? Are there any follow-up ideas you could pass on? I’m going with the art director and lead developer.

Thanks
Monitor Lizard

Dear Monitor

Meeting a new client is like having an interview. Even if the relationship is established with other members of the team, they do not know you or have experience of working with you. The project manager is usually one of the key points of contact so it’s important to start off on the right note. Appreciation of your de-constructivist wardrobe, piercing preferences, your quirky sense of humour and dating status can develop at a more leisurely pace once you are on your way to developing the relationship. Continue Reading

Dear Aunty Entity

The company I am working for are combining staff and clients for their Christmas party this year. All employees, including contract workers are obliged to attend. Do you have any tips for surviving this nightmare without losing my job?

Chezza

Dear Chez

Hmmm. Combining staff and clients can be a recipe for disaster but a lot of companies do it for a number of reasons. Office legends usually begin at such events and there is either kudos or a harassment claim to come following allegations of being caught in a compromising position on the chairman’s desk with their assistant. The ready availability of alcohol can also lead to problems, fuelling confidence in supernatural abilities and lowering inhibitions. However, there are a few rules you can follow to minimise fallout and ensure the only envelope you receive from HR is the one containing your payslip:

1. Keep it in your pants:
   You might have been playing ‘footsie’ with your client under the table at meetings for the last 3 months, but if you want to take things to the next level a work function may not be the best place to do it. Apart from everyone knowing who both of you are and even, who your partners are (some of them may even be friends), facing an increasingly pissed off queue for the loo which may include senior staff as you both leave a cubicle after a noisy session warrants the appearance of 007, not Kevin from accounts.

Continue Reading

Dear Aunty Entity,
I recently inherited a multi stakeholder project where one of the key production team is in another country. Do you have any tips for working with offsite teams and in different timezones?
Signed, Harried

Dear Harried,
Ooooh. The catch-all term; ‘outsource’. Back in the days when every blue chip happily farmed out the more technical aspects of a job and customer service centers to a country where the workers are awake at odd hours, seemed more qualified than their boss and cost less per day than co-workers spent on lunchtime burgers and beer it was a dream come true. Then, after a honeymoon period some disgruntled rumblings appeared and grew to a very loud crescendo of anti-outsource sentiment…. “More errors were being introduced which cost more time and money to fix than phase 1″ and: “I want to talk about gardening and football, not which type of buffalo skin is best with chilli jam ….”, it all went a bit quiet… I think you have the picture.

Outsourcing can benefit your project. You can save money, have an entire team dedicated to a project which frees up your own team and of course there’s the lure of international travel. But as with everything, you have to make allowances.

For instance you might want to take the following into consideration:
Continue Reading

Dear Aunty Entity
How often should I keep in touch with my client, can you have too much contact and and how close is too close?
Signed, Touchy Feely

Dear Touchy,
There is no right or wrong amount of contact for a client – it really depends on the project, your technique, their personality and the day of the week. Some clients like to be contacted every day even for a quick ‘hello’ – some don’t want to know you unless there is something important to discuss. By rule of thumb, more is better. That daily email update or phone chat maintains the human level of contact and helps build a relationship if you are new. If you feel comfortable around a client to discuss and raise issues, then you are more likely to be able to work through any project problems that may arise. When you start working with a new client (and in a freelancer’s case, the client’s client), you both need to take time to get a feel for how you work/prefer to work. As a PM, you should be prepared to alter your working practices to suit a client’s needs for example: a daily update rather than a weekly one, or phone briefings rather than a document.
Continue Reading

Dear Aunty Entity,
Someone once asked you how to make the switch into project management – well how do you do this if you are doing something different and any tips for making the switch?
Signed, Dormant Headspace

Dear Dormant,
Making a career switch is always going to raise questions from prospective employers. They want to know why you want to switch and importantly, what relevant skills you bring to the table to enable you to do the job you aspire to do.

First up, be clear about why you want to change, where you see this taking you and what you bring to the table for a future employer. Also be realistic in your expectations, making a career change generally means that you will have to start from a lower level from where you may have been previously.
Continue Reading

Dear Aunty Entity,
How can a freelance project manager make themselves indispensable to their new employers?
Signed, Daria

Dear Daria,
Let’s get one thing clear. No-one but no-one is indispensable in a workplace unless you own the company and even then you can be taken over, edged out or just plain fired if it’s big enough….

Freelance project managers are usually hired on a temporary project by project basis – when the project is over, so is your contract. To ensure you stay in their memory and get asked back, ask yourself the following:

• Are you comfortable with doing what has been asked of you?
• Are you generally fun to be around?
• Do you look like you belong there?
• Are you available when required?

…and probably most importantly:
Continue Reading

Dear Aunty Entity,
Does anyone ever use MS project to produce project schedules?
Signed, Phil McCracken

Dear Mr Crack,
Aaah yessss, the project fantasy charts. Impressive to unfurl across a boardroom table, a glorious sight in Xerox’s finest technicolour, some of them deserving of the Booker prize for best new fiction… just make sure you have them the right side up, that’s a dear. If produced at the beginning of the project and left as is for the remainder, they are as useful as the proverbial tits on a bull.

MS Project is listed on many job ads as a desirable or even a ‘must-have’ but consider this: Many corporate clients do not have a copy of MS project.
Continue Reading