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As a digital producer aka (aka, Jane of All Trades) I am constantly under deadline pressure and I love it.  Post-its and remeberthemilk are my best friends.  I’m sure a lot of you can relate….

“To do’s” and “Done” are the two most important words in the management vernacular. In fact, most of us pride ourselves on the fact that we can get all of our projects in, on time, with no errors. And the reason why we pride ourselves on this is because we have mastered our project management execution. And, if your experience is anything like mine, you’ve probably dropped the ball before and swore to yourself, “never again.”

My favorite San Fran gal, Amber-Rae, wrote a blog on “Mind Dumps” today that really got me excited. For one, I’ve bee a fan of “mind dumps” (or “To do/done“) for some time and can’t imagine myself being even remotely productive without them. Amber’s a girl with a plan, and I like it.

Literally, every morning I grab a coffee and sit down at my desk, read emails and log into Basecamp, a web-based project collaboration tool that connects your entire agency to assign tasks, centralize feedback, share files and most importantly, create project calendars and milestones.

However, even in today’s world of tech and innovation, for my daily “To do’s” I keep it simple: paper & pencil.

Everyone has their own way of prioritizing, storing and executing information but, like Amber says, our brains are not made for memorizing the nitty-gritty details of deadlines and schedules. In fact, our frontal lobe was evolved to strategize, creatively problem-solve and create sustainable and meaningful relationships with people. (Thanks, evolution!)

So, lets get organized.

First write down the most important deliverables for the day, not tomorrow, just today. In some cases you might even write down your most important deliverables for the AM and afternoon. Either is up to you.

Here is an example:

TO DO:
-final edit of hotel signage to Bill (creative)
-send hotel signage via FTP to printer for production. (creative)
-finalize creative brief for hospitality account and send to Jon. (management)
-send updated creative concept to client for approval. (client)
-follow-up with client on concept.

-send spec guidelines on interior renderings (creative)
-email Laura for © and ™ finalization.
-cancel lunch with Ted.

After you have your list you may realize that some things can be done within the next fifteen minuets. Do those things and cross them off the list and place them in done.

Example:

DONE:
-email Laura for © and ™ finalization.
-cancel lunch with Ted.

Some people ask “why even have a done when you can just cross them out?”

Great Question! I use my “done” for three reasons. 1.) Motivation 2.) To keep my team updated and 3.) Quality assurance (Q.A) if anyone (including the client or my boss) asks me where a particular project stands. I’ve made the mistake of crossing a “to do” prematurely and remembering last minuet. No bueno.

Once most of your day is laid in front of you, you will feel this instant feeling of freedom and control. Yes! Even if your list has 65 To do’s you will at least know where to start.

Jeff Lieberman

Pitching is over.

Congratulations you now have a new client is on board.

Excitement!

Now what?

It’s the perennial question after all the hard selling and pitching is over. Now it’s time for the PM to roll up their sleeves and create an efficient project plan. First things first: the project scope.

What’s in one?

Think of the project scope as your agencies “Grocery list” of where the projects begin and where they end. The scope will define your agencies roles, goals and most importantly limitations within each project. A common mistake in creating the Project Scope is not carefully and thoughtfully spelling out all limitations, and trust me, if it’s not clearly defined it will come back to haunt you.

Common flaws:

• Details on logistics. You don’t want to ever say this: “Where the hell am I shipping this to and who’s FedEx number am I billing it to?” oops.
• Important milestones. You really don’t want to have to apologize to your client that Hard Hat Tour before the grand opening doesn’t have any.. Well hard hats.
• People’s involvement. If plan on putting intense responsibility on someone else you should have him or her involved with your project scope creation. You don’t want to learn the hard way that no one on your team is fluent in Russian. Just sayin.
• Money Criteria. Payment milestones need to be written out nice and clear. Or you will have a lot of fun playing phone tag with your clients Accounts Payable team.

photo by Murat Suyur

We’ve all been there. Heart racing, ears ringing and the palms start sweating. Words that you wouldn’t dare say in front of your grandmother start flowing out like lava.  There is no getting out of this one. You just fucked up.

Whether it was your fault directly or someone else’s bad call you now have to muster up the courage to embrace and spearhead the problem. But before you start getting in a rage, remember that this is advertising – not cancer research or rocket science. Take a breath, stop taking yourself so seriously and get the problem solved.

I am currently managing digital for a Food & Hospitality client in Las Vegas. It’s a dream account for any DP or AM: the business trips are fun, the creative team gets lots of creative freedom and working on restaurant accounts, in most capacities, means “capital city” – big, exciting budgets to work with.  Those dreams of lavish celebrity studded grand opening parties, hearty digital websites and luxury media buying all come into fruition. But, you can’t let the flashing lights distract you.

Advertising is a tough industry and you always want to shine. If you make a mistake you have to fix it before someone else eats you alive while taking your job title. I made a benign mess-up on a delivery status and had 13 hours to reverse the order and redeem myself. When I realize the mistake I stopped to breathe, prioritized and fixed the issue. You can too.

Royally F’ed up? Here’s what you do.

1.    Fess up. Don’t lie or beat around the bush.
2.   When explaining your mistake do so in a polite and honest manner. If you explain it in fear your client will freak out far more than you had originally expected.
3.   Give your client other options. The last thing you can do is offer something else in the meantime of faulty protocol. Missed an art deadline for an Ad campaign? You should call all your friends in PR immediately to see if there is the possibility of coverage. Think of a guerilla campaign… see where I’m getting at?
4.   Lastly, ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Hiya! This is the first blog entry for Project Chick and I am very excited to share the skills and knowledge I am learning everyday in the Advertising world. There is an interesting theme that I have found in the web 2.0 world: Project + Digital & account managers get barely any (no) love.

I know our title isn’t as hip as Senior Creative Director or Web 2.0 Hustler but we PMs go head-to-head with the big exec’s, cause a stir with the creative directors and keep the account planners on their toes; all while cheering and rooting on the entire team. We love what we do and take our job personally.  Project & Account Management is always a work in progress. Yesterday’s flow, is today’s old news; and so forth. Just like everything else in the marketing.advertising.digital world, things are changing, so is the project manager.

Having worked in small and large agencies I find that no two agencies work-flow is the same; kind of like snowflakes and fingerprints, so when thrown into a new work place or handling a new account there is always a handful of new and exciting tips to learn.

Getting Started: The Project//Digital Manager Basics

Whether you are a seasoned senior project manager or just starting off there are a few rules that every project manager should live by and practice, practice, practice.

1. Size does matter, so keep it (confidence)big.In marketing and advertising it’s almost impossible to not have a run-in with an overly cocky employee who wants to run the ship their way. Oh no, it takes more than one mind and reason to get an agency moving so don’t allow their criticism or dictatorship shrink your confidence.The role of the PM/DP is uber important but sometimes looked at as “tedious” “micro managed” or “excessive”. Managing projects effectively can define an agencies success. So, without those tedious “to-dos” and deadlines there is just a bunch of tardy “do-nothings”. As a project manager you need to be able to keep-up with the hardheaded big guns. This doesn’t mean the PM should get cocky back, it means you should always be proud of your work and stand behind it.Pick up any book or browse through any online material and you will find that the number one responsibility of the PM is managing the project scope. What’s a scope? size, requirements, deadlines and goals. However, all PMs know that is not always true since they need to manage budgets as well as the people. It’s not always easy.