What Brian Sturgill Needs from His Project Manager

Brian Sturgill

UW Oshkosh EMBA – Project Management, Project Sponsorship, Portfolio Management

Cohort 4

July 5, 2017

What Brian Sturgill Needs from his Project Manager

        In my position, I have had good and bad project managers.  Each time I talk to a new project manager, I seem to reiterate the same needs.  I explain that their involvement can mean the success or failure of the project.  They are the central figure to the project and must reduce confusion and increase accuracy in all facets of the project.  When I look to define a good project manager, they must be a visionary, be well organized, be reliable and communicate.

        As the leader of a large segment, the accuracy in which we align to the goals, plan and then execute can determine the success and profit of the organization.  Being able to do what we say, when we say it is going to be done is paramount.  The profit that my projects take on mean the success for reaching financial goals and keeping to the commitments of shareholders and investors.  It takes key leaders to be able to keep people on task and deal with issues while we drive to the ultimate goal.  I explain to project managers that the need to keep things simple will help keep people focus and on task.  Finally, I need good and regular communication for my ability to manage upwards and manage expectations of our executive group, but to also help manage downwards and keep people aligned and supportive.

        The first think I look for in a project manager is that they are a visionary.  I look for the person to see the big picture and ask that they don’t lose sight of it.  They are the base for planning, executing and closing projects.  They need to be able to define the project, build the work plan and manage the budget.  Simplicity is the key.  I would like them to be able to take the large goals and break them into smaller more manageable parts.  Project managers that have this ability are able to identify the tasks to meet the ultimate goal and keeping them in scope.  I have seen too many managers that start towards execution before having alignment on what needs to be done.   The project manager also needs to be able to deal with potential risks by anticipating road blocks and have plans to manage and mitigate the risks to keep project on time.

        This was evident in a recent project that identified a new packaging film that had historically been only produced by one supplier in our industry.  With new assets, we had identified a processing technology that would allow us to participate.  Our goal was simple, develop a competing film to participate in the case ready meat business.  The project manager was able to identify the key critical to quality attributes and moved forward with a business case.  As we began development, we found that there were different aspects and attributes needed for different products or trays in the market place.  The product we has started to develop worked for a majority of the market.  However, we continued to ask our R&D team to tweak and develop a product that would meet all of the different attributes.  It later came to light that our competitor offered different films for different needs.  We lost sight of the ultimate goal of getting into the market and allowed scope creep by continuing to redefine the CTQ’s.   I needed to have the project manager look at how we enter the market and strategize to meet our needs.  We missed potential sales by not keeping to the project initiatives.