How Project Managers Bridge the Divide of a Remote Workforce
Remote project management used to be the exception. Today, it’s the norm. But despite the remote technologies that enable work to happen, project managers need more than just Teams, Slack, and Trello to keep their projects on course.
Here’s how successful project managers navigate the shift to remote work and bridge the divide of a remote workforce.
Challenges of Managing Projects Remotely
The remote era hasn’t taken away the necessity of delegating, tracking, and completing task work. But these things look and function differently in a remote environment.
For starters, leaders don’t have the benefit of working side-by-side with team members in real-time. This emphasizes the need for clear and ongoing communication to ensure team members understand their priorities and are completing milestones in a timely and effective manner.
Video conferencing tools can add a real-time element to communications. But nuances like body language and facial expressions can get lost in translation. Non-verbal cues can be very telling about a team member’s engagement and commitment, as well as their overall understanding of what needs to be done. Asking questions, having an open door policy, and conducting frequent check-ins can help to ensure all team members are engaged and working toward common goals.
Successful project management thrives on strong team building, another element that’s recreated differently with remote work. Developing a team bond and a high level of trust is harder when team members aren’t working in the same physical space. PMs should make team building an early priority to help coworkers build trust.
How Successful PMs Bring Clarity and Function to Remote Projects
Knowing the challenges of remote project management gives PMs an idea of what they need to overcome and how they can prepare. Here’s how you can create a remote project ecosystem where everyone can thrive.
Build Your Remote Project Management Toolkit
While remote project management has its share of challenges, PMs can mitigate many of them with the right project management tools. These tools vary in terms of cost, functionality, and ease of use, but they ultimately contribute to a smoother overall process.
A Project Charter
Prime 8 consultants create this tool for every project we manage. Similar to a club charter that outlines its purpose, mission, and goals, a project charter serves as the anchor for purpose, conduct, and goals.
It answers questions such as:
What is the goal of the project?
What problems does this project solve?
Who are the team members and what are their roles?
What is the budget for this project?
When should this project be completed?
The project charter is usually 1-2 pages long and should be created at the onset of the project.
Business Requirements Document
In the Prime 8 world, a BRD is used to capture the needs and expectations of our clients. It’s a formal planning document that describes what we are there to accomplish and outlines the business problem, guardrails for the solution, and the requirements that each project stakeholder has. We use the BRD to ensure all project stakeholders are on the same page about the outcomes we are there to accomplish.
Workback Schedule
We create workback schedules to ensure we can set realistic deadlines for all of the tasks of a project. This process works when we have clear project start and end dates. Once we break out the tasks, we ‘work back’ to decide how long each part should take.
Action Log
We use an action log to break large projects or objectives into smaller tasks. This log gives us a bird’s eye view of what needs to happen at every phase of the project. It includes each action that needs to be addressed, a description of the action, and an impact analysis that shows how the action has affected the project.
Project Status Template
Our project status template gives PMs a systematized way to share project updates with the client. Ongoing communication helps to build trust and confidence throughout the project. It highlights the current status of the project, any potential risks, cost breakdowns, and the budget at any given point.
Collaboration and Communication Software
All of the above documents can be stored and shared in the cloud. Our teams might use some combination of SharePoint, and Microsoft Teams sites for document sharing, communication, task assignment, and other needs to remain in alignment with the project and each other.
Cloud-Based Project Management Software
Depending on our client’s needs and the complexity of the work to be done, we might also use cloud-based project management software. There are many (many!) great examples of these. A few of our favorites include Asana, Monday.com, Microsoft Project, and Wrike.
Develop Habits of Highly Effective Remote Project Management
No two projects (or project managers) are quite alike. But Prime 8 management consulting professionals share a few common habits that help them to succeed in their roles.
Here’s how we do it.
1. Set Clear Expectations and Overcommunicate Them
Every project opens with establishing clear expectations and guidance to ensure everyone is aligned on goals, expectations, roles, and responsibilities. This is true of any project, but remote projects benefit from overcommunication.
For example, you might hold a virtual meeting with staff, then send them all of that information in an email. You might even include it in a shared doc on your Microsoft Teams site so they can reference it at any time. This helps to avoid confusion later in the process, get buy-in on day one, and start the project off strong.
2. Hold Daily Standups
PMs need to take time to get to know their team members. This looks a little different in a virtual setting, but should still happen on a regular cadence. Our lead consultants host a Daily Standup with their teams to check in, usually first thing in the morning. These are rapid-fire, round-robin meetings to review the day’s work ahead, clear blockers, answer questions, and ensure collaboration is happening in the right places.
3. Schedule One-on-One Meetings and Play to Each Team Member’s Strengths
While you’ll probably have plenty of group project meetings, you’ll also want to prioritize private meetings with each team member. It’s important to have these one-to-one conversations to get to know each team member so you can tailor their work assignments in a way that motivates each person on the team. This forum tends to also be where you will hear and be able to provide more honest feedback.
4. Check in Frequently but Provide Space
Frequent check-ins keep the project on track. But successful remote PMs also know to provide enough space for team members to focus. They don’t micromanage or peer over shoulders. Rather, they take a touch-and-go approach and use a combination of personal check-ins and software to track progress. If progress isn’t being made in a timely manner, they can change direction accordingly.
This is one area where the value of PM software can’t be overstated. Using the software to assign tasks and track progress can reduce the need for virtual check-ins. You can see at a glance whether a task has been accomplished. This can also provide some relief to your team because they have a way to demonstrate their accountability beyond real-time conversations.
5. Offer Clear, Helpful Feedback
PMs are strong communicators who don’t expect their team members to be mind readers. They can clearly communicate their vision over multiple mediums and offer direct, helpful feedback to ensure others get that vision.
To share this feedback remotely and ensure it has impact, PMs lean heavily on examples, not just emails or Teams/Slack messages. For example, a PM might create a video demonstration of how to do a task, share images, or send links to helpful resources.
Including visual elements with feedback can help to add context to your comments, especially when things like vocal tone and body language are absent.
6. Know How and When to Pivot
When a project isn’t going in the right direction, PMs should know when to do something differently, even if it wasn’t in their original plan. First and foremost, remote PMs have a system in place to track the project at all phases. They can then recognize and intervene at the first signs of distress.
They also have a remote communication plan in the event they need to reassign roles, ask for more time, hire a different vendor, or make other changes that will keep the project moving forward. They set up each moving part for success by ensuring a new person can easily step into someone else’s role and access all of the required materials.
In a remote setting, these are extremely important considerations because of potential communication delays. By having the right systems in place, remote PMs can quickly and easily pivot when needed without experiencing significant disruptions.
How Prime 8 Consulting Supports Remote Project Management
Prime 8 management consulting professionals are helping companies embrace the shift to remote work, including how they manage projects. Whether you’re a global tech company or a small non-profit, our leaders are skilled in bridging the gaps between people, places, and technologies to keep your projects on track.
Work with Prime 8 and set the stage for remote project management success.
