How you structure your project team largely depends on your framework and the scope of your project. Here are a few proven strategies for building a successful and productive team.
1. Recruit talent across departments
Your project team will likely come from different departments because projects benefit from and require varied expertise and input.
Instead of hiring new talent, you can utilize existing resources and sync multiple departments on a larger organizational goal. For example, a new marketing campaign could require website designers, copywriters, and product managers.
2. Choose a project manager wisely and define responsibilities accurately
A project manager could be a professional PM or a subject matter expert (SME) — someone who’s extremely knowledgeable in the area of the project. You can see here a breakdown of who typically wears the project manager hat.
A professional PM might play more of a facilitating role during initial planning. They give room to stakeholders and SMEs to shape the project plan with their hands-on experience. Smaller companies may not be able to afford a dedicated project manager role, in which case, an SME or executive is the logical choice.
What does a project manager do?
A project manager might look different from team to team, but overall they are responsible for day-to-day management of a project and its people. They must also manage these 6 aspects:
- Scope
- Schedule
- Finance
- Risk
- Quality
- Resources
3. Set an “all hands on deck” expectation
If the project manager has to babysit every team member and make the final call on every minor decision, the project will crawl forward at a snail’s pace. Instead, empower your team members to exercise their own judgment and push forward.
Employees at “high-trust” companies report 50% higher productivity than their low-trust counterparts.
Micro-managing employees slows down progress and hurts team morale. By encouraging task ownership and providing complete transparency of what’s expected at the project’s early stages, your team members will propel it forward.
As detailed above, you’re aiming for the “perfect” team. It’s important to understand though that as time goes on, your teams will likely become more and more diverse (ethnic backgrounds, socio-economic status, and even location (the move to a more work-from-home team has only accelerated due to the global pandemic).
While this will certainly benefit the project (the greater the diversity, the more perspectives and expertise you’ll have), it means you’ll also need flexible tools to accommodate different teams and various projects. This is where project management software comes in.