*** From the Archives ***

This article is from May 20, 2002, and is no longer current.

The Art of Business: Mastering Virtual Project Management

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It’s rare that a creative professional works in a vacuum these days. Aside from the traditional give-and-take with vendors and co-workers, the nature of today’s projects requires contact with a wide range of co-contributors. Chances are you’ve been a player many times in this virtual game, but if you want to step up your career, you’ll need to master the art of collaborative work-group management.

The job isn’t easy. Ad hoc workgroups are notoriously messy affairs — members often are contractors who have their own agendas or who report directly to the client. Even dicier, contributors may be employed by your client, making them both your charge and your boss. And, of course, teams these days are geographically dispersed – an illustrator in Ashland, a writer in Penngrove, an art director in New York, and a Web designer in New Delhi. Different cities, different cultures, different mindsets, and no water cooler to create a gestalt or de-ruffle feathers.

Design by Workgroup
Designers who don’t learn how to manage workgroups will have no choice but to surrender creative authority to someone who can manage a workgroup. Ask yourself, do you want to wind up sitting in front of a computer assembling individual elements, or would you prefer running entire campaigns?

Here are a few suggestions for mastering the art of workgroup management:

 

  • Master your collaboration tools.

 

      Whether you are working with a high-end content publishing management system or seat-of-the-pants e-mail, start by understanding the capabilities and limitations of your tools. How will you implement version control? Assign user access? Share information? Monitor progress? Coordinate workflow? Set up and communicate among multiple workgroups? You’re probably already using your tools to some degree, but each project offers the opportunity to extend and automate processes for faster and more efficient turnaround. Become a tool master.

 

  • Know your team members.

 

      Spend some time, preferably by phone, talking with each team member, even if only for five minutes. Create a human relationship, not just a professional one. Find out a little about the contributors, their strengths and weaknesses, goals, and desires – often you’ll hit upon little revelations that can help you avoid problems later or maybe you’ll discover cross skill sets that can come in handy down the road. Make sure that team members working together on sub-projects are properly introduced. Determine who will be on the decision-making team and define the decision-making roles of each member. Learn what each contributor needs in terms of creative time and workgroup parameters. And make clear what each member is being asked to contribute and what they are not responsible for. Technology be damned, it’s all about human interaction.

 

  • Use your communication skills.

 

      You may have a crystal clear idea of what you and your client are hoping to achieve but that doesn’t mean every team member does. The last thing you want is a bunch of talented people working cluelessly about the critical objectives and challenges you face. Take the time to communicate and post in glaring detail, if necessary, project goals, parameters, audience demographics, and technical capabilities and any other information that may help someone, somewhere do a better job. Alert members to potential project glitches and sensitivities. Be absolutely clear about milestones and deadlines. Most importantly, provide feedback early and often throughout the project to keep people on track and on board.

 

  • Define workflow parameters.

 

      Since most workgroups are not linear, workflow is a major challenge and often the difference between project success and failure. A well-constructed workflow will help ensure that all project segments are built the same way, that new team members can come on board quickly, that new material can be added easily, and most importantly, that redundant or unnecessary work is avoided. Hence, spend time early defining file name an organizational conventions. Set up a system to save versions so you can see the evolution of a document and return to an earlier version if necessary. Implement a system for annotating work for tracking the process of individuals. And guard intellectual property by determining who will receive encapsulated and unencapsulated files.

 

  • Be flexible.

 

    Projects are dynamic by nature and projects created by virtual collaborative teams are wildly dynamic, to put it politely. Be prepared to troubleshoot early and often, and be willing to abandon your well-laid constructs to accommodate the needs of the project as it takes shape. But make changes only when there is a clear need to do so. Often a disruption is more damaging than the original problem.

Workgroup by Design
The bottom line is that, when working collaboratively, you have to pay as much attention to workgroup design as to creative design. The latter won’t take shape without the former, no matter how talented you are as a creative professional.

There are additional benefits to developing good workgroup management skills; after each workgroup disbands, you’ll benefit from a fresh cadre of professionals singing your praises and recommending you the next time they find themselves forming a workgroup of their own.

Eric is an award-winning producer, screenwriter, author and former journalist. He wrote the script and co-produced the feature film SUPREMACY, starring Danny Glover, Anson Mount, Joe Anderson and Academy-Award-winner Mahershali Ali. As founder and president of Sleeperwave Films, Eric relies on his unique background to develop film commercial films around contemporary social issues. As a seasoned storyteller, Eric also coaches corporate executives on creating and delivering compelling presentations. He has written thought leadership materials for entertainment and technology companies, such as Cisco, Apple, Lucasfilm and others.
  • zoe30W says:

    Thanks for the article! As a designer and project manager in New York City, I enjoyed team collaboration with an incredibly talented network of freelancers. A couple of years ago my husband got a job in Hawaii and we moved. Way out here, I thought I’d become a solo designer. Instead (to my surprise and delight) I’ve found myself managing projects with clients and team members across the U.S. and on other continents. There might be a creative director in California, a writer in Boston, graphic artists in N.J., clients in Europe or Japan. Thanks to phone and web tools it works.

    Clear and ongoing communication is the key to any team project. Some days I wear out my keyboard typing IMs and emails — but I’m far from feeling isolated! Clients have become increasingly comfortable with remote and decentralized production. And we (designers, artists, etc.) have more flexibility.

    I can highly recommend Box.net as a flexible and reliable collaboration tool. It’s like having an online server. You can set up permissions for file posting and sharing. Apple’s video iChat is great for 2- or 3-way conferences — you can share work-in-progress via Keynote.

  • Anonymous says:

    The old adage that the ability to work effectively in a team is key still holds true – they even have online degrees that are exclusively focused on project management. This form of management science is crucial in ensuring that important company projects get finished on time, that resources are being utilized effectively, and that redundancies are reduced.

  • Anonymous says:

    great article!

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