The world of project management—and business as a whole—has evolved significantly in recent years. Long-standing processes have been updated, revamped, and discarded. People connect differently. Performance and productivity may be measured using new tools and updated metrics. In short, how we work has changed, and so have people’s expectations.
For project management teams, it’s important to occasionally step back and evaluate if (and how well) the stakeholder experience is holding up amid so much transformation. In some cases, the established ways of doing things are still preferred. In other areas, you may find opportunities to better align your processes with project participants’ current expectations.
We compiled a handful of questions to help give you a fresh perspective on some key elements in the modern project stakeholder experience.
Do you have a digital-first approach? Even in environments where most or all stakeholders work onsite, many continue to prefer a digitally native project experience. That often includes the ability to join project meetings either in-person or remotely, depending on their work schedule. Your stakeholders might also expect access to online collaboration tools to boost teamwork and on-demand project data to maintain awareness and keep activities on track. Communications should also work seamlessly across many digital forms, so be sure project participants can easily access, consume, and respond to project communications on desktop or laptop configurations as well as via mobile devices.
Is your communication strategy rooted in transparency? Stakeholders don’t just want your project messages to be accurate—with quick access to project-related information, they increasingly expect your team to deliver more frequent and transparent communications. Are you still waiting for key details or data points? Your near-term messaging should identify those gaps. You can then add them to future communications once the information arrives. Stakeholders also expect authentic timeline estimates and insights into risks, not overly optimistic versions that ignore potential issues. Transparency goes hand-in-hand with clarity, and highly detailed project data can make it difficult to effectively communicate important points. Consider leveraging data visualization tools to ensure you present complex information in a format stakeholders can digest and understand.
Are your workflows and processes flexible and adaptable? Because the business world still holds plenty of uncertainty, your stakeholders expect the project team to be aware of and responsive to changes. Schedules may require periodic adjustments to accommodate supply chain bottlenecks and unexpected material availability hiccups, for example. You might also need to quickly pivot project goals or deliverables in response to evolving market conditions, including shifts in customer behaviors, financial pressures, labor availability, and regulatory rulemaking. Internally, the sudden loss of a primary project sponsor can also create disruptions that your team must be ready to assess and accommodate. Your ability to develop and apply innovative measures is critically important, and your stakeholders want to know that your team can respond effectively to unexpected challenges or changes and ensure projects deliver the expected results.
Does your project team embrace and emphasize well-being and empathy? Topics such as mental health and work-life balance are no longer considered taboo or inappropriate for workplace discussions. Building a supportive project environment isn’t just a nicety anymore. Instead, team members and other stakeholders expect everyone to treat these important issues with the attention and respect they deserve. It can be as simple as understanding that some project participants may have different work schedules and accepting that they will respond to messages when it’s best for them. In other cases, being mindful of boundaries around time off and providing employees with confidential support resources are increasingly expected to be part of healthy working relationships.
PMAlliance, Inc uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project portfolio management.