I am a mechanical engineer with around 10 years of experience in the manufacturing industry, first with experiences in quality, methods and problem solving/continuous improvement and since 2018 as a full time PM. I mainly worked in big companies (10k-100k employees) in the aerospace, automotive, nuclear and other industries.
I got PMP certified almost at the same time I got recruited as a PM in a MedTech startup (October 2022) that is developing AI analysis software for cancer screening (40 people working in dev(AI, data, prod/ops), clinical research and QARA). It is new for me because it is a MedTech and because it is an IT startup. Some projects should use a waterfall approach (FDA clearance), some are agile (dev with not external impact) and some hybrid.
Some of the issues they have not having a PM/PMO to help them:
- Some tasks they discuss during meetings are forgotten or written somewhere that is not visible to all, so it eventually gets forgotten;
- Tasks are pushed again and again (estimates are not accurate and they have no tool to manage their resources);
- They have too many projects they are trying to push, not considering the fact that they have many other projects that are already running.
I checked for a solution that could fit our needs and chose Wrike. I'm expecting to deploy that new tool in a 1-month timeframe, in January 2023.
They are asking me to set Project Management standards (they only use Google Chat/Slack and emails to communicate and Google Tasks/Google Sheets to set and track tasks) which I think I could do (with some help from the consultant at Wrike how will help me during four 1-hour sessions in January).
I want to present the tool to them and teach them some basics of project management like what to expect from a kickoff meeting (I was asked to organize one on a very short notice with no project charter and stakeholders were not all present), how to manage risks, time and stakeholders.
I have some questions, if some of you are working in a startup/MedTech company or have any ideas to succeed in this position?
- 1-month for deployment of the PM tool Wrike, too quick, too slow?
- What methods do you suggest to onboard my colleagues in understanding the advantages of having a PM tool (that is adding to the many they are already using (especially duplicates with Gitlab/Redmine)?
- How should we manage risks? Nominate risk manager in the team or do it myself?
- Time management (estimates). Stakeholder management (identify all stakeholders before starting).
- Any general advice for hybrid projects in that field?
Thank you very much all and have a nice day,
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