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,
Ibrahim Saving Changes...
This is my fourth attempt at responding to your post. You've got a lot to tackle and it's hard to tell what the most important problem to tackle is. Beyond project management, you're going to have to deal with people/culture change management/adoption issues. I could give you a few quick answers, for example, you can deploy Wrike in less than a month, and adoption will take longer, but quick answers won't solve your problems. I really recommend the following:
- Identify the problems that you and your stakeholders want to solve
- Identify the outcomes you and your stakeholders want to achieve
- Identify the top priority problems to solve/outcomes to achieve
Introducing project management practices is easy, adoption is hard, and neither will solve the problems you've described, on their own. Saving Changes...
It's a bit difficult to answer your questions because they're not themselves sure what they expect from me. They received some public funding for a big project and one of the budget lines is project management, that is why they hired me, because it's a complex project. But I guess they would like to have KPIs to be able to discuss at the senior management level and also be able to assess risks better than what they do. Saving Changes...
Hello!
Back after few more months of experience in this startup.
Indeed! Introducing best practices is easy but adoption is hard.
I focused on quick wins and how I can make their lives easier everyday. I'll continue to implement PM basics month after month and see how it can help.
Again, thank you very much for you help.
Ibrahim Saving Changes...
