A digital project manager is one of the key figures in the project. And the choice of the appropriate candidate must be very precise.
Skills and competency become clear when there is a discussion about a project’s goal. While looking for the right digital project manager, should be taken into consideration those qualities of personality, that will help him to work correctly with the goals.
Digital Project Manager is not the only name for this specialty in Digital Agency London
There are variations that depend on the type of activity of the company
A manager at an agency that does advertising (context, display advertising, targeting, and so on). Alternative title: Digital Manager. He also controls the process, but on the implementation of advertising campaigns.
Manager in an agency that develops creative and branding. Alternative names: Digital Producer, Producer.
The main task of this specialist is to manage the process: setting tasks, priorities, deadlines and monitoring their implementation. Digital Project Manager can manage the production site or creative, advertising campaign and other components of digital marketing.
You need to know the project management methodology (Agile, Waterfall) and have time management. And one more aspect is confident communication skills. The Project Manager should communicate with all participants in the process, in some agencies this position includes accounting.
Useful certificates for this position: PMBok, time management courses, communications and courses on a particular field in which Digital (digital marketing, layout, creative, etc.) works.
Questions for the interview:
- What structure do you work in? Who are your supervisor and colleagues, what does the department look like?
- How do projects come to work?
- How do you plan the project, from what stages is the implementation?
- Which team do you have to interact with? Tell us about the project, where it was difficult to build communication with someone from the team and how did you cope with it?
- What tools for scheduling tasks and deadlines do you use? What alternatives do you know and what are their pros and cons?
- How do you organize your work and personal time? What recommendations can you give to people who have difficulty with this?
- What clients did you have to work with? Tell us about the main activities of customers and their features?
- How to make the deadlines for the projects do not move?
- What methodologies do you know and how were they implemented and put into practice?
- How does a good project manager differ from a bad one and what key competencies should a good project manager have?
Position
Many things in projects can be subjective, but they are often based on some decisions. These decisions should be able to justify both the team and the customer. Often you can find out the limitations by conducting an interview with a business or a client workshop. This requires very strong communication – it is possible only if you are confident in your knowledge and position in the company;
Curiosity
The most breakthrough solutions usually occur in narrow areas, but they need to be closely monitored – good ideas quickly spread to other industries. Plus benchmarking and analysis of competitors – some hypotheses can be accepted and rejected by the way they work with neighbors;
Empathy
Understanding how users behave, what problems they need to decide, what they use – what is familiar to them, and what’s new. A big plus when the experts themselves participate in interviews with users;
Consistency
In digital projects, there is a lot of systematization: the process, the compilation of artifacts, the calculation of profitability, the compilation of a matrix of functionality, the conduct of research and experiments. It is important to have a systematic approach to these tasks.
It’s definitely not easy to find the right candidate. Our agency is working in the field of project management. An unusual life hack, which can help in the process of selection, is to use specially selected projective tests that do not suggest the correct answer. But they help to objectively assess the level of the candidate, his motivation and way of thinking.
The value of a digital specialist is in cross-functionality. A person must understand his tasks and what his colleagues are doing. It is not necessary to be able to do – it is important to understand the value, to be able to work with artifacts and to be interested in the adjacent area.
Digital Project Manager in action
It is necessary to understand well how the industry with which you work and earns. The peculiarity of digital products is the solution to problems for both businesses and users. It is important to look at how a person understands and takes into account the limitations of real business processes.
As for the experience, proven experience with a digital product is an important indicator, but not a guarantee. Also, the absence of such experience does not mean that a person will not cope. The specialist of our company always tries to understand what role the candidate for digital project manager can play in the project, what areas of responsibility he had, what he had to deal with.
Sometimes restrictions are imposed by the company’s business processes themselves – it is important to find out. Nevertheless, an experienced digital specialist always keeps in mind the key goals of the project.
