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Maximising efficiency in a multi-project environment
L2 Grayce Analyst, Paul Brown reflects on his role as a Project Manager within a leading market research organisation
Diversifying my skillset
I have been involved in a variety of projects whilst placed with my client. The roles focused on two main areas: the re-design of the company intranet and Office Moves. Within these projects my roles differed, enabling me to diversify my skillset and experience.
Initially, I was placed on the “Modern Intranet Project” which involved reforming the organisation’s intranet to improve both the user experience and enhance features within the platform. During my work on this project, I had the responsibility of managing the communications strategy, ensuring senior stakeholders and intranet users were sighted on the changes and understood their involvement. To conduct this work effectively, I produced a communications roadmap and lead weekly meetings with the Marketing & Communications teams. This responsibility enabled me to develop the leadership and management skills needed to lead on Office Move projects.
Office Moves and consolidations are an integral part of my client’s strategy to promote flexible working. I lead several Office Move projects taking place in locations worldwide, including Chile, Austria, and the Netherlands. I co-ordinated various IT-infrastructure related activities ranging from network planning, hardware decommissioning, and procurement. I was able to apply the project management skills I acquired from previous projects to ensure the moves were delivered on time. This included the development of action logs, designing roadmaps, and tracking project activities via Jira.
How my role has evolved
My role started in a primarily assistant Project Manager position, ensuring the maintenance of project governance such as RAID logs and minutes. As my knowledge of my client’s IT services grew and I gained further insight in project leadership, I began to own workstreams of significant projects. Eventually, I was able to lead key projects and coordinate with stakeholders based across various departments in locations across the world.
Receiving exceptional client feedback
“Paul has been responsible for producing several project artefacts, whether that be monthly status reporting, PowerPoint decks or high-level plans, and I have been impressed with his ability to be concise, diligent and accurate with the information presented. He has learnt over time to refine and hone his presentation skills, and this will be an important attribute for him to carry forward into future Project Management roles. He has also been trusted to lead meetings with senior management, a sign of his maturity and ability to hold conversations to drive action resolution and decision making.”
“The role also requires soft skills as flexibility, stakeholder management, organisation skills, creativity, and the ability to communicate effectively to a variety of stakeholders. Paul has demonstrated his competency in these areas as well. In particular, he has led stand up meetings and workshops with both our Technical resources and Business Stakeholder. The outcome of these sessions has always been spot on. In summary, Paul is organised, disciplined and professional. I rate him very highly and think he will go far.”
