In the data school training session. All cohorts need to be the one-week project leader for the client project. For our second client project with Mauri, which is the baking wholesale company. I volunteered to be the project leader of that week.
I was satisfied with the performance of our final presentation to the customer. From this project, I have learned so many things about how to be a project leader and this experience gave me so much insight and knowledge about the different jobs of being a project leader and a team member.
So, I would like to share my personal view and advice on the task as a project leader. Because this journey is so precious to me.
Deal with the Customers
- Clarify the customer requirements.
As a project leader. It is necessary to push the team to understand the customer’s requirements on Monday afternoon.
For example, during the project with Mauri. We got two different tasks, which contain totally different targets and requirements.
For the first task, the customer only has the data sets. But they have no idea of what kind of result they want. So, we have a lot of free ground to create and find the insights of the data. And create the dashboard at the end.
For the second project, the clients give us what kind of dashboard they want, but their data is messy and unstructured. So, our main target is to understand the data as much as we can and try to enhance the visualization and interactive speed of the dashboard.
If we make sure the customer’s requirements on the first day, as project leaders, we can push the team on the right track and avoid unnecessary efforts. Maybe sometimes the customer’s requirements are still uncleaned after several discussions on Monday. The project leader should contact the customers with questions with no hesitation. Because time is limited, and time boxing is always the crucial thing, don’t waste time.
- Client Check meeting
After all the customer’s requirements are clarified. A project leader needs to think about Wednesday’s check-in with the customer and whether there’s more information needed, or clarity required.
So during Tuesday and Wednesday, work with team members to know the progress and make sure you always understand the obstacles and problems for every task. It would be helpful during the client check-in meeting, so you can always know if the problems have been solved. Or any questions need to be supported?
Please note that the following-up email to the customer after the client check-in meeting is super important. The Email is the conclusion of the check-in meeting and asks customers to support some material if so.
Because we only have one day left, the project leader needs to let the customer know that the team needs those things urgently.