Your first 100 days as Project Manager

Guide to Junior Project Managers

Jan 28, 2024

Read time: 5 minutes

Hi Friends,

Hope you had a great week behind and enjoy the weekend.

Since, Agile Admiral newsletter getting more visibility, thank you for your help, let me do a very short introduction to the 300+ new subscribers.

I'm 9to5 Program manager with 15 years of experience in project management.

In my FREE time, I help people pass the CAPM/PMP exams through 1-on-1 coaching. Plus I host 2 x Weekly Study Groups each week - one for CAPM, one for PMP. 60 min sessions cost $0 and no registration required.

Also, I share my thoughts around how to navigate in the project management career path via Agile Admiral weekly newsletter.

Have a great week ahead

Gabor

✍️ Quote of the Week

“Many times the hardest part about achieving a dream isn’t actually achieving it—it’s stepping through your fear of the unknown when you don’t have a plan. Having a teacher or boss tell you what to do makes life a lot easier. But nobody achieves a dream from the comfort of certainty."

From The Third Door by Alex Banyan.

💼 Your first 100 days as Project Manager

Guide to Junior Project Managers

When you start as Junior Project Manager, knowing how to handle the first 100 days will set you up for success.

It starts with

How to make a good impression
An outline of how to progress through your first 100 days as PM
Practical ideas for how to create wins in your new PM role

But first what is your Job? Why you are here?

Day-to-Day Project Management

Collecting updates, updating schedules, learning the PM software, reading the contracts for the projects you are on, getting up to speed on finances for each project. Your parallel tasks are to learn your company's processes inside and out: how do projects get approved, how are contracts handled, what info is important to which stakeholders, how to communicate info at project meetings & exec updates (hint - brevity, clarity), what is required for project completion, change process, what are the approval paths (scope, money, etc), who are the consistent internal project stakeholders, how much time is available for planning, all the unsexy stuff. Then work on how to create schedules and update progress.

What will be challenging in your job?

most likely you will handle multiple small projects
deadlines can be demanding
handling customer communication
be patient

Prepare and Assess (Days 0-30)

How?

Engage immediately with key stakeholders and organizational leaders to discuss their expectations.

Establish strong relationships across the organization, and secure a good reporting relationship with PMO. Their support will be a major asset in the coming months.

Identify one to three challenges you can successfully address in your first 100 days.

Action points:

Find out who all your key stakeholders and listen - setup 1-on-1 meeting with key stakeholders, pro tip, make it reoccuring once per month
Manage your team. It’s important to know what your people think, what is their career ambition and goal. Remember, project management is a team sport, we WIN together.
Set your Plan and Set your RACI. The plan should be practical with clear expectations and by understanding “why we are doing this project”? The more clarity you can provide the bigger team buy-in you can expect. Having clear RACI Roles and Responsibilities will eliminate confusion later and will provide clarity on who does what.

Plan & Act (Days 30-80)

Success in your new role hinges on perception. With your goals in place, don't fall into the "detailed planning trap." Ensure the plans you make are simple, and be prepared to change direction if required.

Action points:

Demonstrate leadership - You’ve got to have a plan. Where are you going? How are you going to get there? What does everyone have to do to play their part?
Create your “tracking spreadsheets” - Make dashboards or tracking sheets or whatever as simple as possible for the teams to update so you can keep status meetings short as possible. Everybody hates long meetings.
Prioritise. Do not prioritize software, report style & layout, agile or whatever methodology over collecting information and communicating that info. Just focus on keeping the project in “green” status.
Communicate-Communicate-Communicate - your role is to tell the “good” stories and “bad” stories to your stakeholders. Be transparent with all communication channels. Weekly or monthly status reports, emails, meeting minutes and/or team meetings.

Measure (Days 80-100)

KEEP A CLOSE EYE ON THE NUMBERS. You have to make sure all project measurement “points” are met and under control. Focus is to keep the project “green”.

Action points:

Communicate-Communicate-Communicate - your role is to tell the “good” stories and “bad” stories to your stakeholders. Be transparent with all communication channels. Weekly or monthly status reports, emails, meeting minutes and/or team meetings.
Leadership. You should lead by example, therefore don’t panic. Stay calm and be optimistic.
Keep yourself fit for the the fight. Eat and sleep properly, get some exercise. It’s going to be tough and intense so don’t forget to look after yourself.

Conclusion

Don’t be overwhelmed it is part of the job.

Book a 1-on-1 Call ——> LinkedIn ——> YouTube

☝️ Person to Follow

🔮 You’re closer than you think…

My mission is to help 10,000 people to become CAPM and PMP certified.

But, we all ask the question, when I’m ready?

I need the right confidence…

My goal is for you to have confidence that the CAPM/PMP certification is the perfect next step to living the life you dreamed of with a new career as Project Manager/Senior Project Manager, and provide you the clarity on how to get started.

Here are the agenda’s for the upcoming 2x weeks: