Project Management for Remote Teams

I think you all know what it means to be a project manager. I mean, you all do it at some point in your life when planning a trip, a wedding or any other project you might have.

I turned my organizational skills into my daily job. For more than 5 years now, I have been managing creatives and developers to achieve one goal: getting sh*t done.

For 1.5 years now, I’ve been working on a brand new challenge: managing a remote, international team of 12 people.

The first question I usually get is “what about the timezones?” -

Well, let me tell you, you forget about timezones, you create your own and turn it into an advantage. Working remotely means collaborating across timezones, working around the clock, and making everything happen as quickly as possible. Of course, this requires a great team effort, but we got the “crème de la crème” in our team, as we say in French.

In order get to that place, you need to create process that’s easy enough for everyone to jump in and implement everyday without even thinking about it.

As a project manager, your role is to make the creatives’ lives easier so they can focus strictly on what they do best: design.

As group leader, you better have a clear vision of where you need to go and what you need to do.

Here are a couple of things that you need to keep in mind throughout the day:

• Communicate with the team, with the client, with everyone and vice versa. This is your TOP priority
• Get a clear brief
• Be able to answer any questions or find the answers quickly
• Manage client expectations
• Stick to a timeline and budget
• Make the magic happen

Yes, communication is the key here. In fact, it’s so obvious that you may forget all about it, but this is what makes a team really powerful, and it’s absolutely required for remote teams.

If you communicate correctly, you’ll get to know your team’s skills, you’ll know what they can and can’t do and you’ll know they’ll do their best work because everything is clear for everyone.

The #1 rule I give when I onboard new team members is to communicate no matter what and to deliver quality on time.

All in all, this has been my greatest work adventure so far; I keep on improving my skills, learning new ones and working with talented people.

Next article I will talk about the tools I use for PM everyday, stay tuned and subscribe to Flying Saucer Studio publications to find out more!

Article written by Anaïs — Account Director Flying Saucer Studio