How We Manage Projects: Michal Horák on Building Bridges Between Team and Client

On the role of the project manager in the team

The project manager's primary goal is to keep the project firmly in hand and steer it successfully to completion by removing obstacles on either side.

Along the way, they meet the needs of everyone involved in the project:

• The client wants to be informed and know the state of their project. This gives them a sense of control and reassurance that everything is running as it should — and that they're kept in the loop.
• The team working on the project wants to understand the context, what the client needs, and what their intentions are. This increases team efficiency and reduces the risk of time and money being wasted on things that don't matter.

The project manager therefore needs to maintain a constant and complete overview of what's happening both in the team and on the client side. Communication is their most important tool for achieving this.

How to set up effective communication between team and client

Many articles cover how to manage a project properly and stay on top of everything. Here, we'll show you how we have project communication set up at Proof & Reason. It works for all our projects, with just minor differences in the length and intensity of individual parts — you can adapt those to suit your own projects.

The central document of every project and the most important tool for the project manager is the so⁠-⁠called project charter, in which we:

• outline the project background and expected benefits,
• define objectives,
• identify potential risks,
• and define how communication will work within the project.

This communication strategy typically rests on three pillars:

1. team status
2. client report
3. client call

1) Team status fosters a sense of belonging among colleagues

Once a week, all the people working on the project at our end get together. The purpose of this meeting is to share information — so that not just the project manager knows who is working on what and what needs to be discussed with the client. All team members need to have an overview of the project context.

To keep meetings effective and not eat into project time, we set a time limit — we stick to half an hour. Some status meetings take five minutes; others need a bit more time. But half an hour is the cap even for large projects. If a topic comes up that requires more time, we schedule a separate meeting for it.

It's important that everyone comes prepared. The project manager runs a regular agenda and checks in with everyone on:

• what they've done on the project since the last status,
• what they plan to do before the next one,
• what's blocking them and what needs to be resolved.

Answers like I don't know or nothing are also valid. The project manager collects information and looks into why things aren't moving and what needs to happen to push them forward. From the meeting, they walk away with a list of action items to follow up on with the client or other team members.

2) The client report gives them a sense of control over the project

What we've done, what's coming up, and what we need to resolve — these are the three main topics the project manager draws on after the status when writing a summary for the client.

Just like the team status, client reporting happens regularly once a week. Even if nothing has moved forward in the project in the past week, write the report and explain why. That way, the client won't start wondering or worrying about what's happening with the project.

We send our clients reports by email or as online documents. In both cases, everyone can revisit the reports at any time; with online documents, we appreciate the ability to comment directly on individual points. We always choose the format that works best for the client.

3) Client calls maintain strong relationships

Thanks to status meetings and reports, everyone is up to date on the project. But the most important thing is the personal relationship with the client, which is best built through regular meetings — or at least online calls.

The regular call agenda follows on from the report, but there's also room for additional questions that have come up in the meantime. At the end of the meeting, always summarize the action items for the following week for both sides.

Block out an hour in your calendar for the call. Sometimes it'll be shorter — you'll just confirm that everything is clear; other times you'll spend more time discussing questions or comments on the report. If a larger topic or problem comes up, schedule a separate meeting and invite the other team members needed to resolve it.

Effective communication takes time, but it drives the project successfully to the finish line

You might feel at this point that regular meetings and reports will eat up a lot of your time. Yes, they definitely take time — but it's not time wasted. This kind of communication structure has brought us many long⁠-⁠term benefits:

• We reduce project risks — we have a constant overview, the client can see what we're doing, and we catch it early when we head down a dead end or waste time on something that doesn't matter.
• We handle problems better — when we've built a strong relationship with the client and are in regular contact, we spot issues sooner. And when they do arise, we're better at explaining them and the client takes them better.
• We set the right expectations — everyone is informed and knows what to expect when. We eliminate the risk that someone assumes something different.
• We maintain satisfaction — everyone involved in the project knows what they're doing and why, and through good collaboration we deliver an excellent result.