When Does Your Startup Need a Project Manager and How To Hire One

Don’t hire before you need one!An essential way to succeed for a startup is to have impeccable project management in place. Before getting into the concept of project management, let’s talk about a dream every startup is built upon. TO BECOME A UNICORN…

Don’t hire before you need one!

An essential way to succeed for a startup is to have impeccable project management in place. Before getting into the concept of project management, let’s talk about a dream every startup is built upon. TO BECOME A UNICORN.

There are various stages of a startup that require different levels of project management.

  • Conceptualizing an idea
  • Building a team
  • Building POC and validating the idea
  • Iterating to build the product
  • Generating revenue and battling at multiple fronts.
  • Towards Unicorn

There are tons of project management tools available on the internet. You might need a tool or two to manage the product you are building. But all you need is a solid project management framework that directs your team and product towards success. This framework should not impose too many restrictions on the team. You don’t want to bore them with the process. Startups are all about fun and excitement to build the next big thing. Don’t take that away from your team.

We are going to discuss the following stages as project management has utmost value in these stages:

Building POC and validating the idea

At this stage, the primary objective is to validate the idea on which you are going to build your startup. You don’t want to drag the idea which is not going to fly. The best way is to build the Proof Of Concept or Minimal Viable Product of the project.

The basic concept to keep in your mind is to get the POC or MVP out ASAP. One of the founders should wear the project manager’s hat and define the features required in MVP. He/She should be vigilant enough that no unnecessary features sneak into MVP.

Iterating to build the product

By this time you believe in your idea and start your journey from MVP to a full-fledged product. This is an exciting journey, full of challenges. Your team grows and there could be people in your team who need a project manager to guide them. Well, in my experience if you have decent team leaders then there is no need for a dedicated project manager.

If the team leads are not able to coordinate and resolve the dependencies this is a good time to hire a project manager.

Generating revenue and battling at multiple fronts

Once the product is launched and the feedback and requests of various customers start pouring in, you definitely need a project manager. By this time your team grows as well. Several new features and new concepts start getting into shape.

There are many issues as well that start popping up like various bugs and the product need to be scaled up.

When you are fighting multiple battles you would need the help of a project manager to streamline all the effort your team is putting in to transform into timely deliveries.

In most cases, this is the most crucial time when a project manager is required.

Qualities of a Startup Project Manager

Hiring a project manager for a startup is tricky. Hiring the wrong person can derail your project, bring down the morale of the team, and hence can impact the deliverables.

Following are some of the good qualities I look for in a great project manager

  • Planning and Scheduling — It all starts with planning the software life cycle well. There could be many teams involved in the project that needs pipelining the tasks well so that no team is stuck in the process.
  • Understanding the Capabilities of the team — Different teammates have different capabilities and expertise. The project manager should identify who is good at what. For instance, what one member of the team might be struggling with could be a piece of cake for another. This takes time to understand. But it is important for the project manager to understand who is good at what.
  • Friendly and a team player — I have seen quite a few times when a new project manager is hired his wavelength does not match with the rest of the team. The environment of the workplace gets disturbed.

Take-Aways

I have shared my experience and wisdom here. The situation is not exactly the same as above in all the startups. It is inevitable to hire a project manager, just have to get the right guy at the right time.


When Does Your Startup Need a Project Manager and How To Hire One was originally published in Level Up Coding on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.


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