PM Chat x Mark Fromson
Mark Fromson / from Vancouver, BC
Senior Project Manager + Co-Founder at Action Digital
Outside of work, Mark is an avid photographer, surfer and enjoys his remote home with crazy ocean views in Ucluelet (which is available for rent at AirBnB).
What kind of projects are you currently working on?
Branding / Visual Identity for a city in Washington State
E-Commerce Platform Strategy for a 100 million/year Cosmetics company
Digital Asset Management Strategy for a prominent worldwide Car Auctioneering company
Full V2 design and development for a US State’s Student Aid Website and related back-end and administration systems
Full V2 design and development for educational company’s website
Development project for a major sport’s league’s scheduling system
Project management consulting for a large non-profit design and development project.
Running the delivery for a US-Based agency. Responding to sales opportunities, scoping projects, writing proposals and SOWs, staffing and onboarding teams, ongoing resourcing and project status.
You’ve been a partner/co-founder on a few tech products - what has that experience taught you about project management?
Co-Founding and being the CEO of a tech startup brought an immense amount of client-side perspective to my project management that I hadn't had previously being always consultant or agency side. I’m far more experienced in seeing around corners and advising my clients from a larger strategic perspective.
“It’s almost always better to get on the phone than to send an email on a thorny issue.”
As a senior professional in the field, what are key characteristics and tools that a project manager should have to succeed with any type of project?
Attention to detail
Good memory
Great people skills
Ability to self organize and guide the organization of others
Fluency with the medium the project is in (Marketing, Design, Web Development, Mobile Development, Software Development, Dev-Ops etc…)
Familiarity with many PM tools and ability to jump between them
Some training on project management principles and process
Any tips on how to deal with difficult clients?
It’s almost always better to get on the phone than to send an email on a thorny issue.
Document everything clearly, from the initial SOW to any mid-project decision. Be able to refer back to that documentation, even if it’s just a text chat or email.
Don’t ever have major decisions made in voice without a follow up documentation.
Get a retainer up front to start the project (or at least 15 day net receipt of start date).
Try to have final deliverables be dependent on payment, meaning don’t give the final keys to the kingdom to the client if payment is in doubt or risky.
If the project is fixed-bid, then the SOW should be very detailed, especially on client UAT terms.
Where do you think the project management role today is currently lacking?
About a third of all projects in digital would benefit from the PM having a solid technical background. Many PM’s, myself included, were never back-end developers and don’t have the ability to really understand the technical details of a project with heavy and complex development. I would like to see more dev leads transition to project management as a career choice for technical heavy projects.
What/where do you hope things improve for PMs in the agency/tech space?
Right now there seems to be a staff shortage of full time PMs. This is straight supply and demand. Many intermediate to senior PMs realize they can make more money and have more freedom by going contract. This shortage could be remedied by more agencies and tech companies hiring contract PMs.
Where does your passion lie in the PM role and industry at large?
My passion lies in helping companies and teams provide the right environment, structure, process and tools for overall project team success. If it’s broke, fix it.
What’s next for you? Where do you hope to grow?
My role has shifted over the years to more high level delivery oversight and PM operational strategy. I hope to continue to grow in that areas, helping my clients improve at a macro-level so that their overall project health improves as a result.
Any favorite PM tools under your belt that you love to use to run your projects and teams?
Team Gantt is my go to for project schedules, it’s indispensable and much more user friendly than Microsoft Project. Don’t go Gantt charts custom in a spreadsheet, this doesn’t give you the tool functionality you need to be efficient and consistent.
Any Kanban board software works as long as you use one tool and are consistent and clear in how your team uses it.
What are some of your top successes as a PM that folks can learn/gain inspiration from?
If a project is so over budget that the agency is paying their own money to fulfill the client’s work, then it’s time to find a way to intervene and find a compromise that works for everyone. I’ve done this successfully as a rescue PM on many projects.
