When I was a child and said I wanted to be a superhero when I grew up, most adults gave a little chuckle and a comment like, "Well, that’s cute."
Most people think being a superhero is not a realistic career choice, but I beg to differ. Project Management is essentially the same thing. If you are familiar at all with what the role entails, you know what I am saying.
Project management duties and traits
- Ability to manage and assign a variety of tasks to multiple team members
- Exceptional people skills--able to speak the language of clients AND of your website development team
- Work with an advanced project management software tool
- Ability to manage stress. A lot of stress.
- Coordinate project workflows to stay within scope and budget
- Ability to stay calm during turbulent times
- Hold the team accountable for deliverables
- Keep production team motivated to produce quality work
- Maintain a positive, professional, and authoritative appearance at all times (even when you don't feel like any of those things)
- Dress Professionally for client facing meetings
- Work mainly from the office, but must be willing to answer emails at night from clients in time zones up to a 16 hour difference
This is obviously not a complete list of daily duties for the average Project Manager and at this point you are probably wondering what this has to do with being a Superhero.
According to Wikipedia, superheroes possess extraordinary powers or abilities, exceptional skills, a strong moral code, a sense of responsibility, a distinctive costume, and they have a headquarters. See the similarities?
Project Manager Software
Just like superheroes, project managers need sidekicks. But instead of Robin, project managers can rely on software to help facilitate day-today tasks and more.
Wrike
As a project manager in the web development space, there are a lot of moving parts to manage and assign throughout the project life cycle. The sidekick I use to fight my daily battles is Wrike. As an all-in-one project management and collaboration software, its features help with productivity and allow me to achieve my goals faster. Its simplicity makes it super easy for me to keep priorities up-to-date and manage tasks and files in one central hub. If I were Batman, Wrike wouldn’t only be my Robin, it would also be my Alfred and Batmobile.
Awesome features Wrike has to offer:
- 24/7 live reps for support
- Tons of Training and Webinars
- Ability to delegate easily & efficiently
- Tag colleagues on tasks
- Track Time
- Gantt Charts
- Milestone Tracking
- Mobile App
- Email integration
- File Sharing
You can easily see why I couldn’t be half the superhero I am on a daily basis without my awesome sidekick!
Just to be fair, there are a lot of great project management tools out there, here is a brief overview of a few others and some of the features set them apart from the rest.
BaseCamp
A web based software that makes it simple to communicate and collaborate on projects.
- Supports multiple languages
- Extremely intuitive, easy to use
- Universal search tool – allows you to quickly reference past work, previously uploaded files/documents
- Ability to track projects
- Support during business hours only
Trello
A flexible digital whiteboard solution that fits into your workflow in a visual, collaboratively focused way.
- Mobile app
- Budget Management
- Email integration
- Milestone tracking
- Online support
- File Sharing
- Idea Tracking
Workamajig
A Web-based application designed to cater to agencies that work through the Internet.
- Advanced accounting software designed for the specific needs of a creative agency.
- Integrates calendar, tasks, and time sheets
- Time sheets and expense report
- Tracks emails
- Streamlines the estimating process
- Reconciles and auto generates invoices.
If you are a Superhero, AKA project manager, we want to hear who is your favored sidekick, AKA Project Management software and why?
