A Day in the Life of a Project Manager | Indeed

Summary

In this video, Gillian, a project manager at RPM, an advertising agency, takes viewers through her day managing the full project lifecycle for Broadway clients. She discusses her work-from-home policy, the use of monday.com for project management, and her interactions with various teams. Gillian highlights the fast-paced nature of her role, the importance of organization, and the thrill of seeing her work in Times Square. She also mentors a new project manager and shares tips for those interested in the field.

Takeaways

• 👩‍💼 A project manager oversees the entire project lifecycle, from initiation to completion.
• 🏢 The speaker works for RPM, an agency focused on Broadway advertising clients.
• 💻 The office has a hybrid work-from-home policy, allowing flexibility in where employees work.
• 📅 The day typically starts with opening key applications like email, calendar, and project management software.
• 🛠️ The preferred project management tool is monday.com, which is customizable and user-friendly for collaboration.
• 🔥 Unexpected urgent tasks ('fire drills') often arise, requiring quick attention and turnaround.
• 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Project managers collaborate with multiple teams, including finance, creative, and account teams, to ensure smooth project flow.
• 🚌 Current projects include managing billboard and bus advertisements for the Hamilton tour across North America.
• 👩‍🏫 Experienced project managers help onboard new team members, like Abby, teaching them essential tools and systems.
• 🏙️ A key part of the job involves seeing the real-world output of their work, such as billboards in Times Square and theater posters.

Q & A

What is the role of a project manager at RPM?

A project manager at RPM oversees the full project lifecycle, from initiation to completion. They work across various teams and ensure projects move smoothly through the agency, particularly focusing on Broadway clients in the advertising space.

What project management software does Gillian's team use, and why does she like it?

Gillian's team uses monday.com. She likes it because it’s web-based, color-coordinated, and highly customizable, which makes it easy to route tasks between teams like designers, art directors, and copywriters.

How does the hybrid work policy at RPM affect Gillian's daily routine?

The hybrid work policy allows Gillian to work from home or go into the office when needed. She appreciates the flexibility, opting to work from home when she doesn't need to collaborate in person, but she goes into the office for important tasks requiring others' presence.

What is the first thing Gillian does when she starts her workday?

Gillian begins her day by opening all her applications, including email, calendar, and project management software. She reviews anything that came in overnight and sets her priorities for the day.

What is a 'fire drill' in Gillian's job, and how does it impact her day?

A 'fire drill' refers to an urgent task that must be completed within a short time, typically to satisfy a client's last-minute request. These unexpected events can disrupt her planned schedule and shift priorities.

What are some key responsibilities that Gillian handles as a project manager?

Gillian is responsible for routing projects through the agency, ensuring tasks align with client briefs, and collaborating across teams like finance, creative, and account management. She also coordinates with designers and ensures consistency across different formats, like bus ads and billboards.

Why does Gillian enjoy working as a project manager?

Gillian enjoys her role because she interacts with many different teams and types of people, and she has the opportunity to work on a variety of creative projects. She also finds it rewarding to see the results of her work, such as billboards, in public spaces.

What challenge did Gillian face with the Hamilton tour project?

Gillian had to manage two different designers working on the same Hamilton tour creative, ensuring that both the bus sides and billboards had a consistent look and design before sending them to the client.

How does Gillian onboard new project managers like Abby?

Gillian helps onboard new project managers by walking them through the tools and systems used at RPM, such as the email system for Telecharge houses. She provides hands-on training, helping them understand how to manage campaigns like triggered emails and one-off communications for Broadway shows.

What advice does Gillian give to those interested in becoming project managers?

Gillian advises aspiring project managers to develop organizational skills, be good communicators, and build stamina to handle the fast-paced and sometimes unpredictable nature of the role.

Outlines

00:00

📈 Day in the Life of a Project Manager

Gillian, a project manager at RPM, an advertising agency focused on Broadway clients, introduces her role in overseeing the full project lifecycle. She discusses the hybrid work policy allowing her to work from home in sweatpants or go into the office for important meetings. Gillian's day starts with checking emails, the calendar, and project management software, monday.com, which she praises for its customization and ease of use. She emphasizes the unpredictability of her job, with occasional urgent tasks requiring swift action. Her mornings are typically spent on Zoom calls and prioritizing tasks with account teams. Gillian also highlights the importance of her role in coordinating across different teams within the agency.

05:02

🎭 Project Management in the Broadway Advertising World

The script continues with Gillian detailing her work on a project for the 'Hamilton' show, including a discussion with her account executive, Ashley, about the status of various tasks and coordinating with designers. She also talks about her home office setup in New York, which allows her to switch between working at her desk and her couch for a change of scenery. Gillian's role involves routing projects through different stages, ensuring that all team members have seen and approved the work. She expresses her enjoyment in working with diverse teams and seeing the tangible results of her work in Times Square. The paragraph concludes with Gillian heading to the office after lunch, where she continues to route projects, including a billboard and bus side campaign for the 'Hamilton' tour in Seattle.

💼 Navigating the Creative Process and Mentorship

In this part, Gillian addresses a creative consistency issue between two designers working on similar projects. She reviews and tweaks the designs to ensure they match before presenting them to the client. As a seasoned project manager, she also mentors Abby, a new project manager, by guiding her through the company's email system used for various shows. Gillian explains how the system sends automated emails post-purchase and how it can be used for targeted campaigns. The paragraph ends with Gillian wrapping up her day by checking emails, updating project statuses in the software, and ensuring all communications on Slack have been addressed.

🌆 End of Day Routine and Creative Confirmation

Gillian concludes her day by visiting The Majestic Theater to take pictures of the 'Phantom of the Opera' poster, ensuring that the creative work is up-to-date with the new cast member. She shares her advice for aspiring project managers, emphasizing the importance of organization, communication, and adaptability in a fast-paced environment. The video ends with a call to like and subscribe to Indeed's channel, promising more content in the future.

Keywords

💡Project Manager

A project manager is responsible for overseeing the full lifecycle of a project, ensuring it is completed from start to finish. In the video, the speaker explains that her role is to manage all aspects of a project, coordinating between different teams such as finance, account, and creative teams. The project manager is the main line of communication and ensures that deadlines are met and that the final product fits the client's needs.

💡RPM (Agency)

RPM is the advertising agency where the speaker works, specializing in Broadway clients. It plays a crucial role in managing the promotional efforts for various Broadway shows. The agency’s focus on entertainment advertising makes the job dynamic and enjoyable, as the speaker mentions, particularly when working on big-name productions like 'Hamilton.'

💡Work from Home (Hybrid Policy)

The hybrid work policy allows employees to work both remotely and from the office as needed. The speaker appreciates the flexibility to choose where to work based on the importance of in-person meetings or tasks that can be done remotely. She mentions the comfort of working from home in sweatpants while having the option to go to the office for critical work that requires team collaboration.

💡monday.com

monday.com is the project management software used by the speaker and her agency to track the progress of various tasks. It is described as user-friendly and highly customizable, enabling different teams, including designers, copywriters, and proofreaders, to collaborate effectively. The software plays a central role in organizing workflows and managing project lifecycles.

💡Routing

Routing refers to the process of sending a project through different stages of review and approval within an agency. The speaker spends much of her day routing designs and other deliverables to various teams, ensuring that the right people, such as art directors or proofreaders, see the work and provide feedback. This process ensures that projects meet all requirements before being delivered to clients.

💡Fire Drill

In the context of project management, a 'fire drill' refers to an urgent task or unexpected challenge that arises and needs immediate attention. The speaker mentions that even when her day appears to be planned out, there is often a fire drill that disrupts the schedule, requiring her to brief and complete something within a short timeframe to satisfy the client's demands.

💡Zoom Calls

Zoom calls are a regular part of the speaker's day, used for meetings with various team members and clients. These virtual meetings help coordinate priorities, project statuses, and collaboration, especially when working remotely. In the video, the speaker highlights her use of Zoom to communicate with account executives like Ashley to discuss the progress of the 'Hamilton' project.

💡Hamilton Project

The Hamilton project refers to the advertising work being done for the North American tour of the Broadway musical 'Hamilton.' The speaker works with her account executive, Ashley, to manage creative aspects such as billboards and bus advertisements. This project highlights the high-profile nature of the agency’s clients and the importance of consistent branding across different media.

💡Creative Consistency

Creative consistency refers to maintaining uniformity in design and messaging across various marketing platforms. The speaker addresses this concept when discussing the Hamilton project, ensuring that the same design and branding are applied both to bus ads and billboards. This is crucial for building a cohesive brand image and avoiding confusion across different types of media.

💡Majestic Theater

The Majestic Theater is where 'The Phantom of the Opera' performs and serves as an example of a project the speaker is involved in. She visits the theater to confirm that new promotional materials, like posters, have been installed properly. This task highlights one of the tangible aspects of her job—seeing the results of her team’s work in real-world settings.

Highlights

Introduction to the role of a project manager in the full project lifecycle.

Working at RPM, an agency focused on Broadway clients in advertising.

Experience with a hybrid work policy, balancing work from home and office days.

Utilization of project management software, monday.com, for efficient workflow.

Coordinating with various teams such as designers, art directors, and copywriters.

Managing priorities and responding to urgent tasks, known as 'fire drills'.

Morning routine includes checking emails, calendar, and project management software.

Meeting with the account executive to discuss project priorities for Hamilton.

Challenge of ensuring consistency between different creatives by different designers.

Onboarding new project managers and sharing knowledge about email systems.

The importance of organization and communication skills in project management.

The thrill of seeing work in public spaces like Times Square.

Afternoon routine includes routing projects and ensuring consistency in creatives.

Mentoring new project managers on using email systems for different shows.

End-of-day tasks include checking emails, updating project statuses, and ensuring all messages on Slack are read.

Visiting The Majestic Theater to confirm the installation of new creative.

Advice for aspiring project managers on building stamina and adaptability.

Transcripts

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Hi.

I'm Gillian, and welcome to a day in the life of a project

manager.

Come on.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

So a project manager is really just focused

on the full project lifecycle.

So I'm kind of the person that gets everything kicked off,

and I'm the last person that sees a project.

So I work in an agency called RPM,

which is focused on Broadway clients

in the advertising space.

And I've been there for a couple of years now,

and I really work across all of our different teams

to get the project all the way, completed through the agency.

I've worked at a couple of different advertising agencies,

and this is definitely the most fun because it's

such a great group of clients.

Our office has instated a work from home policy and a hybrid,

being able to go into the office.

So a lot of times, I'll go in if I have something that's

really important that I need a lot of people

in that I know that they'll be in the office for.

Otherwise, I can work from home, and just be in my sweatpants,

and not have to worry about what anyone looks like.

But it's just really great having that option.

So the first thing I do when I sit down at my desk

is make sure I open all of my applications,

so my email, my calendar, our project management software,

just to get a sense of anything that's come through overnight

that needs my attention.

And then I'll start routing things and following up

with people for my priorities for the day.

We really work with a project management software,

monday.com, which has been my favorite software that I've

worked with so far.

It's a web-based tool that is really color-coordinated,

and we're able to customize it to fit

the needs of our company.

So it's really great for our designers to upload any files

that they have, and it's really easy

to go through and route with our art directors, copywriters,

proofreaders, and really relay information easily.

When I start my day, I sometimes know

what the day is going to look like,

where it's going to be a slow day or a busy day,

but I have all of my priorities.

But inevitably, there's a fire drill that happens,

and there's something that we have

to get briefed within an hour and out the door

just to make the client happy.

So my morning is primarily spent on Zoom calls

and at my desk going through priorities

with my different account teams.

So the first meeting that I'm going to be on today

is with Ashley, my account executive

to work on all of our priorities for Hamilton,

so that she can give me a status of things

that she's gotten from the client,

and I can let her know where things

are living within the agency.

Good morning.

I'm just going to go through Hamilton stuff, so let

me get my screen up.

For these flex frames, I guess we'll just

see, since it looked like we now can do branding,

especially if it has to be centered.

I'm thinking with the star and the MJ stuff,

we should be fine.

Yeah.

I don't think we have anything that has writing on the sides

anyway for Hamilton.

So I think we should be good as long as we can actually

use branded material.

Yeah.

OK.

Cool, and then we'll just wait until we get that revised.

Yeah.

OK.

Thank you.

Of course.

[INAUDIBLE] the rest of the day.

So welcome to my living space.

Being in New York, it was really important

when I was making the decision to live alone

that I knew I was going to be working from home still,

so I really wanted at least some separation of where I normally

work versus where I live.

So just to get a change of scenery throughout the day,

sometimes I'll come and sit on my couch,

so I'm not sitting at my desk for 10 hours straight.

So a lot of my day is spent routing projects, which really

means going through our whole project lifecycle

with multiple different projects.

So once I have the first pass from a designer,

I will then take a look at it and make sure

that it fits the brief that I've been giving from my account

team.

And then I'll go through and make sure any person that

needs to see it has seen it.

One of the reasons I really like my job

is because I work with so many different teams.

Project management is one of the few roles that really

works across all team members.

So we're working across our finance team, our account

team, our creative team.

Anyone that really needs to see a project,

we're kind of that main line of communication.

So I wrapped up my day from home, so now let's head

into the office on Times Square, but first,

let's grab some lunch.

So I got into project management,

I was my company's first intern and kind of just fell into it.

And now that I've been here, I can't

imagine doing anything else.

My undergraduate degree didn't totally

prepare me for my day-to-day, but I

learned a lot of valuable skills,

like organization and then staying

on top of things, that were really helpful,

but I really do think the best experience is just

being in the role and doing the actual work.

What I love about my job is just really

being able to interact with so many different creative types,

and just being able to have my hands on all different types

of projects.

It's really special to go out and see my work

when I walk around Times Square.

There's nothing cooler than going up and seeing a billboard

that I know that I've helped put out.

So I'm in the office after lunch, and I've kind of just

been catching up on things that I missed

while I was on my subway commute,

but a lot of my afternoon is going to be still spent

routing different projects.

And one of the projects that I'm working on right now

is with our Hamilton tour, which is a tour that's

going all across North America.

And we have some billboards and bus

sides that will be going up in Seattle in July.

So one issue that I'm kind of having

at the moment is I have two different designers working

on both of these creatives, but it's essentially,

it should be the exact same creative.

So if I have the bus sides pulled up,

this is the approved option that we're

going with for the bus sides, and this is the Billboard.

So we're just making a small tweak

before this goes to the client to make sure that both of them

are consistent.

So one of the things of being a more seasoned project

manager at this company is I help onboard new project

managers, so this is Abby, who just started a couple of weeks

ago.

Today, we're going to be working through an email system

that we use pretty commonly for a bunch of different shows.

So if you log into your screen here,

the screen that you have pulled up,

this email system is primarily used for Telecharge houses.

So for Chicago, if you go over to the Campaigns tab,

you can see here, we have a lot.

This is an account that uses a system pretty regularly.

So you can see here, we have a post-purchase triggered email,

so any time that you purchase a ticket to Chicago

on Telecharge, 24 hours after, you'll

just get a confirmation that says we can't wait to see you,

here are the COVID protocols, things like that.

So those are pretty common.

You can also send just one-off emails

if you have a specific segment that you want to do.

So, for example, on Mrs. Doubtfire, a couple of months

ago, we did anyone who had bought a ticket in 2020,

but their show had been canceled after the shutdown,

just as a reminder, like, hey, we're back on Broadway,

here's a link to get tickets, and things like that.

Great.

So we finally reached the end of day,

and I have a couple more things I can

do before I get out of here.

So I'll go and just check my email,

and make sure everything is looking good here.

So we got some proofs approved with our vendor

here, which is great.

We got confirmation that some additional creative

was installed on one of our theaters today.

Then, I'll go into our project management software,

and just update any statuses to make sure

that everything is accurate.

So this newsletter is with the client,

and we are looking good for timing on that.

I'll take a quick look at Slack, and make sure

that all of my messages have been read,

so I haven't missed anything there.

And before I go home, I'm going to run

past the Phantom of the Opera theater,

and just take some pictures for the team

to confirm some new creative that we just installed.

So today was a pretty typical day.

Luckily, we didn't have any fire drills

that we had to quickly move on.

So I spent most of my day routing, and on Zoom calls,

and kicking off some new projects.

So overall, this is really what my day-to-day looks like.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

So welcome to The Majestic Theater,

where the Phantom of the Opera performs eight shows a week.

I'm just here taking a picture of the poster

here to make sure that all of our creative is up-to-date.

We had a new cast member go in last week.

So I'm just going to take a quick picture for my team,

and send it off so that they know that everything

is looking good.

If you're interested in becoming a project manager,

I definitely recommend just finding

different skills and tools that work

for you as far as organization, and being

a really good communicator.

So something I didn't quite realize

when I came into project management

is just how fast-paced everything was going to be.

So I would say just make sure that you're building up

your stamina, and you're just able to roll with the punches

as they come along.

Thanks for watching.

Be sure to give us like and subscribe to Indeed's channel.

We'll see you next time.

All right.

She's directing, so--

[LAUGHING]

Sorry.