It can be difficult to know when to stretch your existing team to fill out a project, start a new hiring process in anticipation of work, or simply hire a freelancer to help complete a project team. I’ve worked with companies as a project lead, temporary project manager, and full-time contract project manager, and it’s not always easy to get freelance hiring and fit right. However, a freelance project manager can help your team and projects in many ways: project on-boarding, dedicated budget and timeline oversight, clearer communication with teams and clients, providing valuable status reports, and overall coming into the project with a fresh set of eyes that gets applied to your vision for the project and team direction. You’ll…
As a freelance project manager, I’ve jumped into projects at almost any phase: from projects a few days away from launching or kickoffs right after proposals are accepted, I’ve been a part of it all. Jumping into the thick of a project means getting up to speed on lots of things very quickly, and that transition is only improved by lots of transparency. If not, gathering all of that institutional knowledge becomes a burden to the project manager and an obstacle for the whole team. Most of the time, I realize I need access, knowledge, or context as it becomes relevant during my project ramp-up. It’s fairly typical of project owners and stakeholders to give basic context to a project…
This is an updated version of an article I originally posted back in 2015 on this blog. Some minor adjustments and updates have been made, and I’m working on a few more in a similar vein – so keep checking back! Awhile back I was at a local meetup and had the chance to talk to a lot of people about what I do as a freelance, remote project manager. I’ve been contracting full-time for almost 3.5 years now, but I wasn’t surprised to get so many questions. Contract project management isn’t as common in the tech world as freelance design or development is, and it’s still somewhat of a novelty. So, I thought I’d talk about what I do,…
I’ve signed up for a number of premium accounts over the year for productivity apps and trackers—part of the semi-realistic appeal of an ‘organized self’ that I strive for as a project manager but never quite attain. I thought I’d try to make something of it this year, as well as data from all of the apps I use to track things like my steps, books I’ve read, music, and more. This was my first full year of freelancing and working from home, and I hit some big milestones for myself as the months went by: April-May 2015 – went to 2 conferences (shout-out to #CreateUpstate and #PeersConf!) and took my first full vacation since I’ve started working for myself (actually,…
The other night I was at the Sharatoga Tech Talks and had the chance to talk to a lot of people about what I do as a freelance, remote project manager. I’ve been contracting full-time for almost a year now, and part-time for about two years. I wasn’t surprised to get so many questions, since contract project management isn’t something that’s common in the tech world (or any world in general). So, I thought I’d talk about what I do, how I got here, and how I do it. How did you start contract project managing? I was looking to leave my job at the time and had been pursuing job leads for a month or two. I received offers at…
Over the next few weeks I’d like to document the process I’ve gone through to switch to working for myself full-time, the applications I use to stay organized, what I’m learning as I go, and how I’m managing my schedule. I always love looking back on this stuff for myself, and I have small hopes that some people might be interested in reading this as well! I know I’m always curious about what other people do and what their workflow is. The conditions that existed for me to choose to go freelance full-time were perfect (in my opinion). 1. I was willing to quit my job. This was the first, and biggest condition in choosing to work for myself. I…