WHAT DOES A DESIGN PROJECT MANAGER DO?

Published: Oct 21, 2024 - The Design Project Manager assists in property concept development and conducts market research for new acquisitions. Designs comprehensive plans, including color schemes and mood boards, and leads the selection of materials for various spaces with meticulous CAD and 3D visualizations. Coordinates with contractors and teams to ensure design execution aligns with brand identity, managing projects from inception to completion, ensuring timeliness and budget adherence.

A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for

1. Design Project Manager Duties

  • Project Record-Keeping: Ensure accurate project record-keeping and compliance with related standards, policies, and procedures
  • Stakeholder Communication: Regularly communicate with related internal/external members and clients
  • Information Management: Ensure updated and appropriate project information
  • Relationship Management: Establish and maintain professional and satisfactory relationships with the client, subcontractors, regulatory bodies, and all other project stakeholders
  • Meeting Leadership: Plan and lead project and client meetings
  • Business Development Support: Actively support marketing and business development activities, building relationships with clients and generating new business
  • Objective Setting: Assist in determining departmental objectives and requirements, organize projects and develop standards and guidelines
  • Problem Solving: Demonstrate creativity, foresight, and judgment in anticipating and solving problems
  • Workflow Enhancement: Advance and develop Department tools and workflows to increase the efficiency of designs, specification development, and project execution

2. Design Project Manager Details

  • Project Leadership: Being the driving force behind every design project within the product design program
  • Timely Delivery Assurance: Ensuring projects do not linger but are delivered on time and within scope
  • Collaborative Planning: Working closely with the UX and UI design principles to help define timelines, release, and sprint plans ensuring
  • Strategic Work Focus: Working on the right thing at the right time
  • Cross-functional Coordination: Linking up with relevant product and tech teams
  • Feature Organization: Ensuring all features are properly defined, organized, and prioritized and ensuring deliverables
  • Sprint Planning Leadership: Leading sprint planning sessions and supporting the team by dissecting the features into smaller, actionable tasks
  • Program Oversight: Having a birds-eye view of every project within the program, allowing to be one step ahead
  • Forecasting Collaboration: Working closely with the Design Ops principal to accurately forecast upcoming features

3. Advanced Hardware Design Project Manager Responsibilities

  • Market Research Assistance: Assist with property concept and market research for new acquisitions
  • Design Creation: Create design plans, color concepts, and mood boards with minimal direction
  • Selections Leadership: Lead selections process for rental units, event spaces, camp stores
  • Materials Selection Assistance: Exterior materials and paint, kitchen finishes, bathroom finishes, space planning, furniture, signage, and decor
  • Landscaping Planning Assistance: Assist in planning property landscaping and facility details
  • CAD and 3D Rendering: Supplement all selections with CAD detail drawings and 3D sketch-up renderings of significant spaces
  • Construction Coordination: Coordinate contractors and help facilitate the construction process
  • Design Execution Coordination: Work with contractors, operations managers, and project managers on design execution
  • Brand Collaboration: Collaborate with the marketing team and graphic designer to ensure a cohesive brand
  • Budget and Proposal Creation: Help create initial budget numbers and project proposals
  • Project Management: Manage large design projects start to finish on time and within budget

4. Design Project Manager Accountabilities

  • Community Best Practices Organization: Organize and drive cooperation and set up best practices within Connected Home Hardware Community to define design guidelines
  • Guideline Alignment Assurance: Ensure these design guidelines are aligned with market expectations
  • Cost Management Cooperation: Cooperate with Product Managers to ensure Cost Management and target costs for innovation and performance purposes along the full design cycle
  • Cross-functional Team Management: Manage regular reviews with R&D and foster teamwork across the organization
  • Stakeholder Communication: Share widely the deliverables, tailored to each stakeholder (Hardware Engineers, Products Managers, Sales, Manufacturing, and Industrial Partners)
  • Design Review Participation: Participate in design reviews and track the implementation of the guidelines
  • Feedback Loop Construction: Build an efficient feedback loop to stress-test guidelines, and organize regular updates
  • Innovation Leadership: Drive and investigate innovation in mechanical and electronic design

5. Design Project Manager Functions

  • Product Development Management: Responsible for the management of the entire product development cycle from definition through implementation
  • Program Management Execution: Perform all program management activities for each project: Planning, identify key resources and stakeholders, drive project milestones, lead kick off and weekly meetings, provide updates to internal and external stakeholders, and deliverables outcomes
  • R&D Liaison: Act as primary contact of R&D through the product development cycle
  • Financial and Schedule Oversight: Manage the project schedule, budget, product cost to meet the project target
  • Risk Resolution: Proactively identify and drive resolution of critical program risks/issues
  • Team Leadership: Identify team priorities & motivate the project team to complete the critical tasks
  • Stakeholder Reporting: Provide up-to-date, accurate and meaningful view of project status to key stakeholders
  • Communication Development: Develop & maintain effective communication channels for all stakeholders
  • Customer Engagement Support: Support customer engagement & new project quotation
  • Negotiation Assistance: Support agreement & contract negotiation