WHAT DOES A DIGITAL PROJECT MANAGER DO?

Published: Nov 25, 2024 - The Digital Project Manager supports new product development and ensures smooth maintenance of existing products, serving as a crucial liaison between business and technology teams. Manages the full lifecycle of various digital projects, including apps and marketing campaigns, overseeing timelines, budgets, and internal workflows to optimize efficiency and effectiveness. Actively engages in Agile processes, conducts industry research, and identifies risks and opportunities for innovation, enhancing product value and client satisfaction.

A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Digital Project Manager

1. Digital Project Manager Duties

  • Project Management: Work across multiple projects managing both marketing and B2B projects.
  • Project Planning: Develop detailed project plans to communicate project timelines, risks, and update clearly and effectively with cross-functional stakeholders, including external vendors.
  • Product Development Support: Support new product development as well as the day-to-day maintenance of live products.
  • Liaison Work: Act as a liaison between business and technology.
  • Business Analysis: Understand business processes, cases, requirements, product functions, system integrations, and data flow in depth.
  • Process Improvement: Identify and execute opportunities to improve the process and product workflow.
  • Agile Participation: Participate in sprint planning and other project activities required by Agile software development methodology.
  • Industry Research: Work with Product Management to conduct industry and product research to understand technology options and industry trends.
  • Product Innovation: Recommend new product ideas and solutions.
  • Audit Support: Support product-related audit requirements and activities.
  • Digital Project Management: Manage the planning, execution, and completion of a variety of digital projects including apps, marketing products, registrations, email newsletters, and social content, as well as some traditional work.
  • Budget and Timeline Oversight: Oversee project timelines and budgets.
  • Workflow Management: Manage internal workflow across various departments.
  • Client Communication: Be the day-to-day liaison with the client, providing updates.
  • Risk Management: Identify project risks, changes, and roadblocks to prepare solutions.
  • Digital Marketing Solutions Management: Develop and manage project work plans, which are associated with the implementation of functionality for digital marketing solutions including Email, Analytics, SEO, Merchandising, and CX.
  • Stakeholder Collaboration: Gather requirements from stakeholders and technical teams to create comprehensive project plans and timelines.

2. Digital Project Manager Details

  • Communication Management: Acts as the main point of contact for a consumer business unit, maintaining communication with necessary internal and external teams (account, creative, front-end developers, back-end developers, producers, and clients) throughout the creative agile workflow process for various company brands.
  • Timeline Feasibility: Gains a deep understanding of how the team works to provide realistic timeline estimates and feasibility assessments for interactive project initiatives.
  • Agile Workflow Management: Actively manages agile workflows for all digital content, including website, eCRM, video, paid media (display, social), ensuring smooth execution.
  • Content Strategy Alignment: Understands the strategy behind content initiatives, ensures all tasks are scheduled within the queue, allocates projects to teammates, and delivers completed content in accordance with creative and development project timing, budget, and quality requirements.
  • Quality Control: Ensures the integrity and quality of project deliverables by implementing an effective product change review process with regulatory and centers of excellence teams.
  • Budget Management: Reviews all production budgets, assists the team lead in pulling together project estimates reflective of internal and external costs, and manages project financials effectively.
  • Vendor Collaboration: Assists with vendor selection and builds relationships with partners while staying on top of industry technologies and trends to enhance digital content production.
  • Technical Collaboration: Participates in technical discussions and leads conversations with developers regarding HTML, CSS, and general web development principles to ensure effective technical execution.
  • Team Leadership: Builds and manages project teams in delivering software solutions, providing clear human leadership, direction, and purpose.
  • Risk Management: Works with teams to identify, manage, and escalate project risks, ensuring that teams have the resources and support needed to deliver successfully.
  • Agile/Scrum Administration: Conducts activities associated with administering and managing software development using Agile/Scrum methodologies to streamline processes and enhance efficiency.
  • Infrastructure Oversight: Administers and manages infrastructure design, deployment, operations, and maintenance to ensure seamless integration and functionality.
  • Process and Product Quality Control: Performs quality control of processes and products produced by technical, requirements, and analysis teams to ensure they meet established standards.

3. Digital Project Manager Responsibilities

  • Project Scoping: Scoping project requirements, considerations, and dependencies.
  • Documentation Development: Develop required support documentation including risk logs, copy decks, technical briefs, or requirement specifications.
  • Team Management: Managing a production team of developers and designers.
  • Project Supervision: Develop detailed project plans and supervise progress.
  • Performance Analysis: Research, monitor, and report on performance using data analytics tools, gathering and sharing insights with relevant partners.
  • Risk Management: Highlight potential risks or malfunctions and act proactively to resolve issues.
  • Outcome Reporting: Report on project outcomes, learnings, and successes against initial critical metrics and return on investment simulations.
  • Improvement Initiatives: Seek opportunities for improvement and suggest new projects.
  • Recruitment Assistance: Assisting in the recruitment of additional team members.
  • Professional Development: Maintaining professional and technical knowledge by attending educational workshops, reviewing professional publications, establishing personal networks, participating in professional societies.
  • Leadership: Managing with authority and responsibility the need to keep both clients and internal production team on track.
  • Compliance Management: Ensuring adherence and validity of accreditation with recognized and necessary official standards.
  • Deliverable Monitoring: Monitor the deliverables of functional teams that are engaged in the project, many of which may be remote.
  • Quality Assurance: Assure quality of delivery for the project.
  • Issue Resolution: Drive resolution of issues within the scope of the project.
  • Problem Escalation: Resolve and/or escalate problems relating to the timely delivery of the project.
  • Stakeholder Communication: Report status to all project stakeholders.
  • Budget Management: Manage project budget (revenue and expense) to plan.
  • Project Reporting: Reporting project health, statuses, risks, and process improvement.

4. Digital Project Manager Accountabilities

  • Digital Communication Management: Develops and manages the execution of digital communication plans through internal channels such as website, social media, email marketing.
  • Campaign Implementation: Implements campaigns or provides implementation assistance by proposing actions that can help increase campaigns performance.
  • Interdepartmental Cooperation: Cooperates with other departments (Performance Marketing, IT, Customer Care, Accounting) and provides assistance in achieving company objectives.
  • Reporting and Analysis: Prepares reports and analysis of completed or undergoing projects and performs evaluation regarding the degree of achievement of the objectives.
  • Strategic Idea Contribution: Proposes ideas and participates in brainstorming campaigns and strategies
  • Relationship Management: Maintains and develops strategic relationships with business partners.
  • Client Analysis: Analyzes and understands clients’ business goals and objectives.
  • Project Management: Identifies project deliverables and manages all aspects of the project including planning, estimation and scoping, schedule, risks, and resources.
  • Project Planning: Develops and maintains Project Plans, detailed Timelines, Statements of Work, and Change Requests.
  • Resource Coordination: Proactively manages shared resources to ensure project completion.
  • Project Lifecycle Management: Ensures the success of each project from initial approach to post-mortem, applying project lifecycle methodologies that best suit the work at hand.
  • Cross-departmental Engagement: Engages agency departments from client service, strategy, user experience, creative design, development, quality assurance, and others to most effectively contribute to the project deliverables.
  • Change Management: Manages changes effectively throughout project delivery.
  • Progress Tracking: Tracks and controls project progress (activities, milestones, deliverables) and performs estimation/re-estimation work.
  • Client Communication: Runs client meetings - communicates progress, runs demos, reviews priorities, and provides budget updates.
  • Documentation Management: Creates and keeps up-to-date project documentation and project boards.
  • Budget Management: Tracks, manages, and communicates to clients’ project budgets.
  • Team Leadership: Leads daily team stand-ups, identifies impediments, and helps to eliminate them.

5. Digital Project Manager Functions

  • Project Management: Manage projects from the proposal stage to delivery, in conjunction with the Lead Project Manager, Designers, Marketers, and Directors.
  • Brief Preparation: Take and prepare briefs and accurately relay relevant information to the team to ensure smooth and successful projects.
  • Scope Definition: Define project scope, goals, budgets, deliverables, and dependencies in conjunction with the Lead Project Manager.
  • Documentation Preparation: Prepare the necessary documentation to ensure smooth and successful projects.
  • Collaboration: Work closely with the directors, strategists, and studio in an agile and supportive ecosystem, to maximize each project’s success.
  • Timeline Management: Prepare project timelines and work with creative, operations, and traffic to ensure milestones and deadlines are met.
  • Team Coordination: Bring in the relevant team members, at the right times, to support in achieving goals.
  • Client Communication: Keep clients informed throughout projects and manage expectations.
  • Risk Management: Identify risks upfront and effectively mitigate and manage these with crew and clients.
  • Budget and Time Oversight: Ensure that projects are on time, and on budget.
  • Profitability Reporting: Report to the Lead Project Manager on project profitability and future project optimization suggestions.
  • Client Onboarding: Initiate new client website projects in an effective and timely manner by walking clients through the onboarding process.
  • Client Understanding: Learn the specifics of clients’ business model and target audience, and execute web development projects accordingly.
  • Progress Tracking: Track progress and align resources to efficiently build out client websites.
  • Product Coordination: Work with in-house product experts to ensure that client requirements are met, communicating deadlines with colleagues and managing needs and expectations with clients.
  • Client Relationship Management: Grow client relationships by exceeding client expectations and identifying possible growth opportunities and benefits of alternative products.
  • Support Management: Triage and action support requests coming in from the clients look after.