Experience of a Project Manager

When I speak to a new agency or business looking to hire a project manager, I ask them what skills or experiences they want this person to have. And often times they get really fixated on that person matching exactly what they do in their business.

‍

So let’s say you are an agency building Shopify stores & you want somebody who has worked in exactly that same type of agencies.

‍

When we are in the Shopify agency space, we feel like there are a lot of them out there. But actually, in the total number of software or development agencies, that percentage is quite small. It goes down significantly when we look to hire internationally, in countries where Shopify is not so vastly used. 

‍

So you might be missing out on a GREAT candidate because of this restriction that they must be experienced in…

‍

Shopify

Magento

Etc…

‍

Now the next thing to determine is whether they must be coming from an agency background. Here I feel there is an importance because they will come in knowing how to manage multiple clients & budgets at a time.

‍

However, the most important skill to test them on is how strong are they at communication & problem-solving. They should be able to take scenarios or issues that they’ve never dealt with in their life & be able to explain how they would handle it. 

‍

All of this can be discovered by a thorough interview & giving them a test or exercises to do that are open ended to see how they handle such situations.

‍

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY… the answer they give should match how you would like that problem to be handled based on your business strategy. At the end of the day it’s also about whether or not you are a fit for each other, just like a marriage.

‍