4 signs you need a project manager

According to the Project Management Institute (PMI), project management is taking over how most organizations operate, even in fields like healthcare, where there’s been a 17% growth in demand for project managers. By 2027, it is estimated that 2.2 million project manager roles will need to be filled by employers. 

And the increase in demand makes sense. Not having a strong project management system in place adds up to a tremendous loss of dollars and resources, not just for organizations, but for the economies of entire nations. In the IT sector alone, Gallup reports a loss of $50 billion to $150 billion annually in the United States due to failed projects. In Europe, that number was €142 billion. 

No matter what business you’re in, bringing on a project manager will only help you work more efficiently, save time, money and resources. 

But if you’re still on the fence, here are four signs that you need a project manager. 

You’re feeling overwhelmed

If you’re not operating in a project-based system, you’re most likely operating in a task-based system. What’s the difference? A project is a collection of tasks dependent on three key resources: time, money and talent. Without project management, you’re simply running down a to-do list of independent tasks (with little to no management of resources) that could have been done more efficiently grouped within a project.

Here’s an example to illustrate. Planning a wedding isn’t a task—it’s a project. There’s a long list of tasks that need to be accomplished within a certain time frame and a certain budget with key people in mind. 

Let’s say you wanted to book a particular wedding photographer. In a task-based world, you’d look at your to-do list that day and say, “I’m going to book that photographer today.” Unfortunately, you waited until a week before the wedding and now the photographer is already booked. You frantically scramble to find a photographer in time for the wedding—posting to social media, calling friends—to no avail.

But if you had a project manager on your team, or at least a project manager mindset, you would have booked your top pick photographer a year in advance, taking into consideration the time constraint on that task. The wedding planning project would be a lot less overwhelming and a whole lot more successful. 

You don’t know where you’re at

If you’re managing tasks without a system in place, it’s the equivalent of maintaining spending without a budget. It’s really hard because you're not tracking anything. Trying to get a feel for how different members of your team are progressing on a certain project becomes impossible. You end up relying on gut instinct instead of reality—which is not the way to go if you want a project to be successful.

With a task-based system, there’s a constant struggle to understand where you’re at. You feel like you’re always getting emails after the fact that things are late, and by that time, there’s not much you can do about it.

With a project manager, however, even if you have a portfolio of 20 people running 20 different projects, you’ll know when each one is finishing, and you’ll understand the likelihood of each one finishing on target. You’ll also know what critical activities need to go right, so you can focus your energy there. Expectations will be set for people on your team and resources will be managed every step of the way. 

There’s a lack of communication between teams

Without a project manager, it is very likely that key members of your team aren’t talking to each other, and that can be a huge strain on resources. 

Of course, you’ll assume they’re in close communication but you’d be amazed to find out that most of the time, it’s not happening. 

I’ve seen people on two different sides of the floor that were on the same project that never once spoke face-to-face. They’ll send a spreadsheet over the internet and feel like there’s no need for a conversation. It’s one of the most baffling human tendencies and it is frighteningly common for project managers to deal with. 

A project manager makes sure that these conversations happen, and serves as a bridge between different members of a team, and even different parts of an organization. 

Let’s say there was a project to build a door. The wood-cutting person didn’t discuss with the doorknob specialist where the holes in the frame should go to accommodate the doorknob. He just puts it where he thinks is best and passes it along to the doorknob guy.

Of course, the doorknob guy is furious because the whole door needs to be scrapped and done again, because the placement wasn’t correct.

If a project manager had been in the picture, he or she would have made sure this conversation took place before any work began. The door could have been saved as well as time lost on the scrapped door. Had the project been underway to build 100,000 doors, think of the huge cost of starting from scratch. 

This type of communication is so simple. But without project managers, it usually doesn’t happen. 

Your projects aren’t getting more efficient over time 

If your team has projects with similar scope, it should become more efficient every time. If that’s not happening, you’re in desperate need of a project manager.

A project manager would trace the whole schedule, show why certain things are late or over budget, explain why and come up with solutions so these issues don’t happen again.

You seek to become better and better at every project you do. If you don’t have that system in place, everything will become chaotic and worsen rather than improve. 

With projects, your team members should also perform more quickly each time. Maybe you have new people coming onto the project for each go around? From a project management perspective, the time it takes to onboard a new team member might be inefficient. Perhaps that’s something for your organization to avoid. Suggestions like these will be made by a project manager on your team, ensuring that every project is set up for maximum success.

So are you finally ready to hire a project manager? If this article didn’t convince you, the simple fact that your business is losing money every second without one should be motivation enough. 

Of course, being a project manager, I’m a bit biased. What are your thoughts on hiring project managers for your team? Tell me in the comments below or tweet @theomarproject on Twitter.