Day Three: After a horrible first half of the week, I knew I needed to pick it up in the second half. Wednesday morning, I had my final meeting with the stakeholder before our presentation on Friday. My plan for this meeting was to give the stakeholder a draft of what I thought the final product would look like at the end of the week. I did this using Excalidraw to draft out a dashboard that would be easy for the stakeholder to visualize what I was thinking. Show, don't tell. Due to the visual aspect of Excalidraw, the stakeholder was able to pick out the parts he liked, the points he didn't like, and the parts he wanted to see in the final product. This feedback is what I would base decisions on for the rest of the project. The meeting wrapped up, and I thanked the stakeholder for their time.
Now that I know, for sure, what the client wants from us, I was finally able to make decisions with some confidence and moxie behind them. This is when I finally realized how important it is to make decisions fast when being a project manager. My team was able to make substantial strides in their work because I made a firm decision and stood by that decision when they asked questions about it. In prior days, I fumbled under the questions of my team because I was uncertain of my decision-making skills. With this change, we were now in a position to finish on time.
Day Four: The main goal for day 4 was for everyone to finish a minimum viable product by lunch. We had a dry run of our presentation at 2:30 that day, and although I knew we wouldn't have everything coordinated by then, or be rehearsed by then, I thought that we would have a rough draft of the dashboards to present to the sales team. Unfortunately, as time went on, I began to realize that my team wouldn't be ready in time for the dry run. I made the decision to not change the scope of the project to make it in time for the dry run. My reasoning: the dry run was just a rehearsal, and I wasn't going to hurt the overall project to time crunch for a rehearsal. The dry run came, and the sales team saw some unfinished dashboards. I saw the worried expressions on their faces, and it worried me, but this time I felt confident in the decision I made, and I believed that my team would be done for the presentations tomorrow.
Day Five: It's presentation day! I have never been more nervous for a presentation. I spent the morning telling my team to make final touches to their dashboards. As for me, I took the time to rehearse the presentation one more time to get feedback on it. This helped me practice refining my presentation and improved my vernacular when talking to a client. I would tell you how the presentation went, but honestly, I was completely running on instinct and have no recollection of it, for better or for worse. The thing I remember is that the client loved the presentation and loved how we transformed their dashboards. I was thanked by the sales team for my performance, and the week was over.
Conclusion: Although the week was stressful and hectic, overall, I had a good experience. I learned many things, like making a decision and defending it, creating visuals for clients to see what I am talking about or questioning, and how to present more professionally. I have a lot more to learn in my time as a consultant, and I'm excited to work with my next client.