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A typical workday - Manager
7:30am |
Breakfast with colleague. Refreshed after a relaxing weekend, we brainstorm deployment challenges at a large client. We identify the source of complexity as inconsistent reports across divisions and I commit to a client discussion to propose a common template. Good eggs. |
9am |
Stand up meeting with the US team. I learn about each of the client project priorities and progress from the prior week. One consultant learns about the existence of a reusable training presentation from a UK project; 1 day saved. We do need to improve our inter office knowledge management processes. Apart from that everyone has a clear picture of the priorities and deadlines. Someone interjects a cheesy optimization joke. |
10am |
Internal call to discuss the HR budget and brainstorm technology integration options. |
11am |
Finally review my own emails and priorities. Immediately respond to 2 contract revisions for a new client, and mark a third for follow-up tomorrow on client site … need to suggest a reduced services scope. Quickly skim software development conversations; need to stay sharp for client discussions. Revisit our project demand in light of the confirmed sale last week; this re-affirms the intuition that we are going to be over-stretched on resources next month. Phone call … come back to this later. |
11:15am |
Call from senior consultant regarding his data investigation and proposed product list. This has huge potential so this is worth the distraction. He talks me through the new findings, then we discuss the market potential of each option. While the details are still in flux, the priority of next steps is becoming clear. He emails around some summary thoughts on the priorities, suggested next steps, and request the allocation of 1 FTE to construct the product and sales material. I’ll follow this up in next week’s board meeting. |
12pm |
Lunchtime. Although we start on politics, the topic of discussion drifts towards the merits of support vector machines and trends in parallel processing. They’re an interested bunch … although we inevitably attract confused looks by the swarms of bankers in our office block. |
1pm |
Back to the resource question. We are always recruiting; however we clearly need to re-think our project scope to meet these deadlines. I call each project manager to apply some delicate pressure and see if more can be done faster with fewer resources … they’re getting pretty good at anticipating these questions so it turns out there isn’t much obvious room to move. We discuss the potential project levers and agree on a risk mitigation strategy; we will have to reduce the scope on 1 project by removing a few component models from the solution. I leave a message with the client to confirm this won’t affect the pilot process. Meanwhile the managers agree to revisit after spending next week pushing for the more complete solution. |
2pm |
Final round interview … time to extend an offer. |
3pm |
Respond to 2 voicemails … 1 from client seeking a new license price, and 1 from consultant seeking feedback on performance delivering a recent presentation |
3:30pm |
Polish some slides for final pitch next week. It’s looking promising. Forward to other directors and client sponsor to solicit feedback. |
4:30pm |
Head home early, head for a run. Tomorrow will be an early start at a client site a few hours away. Out for dinner with friends. |
9pm |
Check the blackberry… my product development and project proposals have generated quite the email thread back in Australia. Arrange a spontaneous conference call to discuss. While I have them, we agree on the recruiting offer and on manager allocations for the new project. |
9:30pm |
Call lead engineer to learn about software development and hiring status. |
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