A good project manager prioritizes understanding goals and effective communication with stakeholders, dedicating over 40% of their time to these tasks and less than 20% to administration. They are equipped with answers to critical questions regarding project goals, timelines, and stakeholder support, ensuring the project aligns with the customer's needs. The document emphasizes the importance of strategic questioning and management to avoid delivering the wrong solution despite meeting timelines and budgets.

2. A good Project Manager can tell you that you will get what it is you want. A
good Project Manager knows when it will be delivered and how much it will
cost, but they also understand the goal and deliver to that, instead of
delivering mindlessly to some long forgotten specification.
A good Project Manager spends more than 40% of their time understanding
what it is that is required, even if the customer isn’t very good at explaining
that. A good Project Manager spends more than 40% of their time
communicating with all the stakeholders. A good Project Manager spends less
than 20% of their time dealing with pure administration.
A good Project Manager has an answer to all these questions, even before you
didn’t ask them.

3. 1. Tell me about the problem that the customer wants to solve and who it
affects?
2. How do those most affected describe the problem?
3. How do those most affected describe the solution?

4. 4. Does the project have any real deadlines? As in, are their regulatory or
event-based dates ahead that are outside the scope of this project?
5. What are the milestones and the dates the customer expects (or maybe
wants)?
6. What are you doing to ensure the phasing of the project is appropriate for
the customer?

5. 7. How much support does this have at the executive level within the
customer?
8. What are you doing to maintain or improve that level of support?
9. What obstacles are in the way of moving the project forward? Who can
help?
10. What do you know about the decision-making process at the customer,
and what are you doing to influence that?

6. 11. What are the agreed measures of success for the project?
12. How are you reporting these measurements and to whom?
13. What are you doing to ensure the scope of the project is appropriate
for the customer?
14. What are you doing to put in place a measurement model for after the
project is complete?

7. 15. What does what they have now look like?
16. What other options did they evaluate?
17. Why did they turn the other options down?

8. 18. What is your value proposition for the customer for this project, and why
do you think that is better than the current one?
19. What is included in the proposed solution that you offered, and why do
you think that will help?
20. What are you doing to start the next project, to move the solution ahead
to fulfill complete vision?

9. Are your Project Managers asking the right questions?
Do you get the results you want, or is the wrong solution delivered but on time and
on budget?
Is too much time spend on administration, and not enough on value and outcomes?
We can help you see the path ahead, cycle quicker and achieve earlier.
Call us on (503) 297 5128 or email us at contact@mindfulinsights.com