Various creative efforts go into any digital project. Typically, this includes:

• Research
• UX Design
• Development

Although your digital project will likely involve specialists in each of these key areas, there is another person who plays a critical role in bringing all of the parts together: the Digital Project Manager (often referred to simply as a “PM”).

PMs are critical to choosing and following the right approach for running a project. With their deep knowledge of the management approaches and their proficiency at applying them, PMs are leaders essential to hitting deadlines, maintaining budgets, understanding constraints, and delivering a high-quality piece of software or other digital product.

What Role Do Project Managers Play?

Project managers take on the challenge of managing what typically goes unseen in a digital project, including:

• Maintaining a project vision that is flexible, yet focused
• Managing cohesive collaboration across teams with varying skill sets/personalities/approaches to their work
• Streamlining communication across teams, stakeholders, business departments, etc.
• Monitoring overall project health, where a lack of it negatively impacts the team’s creative output, ability to hit deadlines, and ability to push fast to finish strong.

A PM helps mitigate risk by establishing a strong product vision upfront, leading to a final deliverable that meets expectations and is created on time and on budget. Whatever project management method that’s right for your project, the project manager is responsible for helping to establish and maintain this vision.

Build the Right Product, then Build the Product Right

PMs help raise a project from the ground level – effectively and efficiently – as different teams touch the project at different stages. They are typically involved from start to finish, helping guide a product toward a successful launch and maintaining a cohesive vision along the way.

But how do you ensure that the vision is accurate and the right product is being created? You bring in a PM whose role is helping the team to both:

1. Build the right product and
2. Build the product right. 

The key is involving a PM from the outset. Building the right product begins with establishing a shared understanding of it. The product can’t be built right without this cohesive vision. The PM is the translator, the quality control expert, and the conduit between teams, ensuring that this vision is maintained at every stage of the project lifecycle.