Tips for your onsite project

I started my career as an IT Consultant with a firm based in the United Kingdom. It has been over 6 years now that I could feel the same kind of energy and zeal while facing the clients and suggesting them with viable solutions. It is always great to utilize your special set of skills like stakeholder management, people management and importantly time and resource management skills.

When you are onsite away from your team and in a different time zone, your management skills become paramount. While at work, I got a chance to interact with other consultants working for one of the best consulting firms. I got to learn a great deal about handling projects onsite and how to best conduct oneself while at a client site.

Dress professionally

Your first impression is your last impression and presentation matters the most. When I was informed about the travel, owing to limited amount of time in hand, I immediately researched on the culture of the country and the appropriate dressing style. When in doubt, stick to your formal pair of shirts, trousers, and blazers. As my fellow seniors had already traveled onsite for this project, I saved time by simply discussing all this with them and found my answers rather quickly.

Prepare well

Make sure you have spoken to all right stakeholders and team members who have been working on the project since the beginning. They will guide you best with details like most important doables and the exact expectations as a deliverable. Look into the documentation, the more you will look into the RFP document (Request for Proposal), emails, BRD (Business Requirements Document), the more knowledge and power you will have during your discussions with clients.

Align your team

It is imperative you know all the key team members who will be your sole point of contact ensuring timely project delivery. These people are crucial as they should exactly know the transparent status of conversations with the client. You should align two calls daily with your team. A call in the morning to get updates on recently completed tasks. You can also help them prioritize their tasks from your onsite discussions. Another call later in the evening is to update them about the current day’s discussions. This will also give you a window to get timelines on tasks suggested in the morning.

Keep your calm

There will surely be moments where you will be sitting in discussions with 10-12 client team members and they will deviate from the discussion agenda. It is you who have to wait and let them finish first before jumping on and going head-on with them. You will have the right answer but what matters most here – “Putting it rightly”. Initially, you might be looked upon as a low confident or less knowledgeable person but eventually, when you will communicate at the right time, you will gain your respect.

Speak up

Yes, you are not there to take everything upon yourself. Don’t forget that you are representing your firm and your team. Communicate with your seniors at Head Office and let them know the struggle areas. Balancing your inner peace and well being should be your priority. It is evitable that you will be working constantly coordinating

Punctuality

It is important to establish yourself as a reliable resource to gain the confidence of the client. The behavioral aspects of how you conduct yourself and if you value other’s time will not only help you achieve the client’s confidence, but also to lay a happy path for your other colleagues who will soon be joining you at the client site. It is best to keep reminding yourself that you represent your company at all times when you are on-site.

Fluent communication skills

Your fluency can fall flat due to a lack of knowledge in a specific knowledge area. You might take some time to come to this conclusion while holding your place on-site owing to a non-stop amount of work. The nature of work can vary as well, leaving you to depend on your management skills. The communication has two sides to it – one is verbal and the other one is to substantiate your verbal discussions i.e. The written skills. Keep a log of all the minutes of meetings to keep everyone informed.

Problem-solving

Preparing well and keeping your calm are the two stages which lay a strong foundation. You can only understand the problem statement in detail when you are mentally prepared to take it all in. Do understand, communication is a two-way process where you should wait for the other person to finish his statement. It is also seen as a key ingredient to build healthy client relationships.

Research about the company

Your research should not be restricted to the proposal document and the business requirements document. You should gather more insights about the company, its core domain, culture and most importantly the recent achievements. These facts will help you to support your arguments during the product module demonstrations. You will be able to give module training sessions on the usage of the product taking into account all these new scenarios. It will let the client know that you are in sync with the milestones achieved by the company.