Project management

by Heinrich Preuß

The task of managing something was particularly interesting to me when I was doing my "Referendariat" - a time when I was preparing to become a high school teacher. At first glance, a teacher's job and a manager's job don't have much in common, but for both, the most important thing is to organize how other people work. In our case now, it's also important to organize our own work.

I've enjoyed the technical component of being a data analyst so far, and I have to admit that I'm not as captivated by the "consultant stuff" as I am by Tableau and Alteryx. But to be able to work successfully, you do have to think about it.

I have learned that it is absolutely necessary to develop a customer perspective on the problem and possible solutions. Clarifying unclear points is much better here than interpreting vague demands. This is not necessarily intuitive for me, and it also taught me something that I hope I can apply to customer projects. Somehow, in most service jobs, I thought that the best people didn't need to ask too much because that would probably upset the customer. Now I know it's different as a data analyst because the outcome is much more important than the client's mood.

Another lesson was to scope carefully and not reach for goals that are unattainable. We have many points at which we can adjust our goals, and there is no shame in doing so. Likewise, there is no shame in seeing or understanding that a first, second or even third approach to the customer's problem may not be the best approach or simply not the approach the customer wanted.

So the law that the quickest connection between two points is a line does not apply to the process of a customer project or to working with customers in general. Sometimes we have to go back a little to move forward, and sometimes we even have to start from scratch - after all, the result should first and foremost satisfy the customer, and only secondarily ourselves.

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Heinrich Preuß

Mon 06 Feb 2023

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