Interview guest: Zhang Yusen
Career Experience:
2018-present: A scientific research institute in Shanghai, as a project management engineer
2015-2018: A test engineer at a shanghai equipment testing institute
Qinghui Learning Experience:
Qinghui PMP1812 Shanghai Hongqiao class students
Workplace motto:
Mo treats the reflection of the lake as a star in the night sky
Project keywords:
Communication, Stakeholders, Effectiveness, Compounding Capabilities, Planning, Project Management, Product Management, Business Analytics
Lifestyle Labels and Hobbies:
Music, games
Project people stories
Zhang Yusen is a project management engineer, his main work is on the one hand for the technology company, combined with the company's business direction and field to declare government projects to obtain relevant qualifications and resources; on the other hand, he is responsible for the project management related to the construction of the laboratory, involving controlling the progress of the project, cooperating with financial and procurement personnel to carry out project declaration and other work.
In fact, before becoming a project management engineer, Zhang Yusen was a test engineer. After considering objective factors and personal preferences, he chose to try a new direction and become a project management engineer. The shift from technology to management was a great opportunity for him to grow. Because unlike the previous work, the test will have strict and clear standards, can clearly know the quality of the work completed, and the management work is more focused on the individual's logical combing ability and the management communication ability of the stakeholders. So while choosing to try, he also faced new challenges. Fortunately, he did not retreat from difficulties, but bravely moved forward and tried to solve these problems on the road of continuous learning. I believe that he can overcome these problems and usher in another transformation and growth of his workplace.
▲Screenshot of Zhang Yusen's company promotional video
The key to doing a good job: understanding the goals and demands of stakeholders
Zhang Yusen's current career trajectory follows that of a technician– a project assistant – a prospective project lead. In project management, he continues to gain experience and gradually develop a deeper understanding of the internal environment. After learning project management theory in work practice and systematically, he found that "projects are unique and temporary, work is everywhere projects, and where there are projects, there are stakeholders." As a PM, the biggest experience is to understand the goals and demands of the stakeholders and combine them with their own goals, which is the key to doing a good job."
Plan and then move, project management from the perspective of requirements and plans
As the saying goes, plan and then move. Affected by PMP and PBA, Zhang Yusen's working style is different from others. He usually thinks in his project management work from the following two points:
1. Demand analysis
Greater attention is paid to the effectiveness of work, with an emphasis on the effectiveness of addressing specific problems and programmes, rather than simply delivering and proposing programmes in accordance with standards. Otherwise, there will be cases where there is a discrepancy with reality, where the solution is not optimal, or where the problem is not really solved.
He believes that taking over a project or a piece of work should clearly distinguish between the real needs of the leader and the solution that the leader submits that he thinks is feasible. If the work is just to focus on the solution provided by the leader and execute it step by step, without considering the outcome, it may not have any practical effect in the end. But if you want to make a substantial contribution, you can pay attention to the needs of leaders from a deep level and design solutions that meet real needs in order to reflect the value of your work. And the need for leadership may come from his solutions to higher-level problems.
Not only that, but when working, you can also learn from the PBA (business analyst) idea: first anchor the needs, after fully identifying the needs of stakeholders and resources and other conditions, as far as possible to meet the needs of higher priorities, give optional solutions, do a good job of demonstration, analyze the advantages and disadvantages of each program, and ask the leader to make decisions and correct before carrying out relevant work.
2. Plan making
Planning determines the different granularities of the plan based on different project lifecycles. Zhang Yusen believes that when conditions permit, the ideal state is that a plan made by a genius, even if executed by a stupid person, can still achieve the goal. Genius and stupidity here can refer to a person or a team, in the planning stage to make the workflow as "fooled" as possible, members can spend less time and energy on "coping with management requirements", in order to use their expertise more. In this way, we can concentrate on the professional field and gradually make invisible knowledge explicit, so as to better reduce the probability of error in the standardized process, and even lay a good foundation for the digitization of some work.
Strive to become a compound ability in line with the attributes of the industry
From testing, equipment management to internal testing work, Zhang Yusen will use project management tools, product management tools and so on. These positions and fields are very different, and if you just blindly copy the book-based process and do not understand the knowledge learned thoroughly, it will make the work ineffective. Therefore, in his actual work, he advocates becoming a "compound ability person in line with the attributes of the industry". So in what ways should we improve ourselves and make ourselves such a compound ability? In simple terms, it can be improved from the following four aspects:
1. Strengthen familiarity with internal processes and internal culture
2. Strengthen the understanding of industry information
3. Strengthen the understanding of the technical field
4. Strengthen the study of external knowledge
Learn and explore these things further, introduce relevant thinking, choose the right tools to tailor the application, and build a framework understanding based on the functional requirements of your field, and you may soon have progress.
The guiding significance of PMP theory in practical work
Do not ignore the attention paid to organizational process assets, internal and external business environments, and the emphasis on "tailoring" in the PMP system. Specifically, the most instructive significance of PMP theory for Zhang Yusen's practical work is these three aspects:
1. Idealize benchmarks and solution libraries
PMP provided an idealized benchmark and solution library for him who was new to project management at the time, providing a higher level of goal guidance for the improvement of project management work. PMP as a solution library, also like a large supermarket, when he needs some tools or problem-solving ideas in the process of work, he can find it here.
2. Practice essence and summary refinement
PMP is a summary of the essence of project management practices in various industries. People who have systematically studied the system have a certain understanding of its core concepts and common problem solving logic, and if they can be integrated into their own thinking and tailored, they can be applied to a wider range. (However, before using it, you need to have a correct understanding of the theoretical basis, and do not use it in a date-swallowing manner.) ）
3. The management concept system is the basis for receiving various management concepts
Whether it is project management, product development or business value analysis, if there is no basis for systematic learning, it is easy to confuse the concepts and lead to misunderstanding by directly looking at many masters or popular works. For example, before systematically learning the project management system, you may not be able to fundamentally understand the difference between "needs" and "needs", just as you may understand the difference between questions and promises after understanding "problems" translated into English. Deviations in the comprehension of basic academic vocabulary, from words to sentences and from sentences to paragraphs, can lead to a misunderstanding of the whole knowledge and to incorrectly guide work and learning.
▲Zhang Yusen Qinghui classroom photo
"Don't treat the reflection of the lake as a star in the night sky" is Zhang Yusen's workplace motto, which is similar to the relationship between solutions and needs mentioned earlier. In fact, it is necessary to see the essence through the phenomenon, not to be confused by the form of performance, and to have insight into the real needs behind it, in order to have a fundamental understanding of the work. I hope that Zhang Yusen can continue to maintain this project management thinking and belief in the future, and become a better project manager as soon as possible.