Sustainable project management

Building sustainable processes with project management

I’m a policy analyst, a grant researcher, and a professional communicator… and at Written Progress, I wear another hat, too: I’m a Project Manager.

Sometimes our clients are surprised when I come to them with recommendations for improving their working process. After all, they came to Written Progress for support with developing a white paper or translating a research brief—not to be told how to organize their data or facilitate check-in meetings. But by the end of our work together, they tend to be really grateful that we implemented processes for the work to run successfully and efficiently. It makes sustainability an aspect of both the project’s objectives and the methods we use to meet them.

You can't see project management, but it changes everything.

I never set out to become Written Progress’ official Project Manager, but I had the experience and skills to step right into the role. It’s natural for me to optimize the behind-the-scenes processes of anything I work on. Getting to create and manage efficient work processes professional channels my energy perfectly.

Project management is an important part of everything that we do, and we wouldn’t be able to work with any client without effectively managing the people, product, and processes – both ours and the clients -- that get us to that final deliverable.

Our processes aren’t as outwardly straightforward as clients sometimes expect—the process of writing a document isn’t a straight line between point A and point B. There are checkpoints, feedback loops, revisions, updates, and deliverables from both sides. And with some projects, successful outcome require being flexible about the objectives. For example, if a client sets out to publish a research manuscript, we might not know factors like the target journal until partway through the scope of work.

Our clients set it and forget it

But if you’re our client, you probably don’t need (or want) to worry about all of that. Written Progress clients tend to prefer to “set it and forget it” rather than micromanage every decision. Unlike many freelancers who need to constant instruction, prompting, and reminders, we become the champion of our client’s goal. Not only are we self-sufficient, but we help our clients remember and prioritize their goals for themselves as well. We’ll share updates before you have to ask. So you can truly wipe that task off your to-do list.

That’s the nature of collaboration: our clients trust us to get them to where they want to be while accounting for all the variables that matter along the way.

Managing global projects

As a remote, multicultural, globally distributed team, our project management capacity has a particularly global nature. We’re very accustomed to using time zones to our advantage while managing stakeholders and clients around the globe. 

Our other superpower: working seamlessly across language barriers that individual freelancers can rarely scale. It’s remarkably unremarkable for Written Progress to represent clients to global communities and in-country stakeholders across continents --  literally speaking their language.

Project management is a super practical element of the work we do at Written Progress, but I see it as a profound aspect of how we deliver quality results for people like you who want to have a positive impact on the world. Plus it’s a way for me to support my own broader policy and research work.

Want to hear more?

Click here to schedule a call and start learning how we can use the toolbox of project management to accelerate your initiative and increase its impact.