Growing Pains is a medium sized company that is growing quickly.  They've doubled in size the last couple of years in a row and continue to see opportunities for growth.   Everything had been going well, but they've noticed that morale is dropping and attrition is climbing.  The future is bright so what's going wrong?

When companies grow, especially ones that grow quickly, a level of attrition is expected.  Some people work better in a smaller environment, no big deal.  For those who stay, it's important to make sure they are set up to be successful.  A PM can help in this situation by performing a process audit.  The audit can take the form of interviews, documentation review, system exploration, shadowing, or a number of data gathering techniques.

The focus should be in three areas:  workflow, process, and tools.

Workflow:

• What are the owners, actors, inputs, and outputs for the typical workflows?
• Where are the pain points?
• Does the workflow align with the goals of the business?

Process:

• Is there a process in place?
• Is it documented?
• Does the level of documentation meet the needs of the organization?
• Does the level of process meet the needs of the organization?

Tools:

• Are tools outdated/duplicated/redundant?
• Do complimentary systems communicate without requiring human intervention?
• Can information be extracted easily and at the level of detail required?

The result of a process audit should include an evaluation of the existing system, recommendations for improvement, and suggestions on how to implement those recommendations.  It's not as helpful to point out what's broken without also providing a way to fix it.

​Three's Company is a small (under 25 person) company who has been around for eight years and have an established product and user base.  Growth is good and the core team executing smoothly.  Another company has approached them and would like to engage in a joint venture to bring a new feature to market.  It's a great idea, they have a great team, so why would they need a PM?

• Vendor/Client Management -  Managing external partners takes a lot of effort and requires a different level of communication.  Bringing in someone specifically for this task will help keep everyone on the same page and provide a single point of contact for information.
• Existing Initiatives - You have things already in flight that need to keep moving forward.  A good PM can give the joint venture the focus it needs while helping your internal team figure out how it fits into the larger picture.
• Cost Savings - If the joint venture has a clear start and end, bringing someone in specifically for that project could save you money.  As the resource is beneficial to all parties, distribute the cost burden in the contract terms.

Having someone focused on your joint venture will make sure the project has the attention it needs, without overloading everyone else.  The level of communication and organization will give you confidence for a successful launch.

Hot Stuff is a three person startup comprised of three friends who have come up with a better idea than sliced bread.  They are on a shoestring budget and working out of a co-work space downtown.  They know their idea is cool so they want to get to market fast.  Code is being pushed out multiple times a day and MVP is right around the corner.   Everyone is in a state of excited exhaustion, but have they thought of everything?

Here are some areas that Hot Stuff may be neglecting:

• Market Research  - What is your target market?  What are their pain points?  Are you bringing the right features to market in a way that adds more value than your competitors?  
• The Big Picture - What is the product goal?  What are the use cases?  How will you monetize?  What is your target market?  How will you measure?  How does everything fit together?  How do you communicate about your product?
• Reality Check - Is your MVP actually viable?  If not, you could be missing your chance to build a loyal (or at least interested) user base.
• Product Evolution - Now that you have a product, where do you go from here?  What are users saying and how do you improve?  What does that roadmap look like and how do you get there?
• General Cohesion - Everyone is focused on their individual tasks, but who is making sure that everything is going to come together in the end?

If you can't afford/don't believe a PM is necessary at this stage, bringing in someone even part time will add value to your product and help keep the crazy in check.  A good PM will be thinking about the "what ifs" and looking three steps ahead to help you avoid becoming just another product lost in the noise.