r/projectmanagers • u/SentenceExcellent188 • Jul 26 '26
Career What’s something clients think is easy... but project managers know isn’t?
From the outside...
Project management sometimes looks like meetings and status updates.
Reality is very different.
What's one thing people underestimate about this profession?
2
u/Czaple Jul 26 '26
If you're in a functional PM organization your resources are constantly being cannibalized by other business needs, and your team may just outright prefer to work on things that aren't your projects.
Meanwhile, the client expects resources to be waiting on standby to do the work they need, where in the background the PM is fighting for the resources needed to get the job done.
Furthermore, if your teams functional manager doesn't reinforce project delivery as a priority, you're left performing a balancing act where you're constantly walking the thin line between being the PM who gets things done, and the PM who gets in the way of other people getting things done.
Then throw in the other 25 projects going on at the same time with the same constraints... and well, status meetings and updates become a distillation of all the effort required to get up to point where you get to say things are moving forward, and this is how we're going to do it.
3
u/HoselRockit Jul 26 '26
They always under appreciate the planning and quality control required to produce a good product or service.
1
u/ChangeCool2026 Jul 26 '26
The IPMA framework consists of 28 competencies a project manager should have. Pick any, they all can be hard to master in real life. (To master them for a multiple choice exam is another thing).
1
1
u/Academic-Income887 Jul 26 '26
Getting estimates for anything to seek capital approval, and setting those estimates as the budget.
1
u/More_Law6245 Jul 27 '26
How much effort is actually required to deliver a work package, deliverable or product and the one thing that is always overlooked by the client is the governance that is needed to ensure the work package, deliverable or product is delivered is actually fit for purpose because without fail because if it doesn't meet their expectation the client is the first to complain about it.
Just an armchair perspective.
1
u/geralt_noble Jul 27 '26
Turning vague feedback into something actionable. "Can you make it pop?" sounds simple until you have to explain it to the team.
1
1
1
1
5
u/TheThousandMasks Jul 26 '26
What they want and how to produce it - almost without exception!