Jen Leech, (left) and Poornima Vijayashanker, Founder of (right) VP of Engineering at Truss Femgineer Interview with Jen Leech VP of Engineering at Truss While it’s fall and things are slowly wrapping up for the year, other people are just getting started on major projects, like one of my readers Carlo. Carlo wrote in recently and said: Poornima, After leading a team of 3 for the past year and managing a number of small projects, I worked up the courage to ask my boss to let me lead a BIG project and it finally happened! I followed a lot of the advice you gave to Ada in this post about listing my accomplishments to show why I was capable, and being clear about what I wanted. Thanks a lot to you and Ada for sharing it! My boss and I sat down last month to discuss the parameters of the project. As we were talking I got a little concerned, because there is a limited budget, resources, and tight deadline: the end of the year. I remember you talking about how it could take a year to complete a project , but I just don’t have that luxury. I’ve gotta deliver! It’s hard to stay calm when there is so much at stake. I’ve noticed that at times I’m creating unnecessary drama, and I’ve noticed that when some teammates throw out ideas to improve the project they get shot down. Would be great to get some pointers from you on how to stay calm, coach teams, and successfully deliver your first high stakes project? Sincerely,Carlo Well kudos to Carlo and anyone reading who just got their first high stakes project! Are you excited? Maybe a little nervous? Or maybe you’re like Carlo — really nervous because you need to deliver on a tight deadline, and there is a lot on the line like your relationship with customers, revenue, and most importantly your job! Fear not because all this month on , we’re going to be tackling the topic of how to manage your first high-stakes project. Build In today’s episode, I’m joined by Jen Leech who is a VP of Engineering at . Jen and I dig into some valuable strategies that will address and alleviate your anxieties around managing your first high-stakes project. Though our examples are based on software projects, much of the advice applies to really any type of project. So tune in to learn: Truss Two valuable rules that will save you from concocting stories and creating unnecessary drama around a project. How to prevent ideas from being shot down instantly, and instead share them in a way that will pique your teammate’s curiosity and foster an effective dialogue around them. Once you’re done watching the episode, tell us when was the last time you managed a high-stakes project and what were some of the ground rules that you set either for yourself or for your team? Let us know in the comments below, because Jen, Carlo, and I would love to learn from you! Listen to the episode on iTunes! . You can listen to this episode of on iTunes Build Enjoyed this episode and want to watch more? Help others enjoy it too by hitting the 👏🏽 ! And . subscribe to our YouTube channel to receive additional episodes Check out these additional resources on project management: Why It Can Take A Year To Complete ONE Project Deadlines That Are Doomed From The Beginning Build is produced as a partnership between Femgineer and Pivotal Tracker . San Francisco video production by StartMotionMEDIA .
