In this article, we’re going to talk about the skills that make a successful digitization project leader. You may be thinking this means the actual project manager, the person overseeing the project, but we’re going to be talking about your account executive. This is the salesperson who is on the front line with you, working on your scope of work, translating that information to the project team, and being the main point of contact and communication throughout the project. Essentially, having someone who can do this job well is crucial; otherwise, you may be left in the dark, things might be missed, and the project may not turn out well. Our goal is a successful project, so these are the skills you should look for.

Communication Skills: Bridging Gaps Between Stakeholders

The first skill is communication, one of the most important skills we’ll talk about. If you can’t communicate properly, it’s hard for clients to feel comfortable with the project and its progress. Different types of communication include clarifying expectations and goals—basically, ensuring that the results you want to achieve are what your project leader understands. This helps craft the right scope of work to ensure proper execution. On the flip side, your project leader must communicate their expectations of you and what you’ll need to do during the project. This isn’t just what the scanning company does for you, but what you’ll need to provide, such as responding in a timely manner, ensuring all pertinent information is available, and approving things when required. Timelines must be met. It’s not a one-sided project; both parties need to work together for success.

Retro style mouth talking into ear

Providing consistent updates is also essential. Even if there’s good communication before starting a project, you want to be kept in the loop once the project begins. You should be aware of the status, timeline, and other relevant details. It wouldn’t be pleasant to start a major scanning project only to be left in the dark until you hear it’s done. That’s not ideal. You want consistent updates—they don’t have to be daily or multiple times a day. Perhaps once a week or every two weeks, depending on the project size, scope, and timeline. But essentially, you want updates to stay informed about what’s going on.

Lastly, communication needs to occur not only between you and your project leader but also between the project leader and their personnel at the scanning company. While you’ll have face-to-face discussions with your account executive, what you discuss must be communicated back to the project execution team—the operations folks at the scanning company running the project. In turn, if something arises during the project, you may not hear directly from the software team. Instead, they pass it on to your project leader, who should then communicate it to you for discussion, adjustments, and any necessary changes. Communication functions like a hub and spoke, where your project leader acts as the center, ensuring information flows to and through them, reaching all the different stakeholders.

Problem-Solving Ability: Navigating Challenges with Precision

The next skill is problem-solving ability. This skill includes anticipating potential pitfalls and identifying and mitigating risks early such as resource requirements or data compatibility issues. These are concerns that you may not initially think of, but a seasoned leader has encountered time and time again.

Hands putting puzzle pieces together

Problem-solving also involves creativity in managing the project. This means addressing resource constraints, which could include budget limits on your side, capacity or personnel restraints on the scanning company’s side, or even technological resources such as new code that may need to be developed for your specific request. This isn’t to say that your project leader—whether it’s an account executive or a salesperson—needs to know exactly how to perform each of these tasks, such as coding, assigning personnel, or managing timelines. However, they do need to recognize these as obstacles or potential issues and effectively communicate with their team internally to ensure your project is executed properly.

Industry Knowledge: Understanding Unique Client Needs

Industry knowledge is often a skill taken for granted, but many project leaders may lack it. The key to industry knowledge is that a project leader can tailor a solution to your specific needs based on their experience with similar clients and projects. Depending on your industry, there may be certain regulations or compliance guidelines you must follow, which you may not even be aware of. However, because they have worked with many clients in the same industry, they may have insights that they can apply to your project.

Group of workers collaborating on a project

In addition to industry knowledge, material knowledge is crucial. If you’re working with something like microfilm, you want someone who has handled many microfilm projects. They can apply their experience to ensure your project meets or exceeds expectations, not just what you initially envision. Put simply, you don’t know what you don’t know, and you expect your project leader to fill those gaps, offering recommendations and solutions based on prior experience and their understanding of your project type. This knowledge helps you avoid pitfalls and ensures a smooth execution. While it’s important to meet the requirements, lean on project leaders to ask, “What am I missing?” and “What do I need to do to make this successful?”

Project Management: Leading Teams with Vision and Efficiency

Project management, in this sense, doesn’t mean an actual project manager who’s creating the project workflow, pulling the exceptions, and fixing things—basically running the actual scanning project to ensure all the steps are hit. Instead, project management reflects a higher-level vision by your project leader, who’s overseeing all the different aspects of it. Much like communication, they need to lead different teams and interact with the various stakeholders in the project with deftness, having the ability to move between these different parties and speak their specific “language.” This ensures that communication is on point and the project is executed properly.

Business man with clasped hands looking at a chess board

Part of the skill is prioritizing tasks and deadlines for the specific project. Your project leader may not actually be responsible for creating the timelines and assigning resources for the actual scanning or processing of the project. However, during the initial phases of interaction with you and in creating the scope of work, they can push for certain deadlines and secure confirmations and guarantees from their team. This ensures that milestones are met on a higher scale, even if they aren’t involved in the day-to-day operations.  

Additionally, as we previously mentioned regarding communication, they should be monitoring the project health regularly. Ideally, this would be done daily, every other day, or at least on a weekly basis. This frequent oversight keeps them aware of the project’s status, allowing them to communicate updates to you effectively. They can manage the project from their vantage point without getting too bogged down in the weeds of the actual execution side.

In Closing

Leading a digitization project is about more than just understanding technology or scope; it’s about leveraging multiple skills and coordinating various aspects of the project to create a unified success. From effective communication and attention to detail to problem-solving and general management, the right leader can create a seamless project.

Next Steps

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Further Reading

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Digitization is scanning records from analog to digital. But do you know what goes on behind the scenes? See how we execute digitization projects and make sure yours is a success.

5 Vetting Questions For A Document Scanning Service
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