{"id":17921,"date":"2018-02-13T12:30:19","date_gmt":"2018-02-13T12:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/?p=17921"},"modified":"2018-02-13T12:30:19","modified_gmt":"2018-02-13T12:30:19","slug":"12-common-digital-project-management-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/12-common-digital-project-management-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them\/","title":{"rendered":"12 common digital project management mistakes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Digital project managers face many challenges. If you don\u2019t get projects right and make mistakes, they can have significant knock-on effects, which could lead to the projects spiralling out of control. They could take a lot longer, run well over budget, or even fail altogether.<\/p>\n<p>Digital project managers are the first port of call for the many different parties involved. Keeping all of them happy, while creating a successful product, is a difficult balancing act. Every project is different, of course, and there are many different aspects to consider but we can analyse and learn from some common themes. The benefits are enormous: happier teams, better products, happier clients and customers, and ultimately more profit.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve talked to some leading project managers around the world to find out what kind of common mistakes they see DPMs make regularly and how to avoid them.<\/p>\n<h2>1. Lack of prioritisation<\/h2>\n<p>One of the main issues \u2014 which is being referred to throughout the article \u2014 is not prioritising tasks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs project managers, we can find ourselves feeling totally overwhelmed because we\u2019re being pulled in too many directions,\u201d explains Ben Aston, founder of resource website <a href=\"https:\/\/thedigitalprojectmanager.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Digital Project Manager<\/a>. \u201cIt feels like there\u2019s too much on our plate and no way to keep everyone happy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAccept you can\u2019t make everyone happy. Understand that even though something seems urgent, it doesn\u2019t make it necessarily important. You can be incredibly busy, running around doing urgent but pretty unimportant things all day. So stop and ask yourself, what\u2019s the impact of me not doing this urgent thing right now?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ben also suggests making sure you\u2019re scheduling time to do the things on your project that are really important. \u201cThe estimate the client needs, the project reconciliation, or the brief the team needs to get started \u2014 they are the kinds of things that are really critical to your project\u2019s success.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>The Priority Matrix<\/h3>\n<p>\u201cTry making a priority matrix of classifying by urgent and important. Start every day reviewing your priority list. Schedule time for the urgent but unimportant work like checking in with your team, reading and answering emails, answering the phone. Try to complete these tasks all at once at a set time during the day to help minimise the time it takes to return back to the important tasks. But most importantly, schedule time to do your important but not urgent work, if you don\u2019t get to it, then everything will start falling apart.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a short video on understanding <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eisenhower.me\/eisenhower-matrix\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the Eisenhower matrix<\/a>, a popular prioritisation tool:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tT89OZ7TNwc?rel=0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>2. Not keeping up<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cA big mistake that many project managers make is not keeping up with, and communicating important project details to their team and clients or stakeholders,\u201d points out digital project management consultant <a href=\"http:\/\/brettharned.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Brett Harned<\/a>, author of <a href=\"http:\/\/rosenfeldmedia.com\/books\/project-management-for-humans\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Project Management for Humans<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is so much that can happen on a project from one day to the next that it can be tough to keep up with all of the changes, assignments, and next steps. When you let those details go, things get crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Status reports<\/h3>\n<p>Brett suggests making yourself accountable to communicating details on a regular basis. He recommends status reports as a \u201csimple, routine way to communicate what has happened on the project since the last report, what will happen next, associated to-dos per team member, upcoming milestones, deliverables, and meetings, and a list of potential risks, blockers, or issues.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That way, Brett argues, PMs remain accountable to keeping up with the details \u2014 and updating important project docs like project and resourcing plans \u2014 and ensuring everything is out in the open.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s also always a good practice to follow-up the delivery of the status report with a short call or meeting to walk through it,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s just too easy for any team member or client to ignore the report and miss a critical detail that could lead to more problems.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>3. Overplanning your day<\/h2>\n<p>Project managers need to be careful to not let the stress take over.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rachaelashah\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rachael Shah<\/a>, project manager at <a href=\"https:\/\/reasondigital.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Reason Digital<\/a> in Manchester, recommends reassessing the top three non-negotiable tasks you have to do each day and making sure you block out time for them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt may seem obvious but if you add an item to your diary, it means you\u2019re more likely to follow through with it,\u201d she explains. \u201cAnother simple technique is to always leave time available for the unplanned tasks that can sideline your day. We\u2019ve all been there \u2014 we have too many back-to-back meetings booked in, and then when something goes wrong, the whole day goes to pot! I block out time after a meeting to ensure I have time to work on follow-up tasks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Also ensure you take breaks and don\u2019t work right through lunch.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need to stop!,\u201d Rachael warns. \u201cScience tells us that it\u2019s counterproductive to sit and work constantly without a rest. Book time into your calendar for regular lunch slots and commit to going out with a colleague. You&#8217;ll get better insights into how the team is doing and build relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>4. Getting sidetracked<\/h2>\n<p>Often digital projects are affected by people wanting \u2018fancy\u2019 features that look nice but that are not part of the core requirements, as education content developer <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/_leonbrown\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Leon Brown<\/a> has discovered.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe problem is that the team can end up spending too much of the available time on these features without completing the must-have features,\u201d he argues.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI once worked on a project, and the designer insisted that I make minor features absolutely perfect. He had me spend an entire afternoon making sure that some statistics bar was displayed with curved edges across all browsers, when the same thing could have been achieved in just a couple of minutes if they had used straight edges. The company was wondering why they had run out of budget by the end of the project!\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>The Parking List<\/h3>\n<p>As in Leon\u2019s case, projects can include very vocal people who will do everything they can to get their non-critical features implemented.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA good solution is the use of a parking list \u2014 or <a href=\"https:\/\/leankit.com\/learn\/kanban\/kanban-board\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kanban board<\/a>, where ideas can be placed and picked up in the order that suits developers. The advantage is that less critical features can be left until later, if the time and budget allows for it, so that vocal people don&#8217;t have to be tackled head on if their requests can\u2019t be implemented.\u201d<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-17923\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/productmanagement-kanban.jpg\" alt=\"An example of a three-column Kanban board for product management\" width=\"650\" height=\"328\" \/><br \/>\nA physical Kanban board with a basic, three-step workflow<\/p>\n<h2>5. Not listening<\/h2>\n<p>Unfortunately, bad managers have a habit of only listening to what they want to hear, Leon finds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s not good for developers to be put into a position where they warn against issues such as how a certain feature poses a risk or that the target delivery date is unrealistic \u2014 and then to have their advice ignored,\u201d he warns and points to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a comedy sketch<\/a> by way of an example.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is an especially common scenario in creative projects when managers don&#8217;t have a technical background. Bad management focuses on getting the developers to say \u2018yes, it&#8217;ll be done\u2019, regardless of any warnings that are given to a certain feature being impossible or a high risk.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Leon argues that agile development helps but that the problem lies with managers who need to understand how to be really agile. \u201cA lot of people try to use the old waterfall model and dress it up as agile development \u2014 that&#8217;s absolutely the wrong way to go about things,\u201d he cautions.<\/p>\n<h2>6. Talking to people in a way which resonates with you, not with them<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cOne of the biggest learnings of my career was identifying that I should be thinking and speaking in commercial terms with my senior management team when I needed them to do\/think\/care\/change something on or about my project,\u201d says Peta Kennett-Wilson, founder of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.digital-rev.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Digital Rev<\/a>, a London-based project management training and consultancy firm.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnce I saw how much easier that made my PM life, I was pretty sure it would be a great approach to adopt with everyone I worked with. When I need someone to do something, I try and think what is it I need or want at the end of this conversation and what\u2019s the best way to approach it to try and ensure that happens.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor some people it\u2019s a chat while making a coffee, for others it\u2019s a financial report, and for some it\u2019s aligning it to strategy and goals.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>7. Becoming a single point of failure<\/h2>\n<p>Absorbing all the leftover tasks that don\u2019t fit within your project team is the classic default position of a PM, as freelance senior digital project manager <a href=\"http:\/\/suzannahaworth.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Suzanna Haworth<\/a> has learned first hand.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOver the years I\u2019ve done everything from QA, content management, and strategy through to analysing code to try and determine the bug!,\u201d she says. \u201cBut taking everything on yourself isn\u2019t a good thing \u2014 you\u2019re actually becoming a single point of failure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Suzanna suggests remembering you\u2019re allowed to say no and you need to delegate. \u201cDon\u2019t just mop up the overspill. Look at the tasks and the project team as a whole at the beginning of the project, and flag any risk areas. Then if it does become a problem, you have a better case to raise going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEnsure you\u2019re not squeezing the budget and team shape just to fit to the client\u2019s request. Review the deliverables with the team and make sure they can commit to them in the timings allowed. Also, don\u2019t just do every task that comes your way. Take a step back, review it to determine if you\u2019re the best person for the job, and if not, try and find a person who\u2019s better placed to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>8. Poor collaboration between team and client<\/h2>\n<p>Sometimes it\u2019s easy for the PM to become a funnel for the communication between the client and team. As you\u2019re dealing with both on a daily basis, it\u2019s easy to fall into the trap of becoming the person in the middle and just relay information to each party.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis isn\u2019t effective for communication as a whole, or for your team and the client to become fully immersed in the project,\u201d Suzanna Haworth advises. \u201cMake sure you\u2019re including your team in the communications, the important meetings, and calls. But make sure you don\u2019t add them for the sake of it, ensure there\u2019s a purpose to it and it adds value.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Suzanna currently uses a shared Slack channel for one of her projects to ensure open communication between the client and team. \u201cIt\u2019s working well as a way to integrate, and for me not to become the messenger or, at worst, a blocker. Whilst this might not be ideal for every project and client, there are ways to spread the communication out such as using Google Hangouts or Skype for daily standups with everyone, or shared online documents to collaborate on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-17951\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/projectmanagement-team.jpg\" alt=\"A team working together\" width=\"650\" height=\"200\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>9. Not being honest and upfront<\/h2>\n<p>Honesty is one of the best qualities you can use as a PM.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDon\u2019t ever try and work your way out of a tricky situation by not telling the truth \u2014 this can often come back and bite you!,\u201d Suzanna warns. \u201cIf there\u2019s a big issue on the project, review with your team, work out a proposed solution and then go to your client or stakeholder and talk them through the issue and also the plans to solve it. It\u2019s always best to go in with a problem alongside a practical solution to avoid any panic or uncertainty. Be upfront and you won\u2019t get tied up in covering for things later down the line. Keeping the client or stakeholder closely involved in how the project is going also avoids surprises at a later point. Think about what you share with them on a weekly basis, and make sure you don\u2019t communicate bad news in a document \u2014 always try and speak in person to be able to talk through things properly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Education content developer Leon Brown agrees and adds that bad project management usually leads to a culture of nobody accepting responsibility for their own actions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBlame is often being placed on the developers when things go wrong \u2014 even when the developers warned against the issues to begin with,\u201d he explains. \u201cPoor managers may think it&#8217;s to their advantage to pass the blame in these situations, but all it leads to is poor morale \u2014 which leads to people leaving the project. Good managers realise that people with skills and competence are in demand by other companies.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>10. Saving issues for the project debrief<\/h2>\n<p>A project debrief shouldn\u2019t be the only time you discuss what lessons you\u2019ve learned and how things need to change.<\/p>\n<p>Project manager Rachael Shah points out that one of the fundamental elements of working agile is to constantly learn and improve.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven if you&#8217;re running a more traditional fixed-price waterfall project, you can still have open and honest retrospectives with the team to continually improve the delivery,\u201d she argues. \u201dIf you do need to have a debrief at the end, schedule this in at the start of the project, so it doesn\u2019t get forgotten and keep a log of any unresolved issues, so these can be re-visited.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>11. Getting stuck in your problem-solving approach<\/h2>\n<p>Once you\u2019ve run enough projects, you have a fairly good grasp of how things are going to go, what issues are going to crop up, and how you can resolve them with minimal effort or financial outlay. But Peta Kennett-Wilson warns that there is a danger of becoming too routine or familiar with how you resolve project issues.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne technique I like to use is the reframing matrix,\u201d she explains. \u201cThis is where you adopt different perspectives to see how other people would solve a problem. What would the best boss you ever had do? What would your mum do? What would someone in the accounting department do?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA fresh perspective almost always helps build upon your ideas and solutions leading you to find more creative\/faster\/cheaper\/simpler ways to solve things.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>12. Not recognising your own power<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cOne of the biggest mistakes I see PMs making is not recognising their own power,\u201d finds <a href=\"http:\/\/rachelgertz.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rachel Gertz<\/a>, digital project manager trainer and co-founder of studio <a href=\"https:\/\/www.louderthanten.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Louder Than Ten<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs the nucleus of the team, they have incredible influence and can create powerful alignment between stakeholders (their teams, execs, and clients). Often, if a PM\u2019s organisation doesn\u2019t recognise this power, it comes with a cost \u2014 managing up can challenge the status quo and can create friction on teams when they don\u2019t make continuous improvements a priority.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To solve this problem, Rachel suggests working to create allies across your team and identifying common team pain points and possible fixes together \u2014 then approach management with a request to try a new approach or process with a clear business case behind it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cConsider trying it on a single project or within a clear timeframe at first,\u201d she recommends. \u201cBuild in time for post reflection, so that you can make refinements along the way and include all important decision makers. If you have a process, or operations or sales idea that you stand behind, push your organisation gently toward alignment to make it a reality. In a commoditised world, these lean improvements can be the difference between a company succeeding or failing. PMs can play a vital role in that success. Wield your PM power.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Tools that can help<\/h3>\n<p>Rachel suggests finding your allies in Slack (join <a href=\"http:\/\/thedigitalprojectmanager.com\/join-us-slack\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the Digital PM Slack<\/a>, check out <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.drift.com\/the-7-best-slack-communities-for-product-managers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">7 of the Best Slack Communities for Product Managers<\/a>, or start your own), attend events that empower you and your processes (find a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.meetup.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">local meetup<\/a> or attend events like <a href=\"http:\/\/deliverconf.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">DeliverConf<\/a> in the UK and the <a href=\"http:\/\/bureauofdigital.com\/summits\/digital-pm-2018\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Digital PM Summit<\/a> in the US), and read books on change (for example, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/0385528752\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard<\/em><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/0385517254\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>The Fifth Discipline: The Art &amp; Practice of The Learning Organization<\/em><\/a>).<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-17950\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/projectmanagement-manager.jpg\" alt=\"A man working on a project\" width=\"650\" height=\"200\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>Embrace the mistakes<\/h2>\n<p>Have you recognised any of the mistakes on this list? Have you made any of them yourself? It\u2019s only natural, you\u2019re human! Once you know that these mistakes can affect your project, you can look out for them and make sure they don\u2019t jeopardise it. Poor planning is the number one reason for failed projects, so invest in a little bit of planning and organisation, using the tools and strategies outlined above, and you can become a better project manager and significantly improve the success rate of your projects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Digital project management is a challenging task. Balancing keeping all the different parties happy while also creating a successful product is difficult. We&#8217;ve talked to some leading project managers around the world to find out what kind of common mistakes they see DPMS make regularly and how to avoid them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,28],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17921","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-guest-posts","8":"category-your-business"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>12 common digital project management mistakes - Heart Internet<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Digital project management is a challenging task. Balancing keeping all the different parties happy while also creating a successful product is difficult. We&#039;ve talked to some leading project managers around the world to find out what kind of common mistakes they see DPMS make regularly and how to avoid them.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/12-common-digital-project-management-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"12 common digital project management mistakes - Heart Internet\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Digital project management is a challenging task. Balancing keeping all the different parties happy while also creating a successful product is difficult. We&#039;ve talked to some leading project managers around the world to find out what kind of common mistakes they see DPMS make regularly and how to avoid them.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/12-common-digital-project-management-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Heart Internet\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/heartinternet\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-02-13T12:30:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/productmanagement-background.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1265\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Eliot Chambers-Ostler\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@heartinternet\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@heartinternet\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Eliot Chambers-Ostler\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"14 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/12-common-digital-project-management-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/12-common-digital-project-management-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Eliot Chambers-Ostler\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/heartblog.victory.digital\/#\/schema\/person\/58ed7f27cc0f3ab6e69135742a5eee28\"},\"headline\":\"12 common digital project management mistakes\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-02-13T12:30:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/12-common-digital-project-management-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them\/\"},\"wordCount\":2786,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/heartblog.victory.digital\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/12-common-digital-project-management-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/productmanagement-background.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Guest Posts\",\"Your Business\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/12-common-digital-project-management-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/12-common-digital-project-management-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/12-common-digital-project-management-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them\/\",\"name\":\"12 common digital project management mistakes - Heart Internet\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/heartblog.victory.digital\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/12-common-digital-project-management-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/12-common-digital-project-management-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/productmanagement-background.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-02-13T12:30:19+00:00\",\"description\":\"Digital project management is a challenging task. Balancing keeping all the different parties happy while also creating a successful product is difficult. We've talked to some leading project managers around the world to find out what kind of common mistakes they see DPMS make regularly and how to avoid them.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/12-common-digital-project-management-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/12-common-digital-project-management-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/12-common-digital-project-management-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/productmanagement-background.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/productmanagement-background.jpg\",\"width\":1265,\"height\":500},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/12-common-digital-project-management-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"12 common digital project management mistakes\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/heartblog.victory.digital\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/heartblog.victory.digital\/\",\"name\":\"Heart Internet\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/heartblog.victory.digital\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/heartblog.victory.digital\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/heartblog.victory.digital\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Heart Internet\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/heartblog.victory.digital\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/heartblog.victory.digital\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/HeartInternet_Logo_Colour.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/HeartInternet_Logo_Colour.webp\",\"width\":992,\"height\":252,\"caption\":\"Heart Internet\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/heartblog.victory.digital\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/heartinternet\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/heartinternet\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/heart-internet-ltd\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/heartblog.victory.digital\/#\/schema\/person\/58ed7f27cc0f3ab6e69135742a5eee28\",\"name\":\"Eliot Chambers-Ostler\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/heartblog.victory.digital\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/cropped-Eliot-96x96.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/cropped-Eliot-96x96.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Eliot Chambers-Ostler\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/author\/eliot-chambers-ostler\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"12 common digital project management mistakes - Heart Internet","description":"Digital project management is a challenging task. Balancing keeping all the different parties happy while also creating a successful product is difficult. We've talked to some leading project managers around the world to find out what kind of common mistakes they see DPMS make regularly and how to avoid them.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/12-common-digital-project-management-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"12 common digital project management mistakes - Heart Internet","og_description":"Digital project management is a challenging task. Balancing keeping all the different parties happy while also creating a successful product is difficult. We've talked to some leading project managers around the world to find out what kind of common mistakes they see DPMS make regularly and how to avoid them.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/12-common-digital-project-management-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them\/","og_site_name":"Heart Internet","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/heartinternet\/","article_published_time":"2018-02-13T12:30:19+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1265,"height":500,"url":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/productmanagement-background.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Eliot Chambers-Ostler","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@heartinternet","twitter_site":"@heartinternet","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Eliot Chambers-Ostler","Estimated reading time":"14 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/12-common-digital-project-management-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/12-common-digital-project-management-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them\/"},"author":{"name":"Eliot Chambers-Ostler","@id":"https:\/\/heartblog.victory.digital\/#\/schema\/person\/58ed7f27cc0f3ab6e69135742a5eee28"},"headline":"12 common digital project management mistakes","datePublished":"2018-02-13T12:30:19+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/12-common-digital-project-management-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them\/"},"wordCount":2786,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/heartblog.victory.digital\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/12-common-digital-project-management-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/productmanagement-background.jpg","articleSection":["Guest Posts","Your Business"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/12-common-digital-project-management-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/12-common-digital-project-management-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them\/","url":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/12-common-digital-project-management-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them\/","name":"12 common digital project management mistakes - Heart Internet","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/heartblog.victory.digital\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/12-common-digital-project-management-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/12-common-digital-project-management-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/productmanagement-background.jpg","datePublished":"2018-02-13T12:30:19+00:00","description":"Digital project management is a challenging task. Balancing keeping all the different parties happy while also creating a successful product is difficult. We've talked to some leading project managers around the world to find out what kind of common mistakes they see DPMS make regularly and how to avoid them.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/12-common-digital-project-management-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/12-common-digital-project-management-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/12-common-digital-project-management-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/productmanagement-background.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/productmanagement-background.jpg","width":1265,"height":500},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/12-common-digital-project-management-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"12 common digital project management mistakes"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/heartblog.victory.digital\/#website","url":"https:\/\/heartblog.victory.digital\/","name":"Heart Internet","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/heartblog.victory.digital\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/heartblog.victory.digital\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/heartblog.victory.digital\/#organization","name":"Heart Internet","url":"https:\/\/heartblog.victory.digital\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/heartblog.victory.digital\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/HeartInternet_Logo_Colour.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/HeartInternet_Logo_Colour.webp","width":992,"height":252,"caption":"Heart Internet"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/heartblog.victory.digital\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/heartinternet\/","https:\/\/x.com\/heartinternet","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/heart-internet-ltd"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/heartblog.victory.digital\/#\/schema\/person\/58ed7f27cc0f3ab6e69135742a5eee28","name":"Eliot Chambers-Ostler","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/heartblog.victory.digital\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/cropped-Eliot-96x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/cropped-Eliot-96x96.jpg","caption":"Eliot Chambers-Ostler"},"url":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/author\/eliot-chambers-ostler\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}