Management and Strategy

Traits of a Project Manager

Sprout Video

In this lesson, you’ll hear from Lullabot’s Chief of Operations, Account Director, and several technical project managers about what they think makes a good project manager. These traits of a good PM include: being a great communicator, having the ability to distill a project into tasks, taking initiative to clear blockers for developers, probing stakeholders for requirements, assumptions, and other vital information, demonstrating leadership, and finally being able to have difficult conversations with clients—discussing uncomfortable truths with tact and diplomacy. Are you on the path to becoming a project manager? Or maybe you’re looking to improve your skills? With these insights, learn about the variety of technical and people skills that make for a great project manager.

Additional resources

Want to dive deeper? Here are some books recommended by project managers at Lullabot:

  • Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams by Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister
  • Making Things Happen: Mastering Project Management by Scott Berkun
  • Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization by Dave Logan, John King & Halee Fischer-Wright
  • User Stories Applied: for Agile Software Development by Mike Cohn
  • Analysis without Paralysis: 12 Tools to Make Better Strategic Decisions by Babette E Bensoussan & Craig S Fleisher
  • Software Estimation by Steve McConnell
  • The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering by Frederick P. Brooks, Jr.