We’re fortunate enough at Silicon Reef to run business as usual during this challenging time. After a successful few years running as a remote agency our team has the work from anywhere ethos down to a T. Our Senior Project Manager, Dena Williams, shares how she’s been able to lead the remote project team with Microsoft Teams.
Is this your first time managing a remote team?
As a Project Manager in tech you are constantly managing a project team and throughout my career I have always worked with Consultants and Developers based in different offices across the globe.
What do you find are the obvious challenges and areas to focus on when managing a remote team?
Challenges to me used to be missing face to face contact, but now thanks to Microsoft Teams we have revolutionised the way we can hold meetings remotely. It really is like we’re in the same room.
PM team meetings are highly important to share project information across the team, tips & tricks and sharing or seeking resources. A current challenge is finding the perfect time slot where the whole team can get together.
Are there specific Microsoft tools that aid in staying on top of everyone?
Microsoft Teams, what did we ever do without it? Teams has everything, amazing call and video quality, we can record team meetings for members who can’t be present, and all materials are in one centralised location and so easy to share. The fact that Microsoft Teams works so well on mobile really helps when we’re out and about on client site, we are always connected.
Do you think there are still shortcomings with the tech that you hope will change in future?
I’d like to see the Microsoft Teams creation process more streamlined; this could involve pre-defining the channels to include all the relevant and existing document libraries from a SharePoint site and ensure they come across in a structured manner.
Many of our clients have existing SharePoint sites, if these could be easily converted to Teams via a template it would reduce manual admin and set up time.
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DENA WILLIAMS, SENIOR PROJECT MANAGER
I have been working as a Senior Project Manager at Silicon Reef for 4 months now and the culture, support and the flexibility really makes Silicon Reef an amazing place to work. I’ve been so lucky to get stuck right in, implementing new process to the Project Management area and working on challenging and interesting projects using all the latest modern technology Microsoft has to offer. I’m really looking forward to the next few months in my exciting role and ensuring I always have my eye on Microsoft’s Roadmap, I’m particularly excited for the release of Project Cortex and how we can use AI in our projects.
