Out & About – Deliver Conference 2018

Each team member at 93digital has a £1,000 personal development budget each year. In our ‘Out and About’ series, we catch up with the team following their learning adventures at conferences & events. This time, we chat with our Digital Project Manager Roz, following her recent trip to Deliver Conference.

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1. What is your role at 93digital?

I am a project manager at 93digital – in order to deliver my projects I have to manage client and team expectations, communicate shared outcomes, and deliver great design and build projects.

2. What have you attended recently and where?

Recently we took part in BIMA’s Digital Day, which wasn’t a similar event as such – but I would have benefitted from knowing some of the lessons I learned at DeliverConf before we did that, especially Tom Bradley’s ‘How to run a workshop workshop’.

3. What’s the premise behind the event?

DeliverConf18 set out to bring together, educate, and connect anyone who delivers projects or manages teams, relationships, and budgets.

It’s a great event for anyone who has to deliver anything to meet their peers and share ideas and working practices. I definitely made connections who I want to keep in touch with, even if it’s just meeting up with the same group next year!

4. What did you learn that you can take into your work day to-day?

The actionable steps which I am intending on following through with are:

• More regular discussions on how we work together as a team
• Focus on shared outcomes not specific deliverables
• Calculate contingency on my own tasks – not only those of the developers and designers
• When booking meetings decide if it’s really necessary.  And if it is set open agendas with clear outcomes
• Set more clear boundaries and expectations both internally and externally – in real terms that means in kick-off meetings I want to be clearer about my role, including letting the client know that at some point I will have to deliver them some bad news….

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review of @irishgirl key note. So inspiring. If there’s one thing to take away from #dc18 it’s watch that speech. So 👏🏻damn 👏🏻 good 👏🏻. @DeliverConf

— 93digital® (@93digitalUK) January 25, 2018

5. What did you learn from a more long-term perspective?

Meghan McInerny’s keynote on ‘Levelling Up’ was really inspiring.

It’s provided me with a workable framework and set of ideas which will help improve the way I manage and lead going forward.

One of the strongest metaphors of the conference was a Lord of the Rings one….
I am the Samwise Gamgee of 93digital – I can’t carry it for you, but I can carry you! It being, the coding and development, you being everything the team needs to get them there.

6. What other events that reflect your role in the agency would you like to participate in?

My overall goal for the year as a whole is to qualify as a scrum master. So, I am looking at more specific Agile events. There’s one called Agile on the Beach which I really have my eye on…

However, I really enjoyed the open atmosphere at DeliverConf – and the solutions and ideas shared were so open and helpful that it’s given me ideas on how to run everything I do more effectively so I am definitely planning on attending next year.

As Peta Kennett-Wilson said in the Q&A, it doesn’t matter what tools you are using – Gantt Charts, Kanban boards etc, as long as what you’re doing is pertinent and appropriate to delivering a great project. Which I really think was the strength of DeliverConf.   

And honestly, it was really cathartic to get together with a big group of digital project managers – so I’ll go anywhere where my people are!

The award for strongest use of memes in a lightning talk goes to @vkw91 a funny and reassuring talk about managing your own expectations of yourself, bravo bravo 👏🏻👏🏻 #DC18 pic.twitter.com/KdQ2f8oc6M

— 93digital® (@93digitalUK) January 25, 2018

7. What made you decide to go to this event?

As a Mancunian myself the decision to go was really a no-brainer – though several other attendees labelled me a traitor for leaving my Northern roots behind…

Alongside that the talks which I checked out online from previous years looked really interesting, and I decided that if the line-up for 2018 was anything like 2017 then it would be a worthwhile event for me to attend again.

All of the team at 93digital have a £1000 personal development budget each year, so it was a great opportunity to utilise this as well!