What is the difference between a project manager and a client advisor?

It’s an interesting question and one we at Geonetric have been answering for some time now. During our company-wide roll out of agile, we refined some of our internal roles, and with that came the transformation of our project managers.

Geonetric’s project managers have always handled more than just timelines and budgets. We are a very hands-on group – we do everything from place content to test new website functionality.

But now, we’ve taken on more of an advisory role. What does that mean for our clients?

First it means we ask more questions. We dig for the “why” when we receive a request. We are not trying to be difficult; we just want to understand more about what you are trying to achieve with your website. We want you to be successful and we realize sometimes it is hard to articulate requests. So we ask questions to help us make a recommendation that fits best practices and works best for your site and organization. Back to those basics of who, what, when, and why.

And second, we focus on setting Web goals. In your weekly status calls, you will hear your client advisor talk about your goals and how we are meeting those goals. We might even question the need for a specific request if it appears to not align with one of your goals or Web strategy. We understand you get requests from internal clients. You don’t always have all the ammunition to guide that request down the best path. That’s the time you need to turn to your client advisor – we are here to help! These client-to-client advisor discussions will help us discover a new twists to solving old issues. You might even hear your client advisor recommend against a specific strategy.

So the next time your client advisor starts asking those questions – know we have your best interest in mind. We want to help you get to the best solution possible.