SPOTLIGHT ON THE INDIVIDUAL 1

Spotlight on the Individual

Assignment 1

Kashish Vyas – 300295816

BUSN3600 – Project Management Essentials

Douglas College

Submitted to Florence Daddey

January 28, 2020

Word Count: 1450

SPOLIGHT ON THE INDIVIDUAL 2

Abstract
This paper will attempt to highlight my previous experience in a project I had worked at a
healthcare B2B (Business to Business) startup in India. This paper will attempt to emphasize my
experiences as a product management intern at the startup in relation to the project management
curriculum learnt so far in the semester. The paper will highlight the tasks I completed in the
project, in line with the project management framework. It will define the project scope along
with its successes and constraints. The paper will also emphasize on the working environment of
the project and the application of knowledge of project management to that project and various
skills I learnt in the process of completing the project. The paper will also provide my views on
project management leadership drawing from my experiences described in the paper.
SPOLIGHT ON THE INDIVIDUAL 3

Spotlight on the Individual

Introduction
This paper will describe my biggest involvement in a project, the experiences and skills
gained from that project along with defining and aligning the scope, successes and constraints of
the project with the project management curriculum learnt in the course. The project that I was
involved in was that of building a web portal/marketplace for a healthcare B2B startup in India
which catered to primarily healthcare professionals and the healthcare sector/businesses. The
main project was to create a portal for healthcare professionals to buy/sell their services along
with connecting healthcare businesses to each other, in turn, creating an online “marketplace” for
the healthcare sector in India.
The designation I held for the project was that of a product management intern. Since it
was a startup company, the resources were limited. The team members were assigned a variety of
roles apart from their original job designation duties. My team consisted of a CEO and a team
comprising of IT, sales and marketing professionals. My role in the project was to provide
marketing and UX improvement inputs as a medical professional, conducting quality control for
the products listed on the website and reviewing qualification of products to be listed on the
website, helped in identifying new products and suppliers. I also wrote and curated content for
the website, like blog posts, landing pages, content for marketing professionals tailored to
healthcare professionals based on my previous experience in healthcare, while also assisting in
development of the company profile. The project initially started out as an exclusive trading
platform for healthcare businesses and/professionals, but the broad vision was to make it a
platform for consumers to buy healthcare products/services via the platform. My involvement
was to assist in setting up of the trade platform which was to go live for trading in a
predetermined timeline.
Project Definition and Objectives
The mentioned plan perfectly aligned with the definition of a project. It fulfilled the
definition of a project in that it was unique; the idea received the best startup idea award. It was a
niche market (only for healthcare professionals), that demography had not been exposed to such
a market before in India. The plan was to go live on a set date, meeting the definition of a project
in being time limited. The end of the project would be signaled when the website went live for
operations. The project was to create an online portal which was personalized for healthcare
SPOLIGHT ON THE INDIVIDUAL 4

professionals and then go live with the portal to the customers on a predetermined date.
Successful creation of the portal involved creating content for the website, videos and
infographics for introducing the portal and how to conduct transactions via the website, creating
landing pages, setting up analytics for reviewing transactions and browsing statistics. It also
necessitated creating an inventory list for products and services listed on the website and
marketing the website to businesses and professionals in the field of healthcare by creating
awareness.
The project team involved the project leader (CEO), an IT specialist for creating the
website, handling technical issues regarding the website and its analytics, and a team of sales and
marketing professionals for marketing campaigns and creating customer awareness and myself.
As an intern, I interacted with all the above-mentioned team members as I was the only member
with professional healthcare experience. A part of my role also involved, interacting with
healthcare leaders like experienced doctors, management professionals in hospitals, etc. as a part
of a team, to gain insights and identify their needs to better tailor the portal for healthcare
professionals.
Project Constraints and Challenges
As I was an intern and not involved in the finance handling of the project, therefore, I’m
not privy to the details. It was however mentioned time to time in discussions by the CFO that a
task (e.g. budget allocated for analytics software) is going out of bounds or beyond the assigned
budget. Plans were discussed and implemented to either give priority to a task by going over-
budget for that task and cutting the budget from another task or to confine within the limits of
that budget. It depended on the importance and influence of the task on the final outcome.
As in any project, risks were anticipated, and guidelines and plan of action were devised
for the risks. In actuality, some of the risks that were encountered were: not meeting the go live
deadline, there were many factors leading to this issue; stalled talks between medical supplies
suppliers and retailers for listing their product catalogue on the website, successful marketing of
the platform to certain healthcare professionals/facilities to list their services on the website, etc.
Another cause of not meeting the go live deadline and meeting budget constraints was being
behind schedule for certain tasks like creating webpages for service subscriptions, functioning
webpages for product catalogue without any bugs or glitches, hiring a new marketing team to
meet project expectations, etc.
SPOLIGHT ON THE INDIVIDUAL 5

A substantial challenge was acceptance of the platform by healthcare professionals.

Healthcare in India has a very different dynamic and a business model due to the large
demography and geography. India has many online platforms for pharmacies, lab services, etc.
but at that time did not have any integrated platform for all services on one portal. The culture of
online healthcare (telehealth, health information management, etc.) is still in its infancy,
therefore, to get healthcare professionals and facilities onboard was a task in itself. This was a
big risk outlined prior to beginning the project, but it was seen as an opportunity to capture a
market that had not been thoroughly explored.
Overall Project Observation and Leadership in PM
The mentioned project was in a startup company. This led to an integrative approach to
project management partly due to constraints in the budget and human resources, also because
the project leaders had prior experience in successful completion and implementation of startup
projects. Emphasis was laid on working as a team rather in siloes, by effective communication,
regular team meetings and discussions on the progress and future path of individual tasks. Any
tradeoffs made in resources or budget were effectively communicated and approval was taken
across the board in the larger scheme of completing the objectives of the project. My opinion of
the outcome of the project was that of successful implementation. The project did go through
some changes in terms of budget, resources, and logistics, but those changes were integrated into
the project and objectives were successfully adapted. The success of the project was measured by
the outcome of deliverables to the end customer (user), which was sufficient for the portal to go
live, albeit at a postponed timeline.
In my opinion, any successful project manager should have the following three
characteristics:
a. Problem solving skills: Any successful project manager adept at problem solving can
meet the project objectives even with changes in the course of the project. The project
manager (CEO) under whom I worked for the project was adapting to the changing
timelines of the project because he had previous experience, thus bringing in
knowledge expertise to the project. He was able to table solutions, treating problems
as opportunities, arising in the course of the project.
b. Collaborative approach: A productive project manager must have a collaborative
approach while handling projects. The team that I was a part of included professionals
SPOLIGHT ON THE INDIVIDUAL 6

from different professions and at times, there was a communication gap due to the
tasks being siloed into groups. My project leader would intervene and appropriately
channel the ideas and suggestions affecting tasks of different groups. IN my opinion,
he was able to achieve this from a collaborative approach, leadership skills and an
efficient understanding of the work culture of the different groups working in the
project.
c. Maintaining the project life cycle: The project manager that I worked under, was
clinical in linking and successfully realizing the objectives outlined in the phases of
the project cycle namely, the initiation phase, the planning and implementation phases
and the closing phase. From outlining a project charter for each phase, creating a
work breakdown structure (WBS) for each task group, monitoring and providing
leadership in tasks requiring a change or issues in completing a task, and to realize the
main project objective of creating and going live with an e-commerce website for
healthcare businesses and professionals.
The above-mentioned traits would be the ones that I would like to enhance personally and
look out for when working under a project manager. My reflections from working in the
mentioned project has given me an introductory insight into a project manager’s role, and I am
hoping to gain a deeper understanding of a project manager’s role through this course.
SPOLIGHT ON THE INDIVIDUAL 7

References

Gray, E. (2018, December 20). Top Characteristics of Project Manager (Every company

expects)-Qualities Of Project Manager. Retrieved January 28, 2020, from

https://www.knowledgehut.com/blog/project-management/10-characteristics-of-a-good-

project-manager

Watts, A. (2014). Project Management. Victoria, B.C.: BCcampus. Retrieved from

https://opentextbc.ca/projectmanagement/.