Insights

What does a Project Manager do and how is that different from a Virtual Assistant?

I recently attended the Philadelphia Small Business Expo in Oaks, PA. I had the opportunity to participate in some of the speed networking sessions. When I explained to the person I was matched up with every 3 minutes that Allerion Solutions is a project management consultant in Philadelphia, I was met with looks of uncertainty. Once I started to explain what we do and the business impact that it has, they understood, but over the course of the last couple of years it is clear to me that there is not universal understanding of what a project manager does.

Another example of some of these misconceptions occurred last year when I attended a small business event. I explained to the company representative that we use project management practices to create business efficiencies and that project management processes created repeatability which in turns creates predictability. The company representative said, “I don’t think our staff would take kindly to being told how to do their jobs.” My response was, “If that is your take away, then I am doing a really poor job of explaining it.” Clearly, I was doing a poor job of explaining it (and I will be the first to say that I need to be a better pitch man), but in my defense I would say that what project management is isn’t an easy thing to explain in a 30 second elevator pitch to company representatives who aren’t already familiar with it. Simply saying, “We use project management processes to create business efficiencies by saving companies time and money” is a bit ambiguous and over-simplified, but may have been a better approach.

Those misconceptions aren’t limited to company small business/procurement representatives at conferences. When I look at jobs on freelance sites like Upwork, Freelancer, and Guru, I commonly see the project manager role bundled together with a number of different role titles and responsibilities. Before going into some of these job descriptions and how they don’t always do a great job of distinguishing between roles, let’s take a look at some of the common responsibilities for both a Virtual Assistant and Project Manager. First, here are some of the responsibilities that a Virtual Assistant may be assigned:

• Creating social media posts and managing social media accounts
• Managing a CEO’s calendar
• Answering phones
• Returning messages
• Document processing
• Handling emails
• Performing research
• Handling travel arrangements for other team members

These are important responsibilities and in fulfilling these responsibilities is where a Virtual Assistant provides a valuable service. However, these responsibilities are very different from those of a project manager. First, the level of responsibility that a project manager has for directing and managing project work is the first and a very key difference. You will not that in the Virtual Assistant responsibilities I listed, it says nothing about managing projects or managing a project team. To illustrate those differences further, here is just a sample of what our project managers normally handle for clients:

• Leading the entire project from initiation to closure
• Creating planning documents (Risk Management Plan, Communication Plan, etc.)
• Managing resource allocation
• Creating a project plan that the entire team will follow with when tasks are due, who they will be completed by, and what dependencies exist between tasks
• Directing and managing project work
• Identifying risks and risk management strategies
• Managing the project budget and forecasting the budget over the project life cycle
• Utilizing various analysis tools including Work Breakdown Structures, Cost Benefit Analysis, Risk Analysis, and Requirement Analysis

The list of responsibilities provided above is just a small sample for both roles, but the point is that these are very different positions. Both roles are valuable, but it is very important to understand the difference and what your specific need calls for. When the responsibilities are muddled, it doesn’t work out well for anyone. As a company, you end up with a bunch of applicants who likely only have some of the required skills, applicants who are under qualified, and applicants who are over qualified. When you hire a Project Manager to perform the work of a Virtual Assistant, you are likely spending more money than you need to (More on that in a minute). Additionally, a number of project managers have industry certifications such as Certified Scrum Master (CSM), Project Management Professional (PMP), Prince2, and Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM). Many of these credentials require significant study, training, and work experience. Therefore, they are well versed in project management methodologies, but there has to be a project for them to manage.

This often includes posts like “Looking for PM/VA” or “Need a PM/Executive Assistant.” Here is a snippet of one such example that I found on one of those freelancing sites under the heading of “Need a PM/VA”:

Tasks will include but not be limited to:

• Organizing and updating information utilizing different software
• Emails, Calls and Video Chats with Clients and Team Members
• Writing and Editing Miscellaneous Content
• Social Media Posting
• Research
• Posting Ads
• Communicating with team members to successfully take projects from start to finish
• Scheduling Appointments
• Variety of miscellaneous marketing, business development, sales, customer service and random everyday tasks

This particular post is one that I would consider to fall very clearly into the Virtual Assistant role. First, there is no project here. Remember, a project has a defined start and end date, which is not the case here. These are all routine and typically on-going tasks that are performed on a regular basis. Based on the list of responsibilities in the description as well as those I’ve listed above as part of common Virtual Assistant tasks, this is not something you would need a Project Manager to run. If you were to hire an experienced Project Manager to handle this job, you would have someone who is overqualified and may not even be familiar with some of these tasks (Ex. Managing social media accounts).

To further illustrate the differences, here is another example snippet from a freelancing site that was posted looking for “Personal Executive Assistant:”

looking to find an Executive Personal Assistant who is knowledgeable and well versed in the tech startup/development space. We also are building our own iOS app and looking to start hosting events. I need someone who can help details requirements for each project, enter them into a JIRA backlog, help prioritize and delegate to the tasks to the team members involved with the project. As an agency we’re always looking for new business, so there is a business development side to this as well. More details are below.

Duties include

• hiring other freelancers
• Managing JIRA Board
• Managing outsourced development teams
• Emailing clients, vendors, partners & colleagues.
• Email Marketing for lead generation
• Create and manage Sales Proposals.
• Online Research
• Burn rate reports
• Budgeting & forecasting
• Manage AirBnB
• Update Personal Social Media Profiles

This one to me clearly has some tasks that are indeed Executive Assistant tasks, but also has a bunch of Project Manager tasks and even some Technical Project Manager tasks. First, managing the JIRA board is something that a Project Manager would do and you would also probably want someone with some JIRA (or at least Agile) experience, who has managed projects in JIRA before. The reason behind this is not just because you want someone who can get up to speed on a project quickly (Without having to learn new software), but that it also involves setting project priorities and assigning work, which are both things that you would expect a project manager do. Beyond that, gathering requirements (depending on the project and particularly with larger projects, this is often done by a business analyst), managing the budget, doing budget forecasting, and managing the project team are all tasks that would typically be handled by a project manager. On the Executive Assistant side, you have things like online research, managing social media profiles, and email handling as clear Executive Assistant tasks.

In the examples above, I do realize that these are posted by small companies who probably need someone who can wear multiple hats, but both are examples where the job role being sought is not very accurate. Beyond the basic reason of making sure you get the right person for the job so that they can perform it capably, there is also a financial factor that should be considered. You are typically going to find that the rates for Virtual Assistants and Executive Assistants are lower than that of a Project Manager. This is another reason that it is important to know which role you need to hire for. It doesn’t make sense to pay the rate of a Project Manager when you need a Virtual Assistant. Conversely, it is also not a reasonable expectation to expect a Virtual Assistant to perform the duties of a Project Manager.

In conclusion, Virtual Assistants, Executive Assistants, and Project Managers all provide valuable services. However, the roles are very different and should not be used interchangeably and synonymously. In order to end up with a person who can provide value to your company, it is important that you understand exactly which role you need to fill.