How to Know if You Need a Project Manager or a Consultant
I get it - these terms are often interchanged and that can be confusing. Plus, unless you actually work as a consultant, project manager or coach, for that matter, you don’t need to know what the differences are between these modalities.
The differences, however, are marked and can make or break your project (and budget). So, if you have a project and you know what you want but you’re not sure if you need a project manager or a consultant for it, let me make it simple and easy for you to choose.
Consulting
A consultant is a professional that has a level of expertise to the point that she can give advice on a topic. In fact, a consultant’s job IS to give advice.
On a project, a consultant comes in, analyzes the situation, diagnoses the problem and recommends a solution. This can be done in many areas. For example, I can come into a TV program or content marketing project as a Consulting Producer or Cultural Consultant, review content, figure out the cultural errors in either strategy or detail and then offer advice on how to fix those.
Consultants are analytical thinkers, so they are great at creating strategy for a business or project. They are also visionaries. Their experience is vast and their knowledge specific.
They often work alone, independently and outside of the company.
Consultants don’t execute. They recommend and let others execute based on their recommendations.
Project Management
A project manager (PM) oversees the execution of a project. The PM is in charge of scope, timeline, budget and, mostly, of keeping these to agreed limits.
The PM can work with the internal team of the business that hires her or with her own team but hardly ever works alone (it takes a group of people to get a project done). Either way, she leads the execution of the project and is in charge of forecasting and communicating and foreseeable change in the plan.
A PM can be a subject matter expert (SME) as well, which would make her an expert in a particular area. This can be because she’s worked in one particular area for many years or because this is an area of interest to the point of experience leading to expertise.
Who do you need?
If you’ve got a project that needs expert insight, advice and opinion, hire a consultant.
If you need a project done and executed to perfection, whether with your own team or an outside team, hire a project manager.
It’s as simple as that but if you’ve got more questions and are interested in hiring one or the other for a content project, reach out.