How do you measure your own success as a project manager? What key performance indicators are most important to you?
There are many different ways project managers measure their own success, but you can categorize most KPIs under four general categories: financial, customer, process, and personal development. Choose two or three that speak directly to the core values of the company, or based on the job requirements. The interviewer will want to learn more about how well you understand each of these key performance indicators and their relevance in your role as a technical project manager.
"I can speak to my own success measures at a high level. In terms of the financial success of projects, I keep anything that impacts the budget or the timeline directly such as off-track tasks, do-overs, and scope creep to a minimum. Depending on the business goals for each project, I would assign myself a maximum number of each of these events per week or month to keep myself accountable. Second, my main metric in keeping my customers happy, whether they're internal or external, would be feedback. For external customers, a regularly scheduled qualitative survey usually works. For internal customers, it's usually a working feedback process between me and the teams I work with. In addition, I consider my stakeholders and project sponsors as my internal clients. I think that a majority of my metrics rely heavily on effective communication between me and these parties."
