“Being a project coordinator is all about nagging!” Or is it?

There’s definitely more to it, at least according to Linnéa Qvirist, our Flexigrid project coordinator and project manager at IMCG.  – I would say that the most important skill of being a project coordinator is nagging and planning. Nagging in a nice and supportive way, and planning in a detailed and clear way…

Linnéa Qvirist is project manager for both small and large projects. The small scale projects – being a market analysis for a single client – and the large scale project being in the size of European Horizon projects with several partners, huge budgets and with project lifetimes of several years.

Can you tell us more about your role as a project coordinator?
I am usually neither the one with the technical skills, nor the one with the best detailed understanding of the solutions that are produced in the project. Those skills are instead secured to the project through the participating partners and the excellent teams working with the project. Thanks to this set-up, my skills as a coordinator or project manager is transferable to more or less any sector or industry out there, as I personally do not need to know the technical details behind the work performed in the project. Although, I must admit that my engineering background and experience from pursuing a PhD has often come in handy, perhaps due to my love of learning, analyzing, planning and using excel.

What are the qualities of a successful project coordinator?
I would say that a good project coordinator loves both the nagging and planning part as much as they love to meet and collaborate with other people and see others succeed.

What are the benefits of using an external project coordinator?
More and more project owners have understood the incredible benefits of using an external project coordinator for their project’s. Where someone else, outside, can be in charge of the nagging, the administration, the coordination for reporting etc.

Winning a large grant is an amazing achievement for all partners involved, and especially for the main applicant or applicants. The grantee is often also one of the main technical experts behind the granted project idea and is not necessarily very interested in focusing their main time in the project on the coordination of the work but should rather focus on technical developments and activities within their area of expertise.

My best advice for organizations that have been granted a large project is for you to bring in an external project coordinator, who can focus on managing your deadlines (nagging and planning), coordinating the work, and make sure that the necessary actions takes place to ensure the projects progress, while you instead can focus on making the best use of your expertise. Basically, it is about using the right resources in the right place, to ensure optimal project progress and output for everyone involved.

Linnéa Qvirist, project manager and project coordinator in smart grid project FlexiGrid at IMCG.