The biggest challenge of the Sustainable Investing Research Consulting Project was learning to work with and manage a real life consulting project for a client with many moving parts. In a classroom it is typically possible to control many variables surrounding the project. For example, deadlines are clearly defined, the project scopes are set from the beginning and you have clear targets. In the classroom you also have the guidance of a specifically dedicated Professor and expert.
When working with a client you quickly realize that although they are passionate about the work you are completing for them, they (just like students) have multiple ongoing initiatives, deadlines and projects. This leaves room for what I have now learnt is called “scope creep.” Scope creep happens when the client is happy with the progress of the project and wants to extend the project and include more topics or deliverables throughout the process. Typically, this is highly useful as it allows you to build out on existing work. However, it also means that the project can take a new shape and lean away from the initial project. The way that we dealt with this was that when we met with the client on a biweekly basis, we set time to discuss any new topics, for example latest news headlines, reports or legislation. We then used the second half of the meeting to specifically discuss our project question and deliverables. This allowed us to build trust with our client, whilst letting us learn more about the topic, and not get distracted from the main project at hand.
In completing our project we started by creating a draft work plan where we clearly wrote out what the expected deliverables would be for the client. By sticking to this plan, we were able to stay on track and focus specifically on our end goal. Initially, we had also set out a clear plan of experts to interview and consult with. We completed these interviews which added color to our research and inspired the final deliverable content. We found that towards the end of the project our client last minute mentioned a few more contacts and experts to reach out to. Although we were nearing the end of the project we felt that it would be valuable to connect with all the people that our client had introduced us to. As a team we were able to conduct one additional interview that ultimately turned out to be highly influential and impactful to finalize our deliverable. This has shown us that following the guidance from the client and going the extra mile to ensure the highest quality work will always be worth the effort.