When we care, we get rewarded. 3 Stories and their Lessons.

As a Data Manager, I had the opportunity to visit one of our clients (it was my first time). The discussion was about kick-starting a new study. I was proud to represent my company and my department to an important client of ours. I had been working with this client for just a couple of years but had already managed a good number of projects.

After the meeting, we were invited to the data and project management offices to introduce ourselves. To my great surprise, as soon as I started to say, "Hi, I'm Gregoire," I would get interrupted by people almost shouting at me with happy and open faces: "Yes, Gregoire! This is me, Jutta... Bernd... It's so good to see you in person!" This was in 2012 when video calls weren’t a thing. We would exchange emails and phone calls, but we never knew each other’s faces. So imagine those almost-strangers excited to come and greet me.

Looking back, trying to understand, I explain this warm welcome because I just liked my work and cared seriously about people so my enthusiasm was communicative. I remember on the trip back to our office, the client success manager saying something like, “We should take you to clients more often.”

In 2013, we botched things. It was a bitter experience, and we never wanted to feel that again. So we took a good look in the mirror — and Jim was that mirror. One Monday, our manager announced that Jim would be in Germany this week and wanted to meet us. Great! Or… is it?

That meeting turned out to have the biggest impact on me. One weekday, we went into the meeting room, sat down, and waited. Jim actually arrived on time but got barricaded just 5 meters from the door. That week was a marathon for him, yet when he finally entered the room, he was full of energy and genuinely happy to chat with us.

Right away, he cut to the chase and explained what he wanted from this meeting. He wanted us to walk out knowing, without a doubt, that he understood Data Management is crucial. That we had to face the consequences of upstream decisions — and that we handled it brilliantly, without letting quality drop. That in the meetings with our top clients, Data Management was the quickest to go from orange to green, and the most stable at staying green.

What a relief. We were all clapping and smiling, genuinely proud. The most senior people in our department couldn’t believe it. Never before had a manager spoken to us like that.

Then Jim pulled out his phone to take notes and simply said: “Ok, what do you need? You know it better, I just have to listen.” Then he added, jokingly: “See, my job isn’t that hard.”

So we went around the table, each of us sharing our piece, highlighting what worked and what didn’t. Honestly, I don’t even remember what I said — because I already had what I needed.

Then Jim moved to something he was clearly telling everyone that week. He started with a bet: “I bet you 30% of your time is spent on things that don’t matter.” He challenged us to find activities we could stop doing, and nobody would care. Instantly, everyone thought of the same thing: that dreaded report we all did and all hated. It was for upper management, indirectly for Jim himself. But he looked at us and asked: “Do I need that report.” And just like that, it was decided — we dropped that report

The meeting continued, and I don’t recall the setup for what he said next, but it stuck with me ever since. Jim shared what would become my professional motto:
“When it’s time to make a decision, ask yourself: Is it good for the client? Is it good for the company? Is it good for your team? If yes — then do it. If it’s good for the client, the company, and your people — then do it!”

“10% of the time it won’t be good. But I’ll take those odds.”

Over the years, as I made that statement my own and grew into a Product role, I added one more part: If it’s good for the client, the company, and your people — then do it. If you can’t tell, then go figure it out.

Years later, reading Marty Cagan’s Inspired, I realized that what Jim had poured into that sentence was the very essence of Product Discovery: customer value, feasibility, usability, business viability, and ethics.

Anyway — thank you, Jim.

As a Project Manager, when I returned from parental leave, I was handed a running study—a big one with high stakes and high risks. It was very demanding, and the relationships between the Sponsor, the CRO, and vendors were tense. Not everything was going well. Clinical trials involve a lot of red tape, and when a study is at risk, you want to think quickly on your feet to move past it, but the execution is slow.

Right away, I felt the delicate position we were in. I decided to schedule one-on-one meetings with both of the main leads, who had grown somewhat frustrated over the past months. To earn respect and trust, appease all stakeholders, and make my life easier, I decided (with the support of my hierarchy) to ask both leads to give me three things they wanted done in three days. The short turnaround time was my way of getting achievable goals from the two leads. Luckily, this one time, they wanted the same things. I dropped everything and went to great lengths to ensure those three things happened—and they did.

From then on, we went through hard times and good times, but I never let them down, and neither did the two leads. The frustration level remained manageable, and everybody worked hard to keep it that way. When you build a team with trust and respect, you produce empowerment. It’s like rowing hard in a storm, with the person next to you rowing even harder. My career evolved, and I left the project before its end, but we delivered the study successfully. My company gained more business from that client. A few years later, the medication was approved and introduced to the market, reaching millions of people and improving their lives.