Meet Yanik Sourisseau

Hi, I am Yanik Sourisseau, I am currently the Director of Consulting Services at Informanix Technology Group, and a regular emcee at PMI-MB events.

I am fortunate to know and work with many of you and I never stop being impressed by our chapter and the humans that make up our professional community.  While my first choice is always to be with my family or out for a run (no matter the weather), I am grateful for the opportunities when I get to engage with my fellow project professionals. I often think back and reflect on how I came to this place.

“It’s always darkest at night”

About a thousand years ago, and only a couple years out of university, I was an eager Account Manager, working tirelessly to bring an online banking tool to a larger market. At the time, our biggest sales challenge wasn't the product itself, but its fundamental requirement: real-time, un-interrupted connectivity. Our Architects suggested a solution that was admittedly unorthodox and not widely tested, yet they were confident it would work. I leaned on my sales training, doing my best to understand the customer's true needs and build a winning proposal around our ability to deliver on that ambitious vision.

We secured the opportunity, and I brought the good news back to the Team, only to find out the proposed model was little more than an untested back of the napkin solution. That's where the struggle began. I spent many months watching them wrestle with the connectivity issues, constantly having to push them forward while simultaneously managing escalating customer expectations as our schedule slipped. We were testing solutions in real-time, dealing with real-world hurdles that challenged our product quality and delivery timeline. It felt like a constant exercise in firefighting.

The turning point came one evening at a Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce mixer, where Red River College was promoting their Project Management program. I immediately read the brochures and was hooked. Could there really be a specialized discipline tailored exactly to the product challenges and delivery chaos I was experiencing? I took the materials back to the office, asked for support, and registered for night classes that same week. For me, that was the start of a new career. While I learned the rigorous, disciplinary framework of project management, I was drawn into a new life and it has been very rewarding. While I would not say the project that started it all was ultimately a success, it permanently altered my life for the better. 

Understand the “why”, and the “how” will start to show itself (shout out to Simon Sinek).

It’s been almost 25 years since that first project, and a lot has changed. I have managed many more projects and changed roles many times. I have met so many amazing people and been so inspired by the incredible talent all around this planet. But over that time, I have also realized the profound value of what I brought from my past: the perspective of an Account and Delivery Manager. A good sales professional understands a customer’s needs to ensure the solution meets them, rather than simply selling a product they may or may not need. This skill translated directly into project management, helping me to understand and empathize with key stakeholders, the end users, the sponsors, and even the project team,  to ensure the result was truly what the customer wanted.

This lesson still holds true today. I have delivered projects that were on time, on budget, and within scope, only to bereceived by the customer with a mixed response, as if they had hoped we had tried to better understand their needs rather than just literally delivering their initial request. Conversely, I’ve delivered projects that were over budget, overtime, and wildly different from the original plan due to numerous change orders, yet the customers were neither upset by the delays nor frustrated by the cost overruns. They were truly grateful that we made the effort to deliver the solution that met their needs. As AI gets more powerful, the technical side of project management will be increasingly automated, making the need for the administrative side of our roles decreasingly relevant. Deep emotional connection to people on the project, the mission, the burning platform, and the purpose of our projects is something that it is going to take a long time to automate.

"Lead with your authenticity."

My biggest lesson so far is one I lean on regularly: Find your differentiator. Not simply my own self reflection that my Account Management experience helped me be a better project manager, but for anyone. The skills you bring to project management—are almost as valuable as the formal knowledge that you learn. They become your superpower.  Remember that you have your own unique value and find a way to infuse it into your work. That’s how the work becomes something more than a job and people will see it in what you bring to the project.

 

Yanik Sourisseau

Director of Consulting Services

Informanix Technology Group

 

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