Tim Hylan is Vice President of Pfizer’s Internal Medicine Field Medical Director Group. In our latest Expert Q&A, he speaks to us about why he works with freelance pharma consultants—and how one of BTG’s freelance project managers helped him launch an internal SharePoint site on time and on budget.
You contacted Business Talent Group for project management help on an important but temporary initiative. Can you tell me about the project?
We were working on a SharePoint site that we wanted to create for 6,000 colleagues across the organization globally. As the project leader, I was charged with creating it from scratch, and I had a team of fifteen subject-matter experts around the world. I have a full-time job in medical affairs, so I needed help managing the project. But because it was something new, we didn’t know whether the role would be sustainable after the initial launch. A colleague of mine at Pfizer connected me with BTG, and that’s how we came to engage freelance pharma project leader Pam Yourish.
I’ve said many times that the project wouldn’t have gotten done without Pam’s leadership.
What was it like to work with Business Talent Group?
Sometimes, when you work with outside consultants, there’s a lot of back-and-forth about what the problem really is. BTG heard our requirements and identified the right person, not only from the standpoint of technical competency but in terms of personality and fit. Everything about the project’s contracting and management was seamless; BTG was always on top of the details.
What was it like to work with Pam?
Pam was very purposeful, and she listened carefully to what we needed to do. She asked the right questions, and her attention to detail was critical to the project. She helped us flesh out a framework to use to develop the content, and she worked closely with the developers to review deliverables as they came back.
For everyone else, this was not their day job. Pam focused on it exclusively, so the buck usually ended up stopping with her, and she did a lot to make sure that things got done on time. Thanks to her independence, she was also able to say things that I might not have been able to as the project’s leader, so her objectivity was key.
What about the project’s launch?
We were ready to go on the day we’d all agreed to launch, thanks in large part to Pam’s leadership. And the site got a lot of accolades, which was really a proud moment. It went far beyond what our executive stakeholders had envisioned was possible, and in fact, I recently learned that the project team and site were nominated for an Annual Achievement award in Pfizer’s Worldwide Research and Development and Medical organization—the organization’s highest accolade.
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