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Saturday, February 16
Sat, Feb 16, 8:00 AM - 9:15 AM
St. James Ballroom
Poster Session 3 and Continental Breakfast

Building Effective Research Teams: Bridging the Gap Between Project Managers and Technical Specialists (303918)

*Richard Lee Harding, ICF 
Deirdre Middleton, ICF 
Olivia Saucier, ICF 
Wen Song, ICF 

Keywords: effective communication, management,

Research teams, particularly survey research teams, often have a variety of staff member with varied backgrounds. Within our organization, our survey research teams range from staff with more technical specialties, like the statistician and data programmers, to the more managerial expertise like our project managers and data collection supervisors. This poster looks at five pain points, communication, expectations, staffing, timelines, and responsiveness that can cause break downs within a research team. Problems can arise due to a multitude of factors—from team members’ location, work styles, communication styles, technical and non-technical jargon, level of experience and level of technical expertise. We provide examples of problems and solutions within the five areas, as well as best practices to effectively manage and mitigate issues within each area.