The higher you move up the management ladder, the fewer people you have to answer to. If gone unchecked, this can be a bad thing and the company might suffer because of it. One way to gauge the success of a managed project is to ask the client for whom the project was created. Nobody knows better than the client how effective you and your team were at delivering the desired results in the desired time frame.

When the project first begins, you obviously want to get the client’s input on many things. You want to know in what medium they like to receive correspondence. Do they like email? Do they prefer in-person meetings? And also, how often do they like these check-ins to take place? All of these questions should be asked and answered at the launch of the project. But how often do companies go back to those original specifications and grade themselves? Not very often.

Post project reviews allow you to revisit your original project plan and determine how well you and your team delivered on those promises. Ask the client where your team can improve, as well as what areas you succeeded in. Make sure that you take the suggestions and criticisms to heart. Even if you have had a trouble client for the past 6 months who disliked everything you did for them, you can still learn from their input and possibly sort out the root of the issue and prevent this from happening with other clients in the future.