Divya and her career as Account Manager

Name: Divya Diwakar
Position: Account Manager

My name's Divya Diwakar and my role at Prototype as Account Manager is to ensure client's projects deliver as promised. I'm a go-between, a peacemaker and a list-maker. Those are the essential skills in this role.

A lot of being an account manager is project management: briefing the team on the latest project and managing the process as well as keeping everyone informed and up-to-speed, especially if requirements change. It's not uncommon for some aspects of projects to evolve - clients have their own pressures and may need to move the goalposts, or we may discover an innovative solution that changes other aspects of the project. People need to know about it ASAP.

Communication is at the heart of everything I do and it's important to ensure people have the information they need as soon as they need it, if not before. Each part of the team can only do their job well if I've done mine so there is a lot of responsibility to ensure the requirements are well-defined and changes are fed through quickly. I'll keep the client briefed on our progress and escalate matters when there are issues. My BSc in Computer Applications underpins my ability to get the tech side of things, though I decided not to go down the programmer route. I get a buzz from dealing with the clients. It's more me!

Since coming onboard, my role has developed so alongside project management, I'm involved in building the relationships with our existing clients developing new projects and helping them get the most from their digital offering. But now I also regularly have meetings and calls with prospective clients as well. I must say that, organisation is the key to managing it all!

The most important tools I use are gmail and OnePage CRM - it's a great tool for managing the relationship with the clients and new leads. It helps ensure we follow up appropriately. But I still love my spreadsheets and my calendar. I'd be lost without my diary and to-do list!

As part of our ethos at Prototype, we feel it's important to understand the technologies we work with and utilise new technologies. It's how we stay at the cutting edge and I always keep an eye on what's new.

On the client side, Alex set up a fun and educational game for the whole team called Sharing Success. The aim is to help us think outside the box by updating each other about recent client wins. We get together to review and share what we've learned from past projects. Someone might speak about how they sorted out a tricky problem so we all learn from it. We believe that teamwork is the key to smooth project flows and a happy work environment.

Divya has been a part of Prototype digital innovation agency since 2015.

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