Questions to Ask At the End of a Client Project To Consolidate Your Learnings

A consultant’s life can be fast-paced — jumping from project to project with no time in between to reflect and consolidate learnings. If you work in a project-based, consulting environment, consider carving out time to pause and reflect. Even 20 mins should suffice. Ask yourself these reflection questions.

Subject matter

1. What was I most surprised to learn in this project, pertaining to the particular subject area?
2. What was I hoping to learn, but did not encounter?
3. What did I learn about human behaviour through diving into this topic that I add to my view of the world?
4. What did I learn about society through engaging with this topic that add value to other projects?

Client

1. How were my clients’ needs different from other businesses in the same sector?
2. How were my clients’ needs and interaction different from businesses in other sectors?
3. Based on my learnings from this project, where do I think my client still needs support — unmet needs and challenges — that I can see and feel confident about raising and adding value in?

Team

1. What did I enjoy the most about working with my project team?
2. Did my team members teach me anything about doing my job better — processes, methods, outlook etc?
3. Did I learn/ experience something that I felt unsafe raising with my team. If so, why?

Self

1. Overall, how did I feel about this project?
2. What did I learn about myself as a professional — what are my strengths and growth areas?
3. Was this project within my comfort zone?
4. During what moments in project did I stretch out of my comfort zone? How did that feel?
5. What fundamental truth did I learn or have reinforced through working on this project — about culture, business, strategy, research (or any other topic)?

Do you have a reflection ritual after a project ends? Let me know what questions would you add to this.

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