I was at a family dinner talking about a project that I was working on and my nephew asked, “What does a project manager do?”
I froze. The best answer I could come up with was:
“…uh, they manage projects.”
Not exactly inspiring.
When I first started working as a project manager I hated calling myself a project manager. Most of the groups that I worked with didn’t respect project management, they didn’t understand what a Project Management Office (PMO) was, they thought project managers were kill-joys managing all of the creativity and exploration out of a project, and they didn’t understand how impactful a good project manager could be. They looked at project managers as a necessary evil because they all had fuzzy definitions of what a project manager was, and to be honest, back then, so did I.
Too many companies look for the wrong things when they hire Project Managers:
The clipboard-carrying, process police who live and die by Gantt charts, or the chaos wranglers who just chase tasks and resources around until the project is done. These project managers face challenges with scope, timelines, budgets, and the usefulness or effectiveness of the projects that they deliver. The first group delivers something that is an idealized concept, but that nobody actually wanted and doesn’t meet the practical application. The second group delivers what was asked for, but it doesn’t always align to business goals and becomes a maintenance nightmare; and these solutions are never on time or on budget.
The truth? Good project management isn’t about being hyper-organized or just “keeping the trains running.” It’s about:
- Understanding the business goals.
- Knowing when to apply process (and when to bend it).
- Keeping the team aligned without smothering them in bureaucracy.
- Recognizing problems and solving them before they derail everything.
These are the things that separate a successful project manager from the herd.
This blog is full of anecdotal experiences in my journey from a mediocre project wrangler to a product leader. I point out some bad habits, break down what has worked for me, show how to identify and stay ahead of potential issues, talk about the underlying conflicts with some of the common challenges, and maybe ruffle a few feathers along the way.
Because the truth is, no one should hate project managers. Hopefully this book will shed some light on some of the misunderstandings, misalignments, and help you resolve some of the frustrations as you understand some of the goals, objectives, and motivates different departments have on large scale enterprise projects.