Hello Reader, Everyone in our world is talking about AI productivity gains. The numbers being thrown around are bold: 10x faster, 10x more output, 10x the capacity. The research I’ve seen suggests real-world productivity gains from AI are often more modest than the headline numbers. So when Creatio named their major platform release the “10x Release”, I wanted to see what they actually mean by it. That’s one of the reasons I’m tuning in to Creatio’s 10x Release event on July 15. Creatio is...
8 days ago • 1 min read
Hello Reader, I get messages fairly regularly from people who are part-way through the Google Project Management Certificate and have started wondering whether it's actually going to lead anywhere. Which is a very reasonable thing to wonder, and I'd rather give you an honest answer than a cheerful one. The short version is that it can genuinely open doors, particularly if you're moving into project management from another field or you're in the early stages of your career and need something...
16 days ago • 1 min read
Hello Reader, One of the things nobody really prepares you for in project management is how isolating it can be, not in a dramatic way, just in the ordinary day-to-day sense of having problems you can't fully articulate to your team, questions you can't ask your stakeholders, and situations where the textbook answer is technically correct but completely useless in the actual context you're dealing with. Most project managers don't have a peer group. You might have colleagues, but they're busy...
23 days ago • 1 min read
Hello Reader, Most project managers don’t actually manage “their” team. We manage people who report to someone else. Welcome to matrix life! If you’ve ever tried to: Negotiate resource availability Handle conflicting priorities Run a meeting that doesn’t derail Get alignment without formal authority …you know the plan is only half the job. Most of what I seem to spend my days doing is negotiating, trying to get the right people to show up, slotting my work around other people's priorities...
30 days ago • 1 min read
Hello Reader, I've been asked more than once by project managers who are quietly worried about it: what do you do when your RAG status doesn’t tell the full story? The traffic light is green. Technically everything is on track. And yet you have this nagging feeling that something’s not quite right, a dependency that’s wobbling, a sponsor who’s gone quiet, a team that’s delivering but only just, and they're not as proactive as they used to be. RAG is a simple tool for a complicated job, and...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Hello Reader, Let’s talk about your schedule. Is it: A) Calm, realistic and under controlB) Optimistic but technically possibleC) Held together with hope and conditional formatting No judgement. (At least, not much!) Scheduling is one of those core PM skills that looks simple… until you’re actually doing it. I’ve pulled together my best articles on project scheduling into one place, from estimating and building timelines through to managing slippage and dealing with reality when it hits....
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Hello Reader, So you’ve just started a new project, and you’re not sure what you’re supposed to create. Do you need a project charter? Or will a Terms of Reference (ToR) do the job? The challenge is that neither document has a single universal definition, so if you join a new company and find they use ToRs instead of Charters, then it can be hard to know what they are actually looking for as part of project governance. And don’t get me started on how Project Initiation Documents fit in! Let’s...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Hello Reader, Whether you’re actively job hunting or just quietly wondering what your next step looks like, career progression in project management doesn’t happen by accident. We have to make a plan, move towards it, and take active steps to get what we want... something I've been very bad at recently! I've been thinking about going for a certification, reading about it and making a folder to store my notes in... but not actually doing anything towards it (although does watching a webinar...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Hello Reader, If you’re juggling too many deadlines, too many meetings, and too many “quick questions”, this one’s for you. Project management productivity isn’t about working longer hours. If anything, that's the opposite of what to do, that's the way to burnout and lack of focus. I feel more productive when I'm working deliberately. I’ve pulled together my best articles on productivity, time management, and work–life balance into one place so you can reset how you’re working, if you feel...
2 months ago • 1 min read