I help project professionals get more done with less stress. Having been a project manager for over 20 years, I share tried-and-tested tips that work in the real world, every Tuesday. Join our community of over 15,000 project professionals (and accidental project managers too!).
Join my PM Master Quest team
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Hello Reader, PM Master Quest is a free 30-day project management challenge, and it's back this September! I've been corresponding with the founder, Olivia Pekny, for a few years now, and it's great to see how much this has grown from a quick quiz to a real community event. A new story-driven project situation opens every day in September. Answer the question and track your progress. Last year I didn't manage to do it every day, but I still enjoyed the days I did do. This year, there's the option to have teams, so I've set one up for us! If you'd like to join my team, create an account and use the code RGPM26 when it prompts you to enter your team code. If you want to join a workplace team with your colleagues, I think you'll need a different email address for that, and you can still join on your own as well. Each challenge is short enough to fit into a normal workday, but still gives you a realistic project situation worth spending your time on. What’s new for 2026?More practical challenges, with less focus on memorised knowledge and more focus on decisions, trade-offs, and realistic project situations. A new and more interactive website, with an improved challenge experience. Golden Challenges, where both accuracy and speed matter. There's no charge to get involved, so share the info with the rest of your PM colleagues and let's see how we get on! Have a great week! best wishes, Elizabeth P.S. You might have missed on the blog:
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Calling all Rebel Project Managers!
I help project professionals get more done with less stress. Having been a project manager for over 20 years, I share tried-and-tested tips that work in the real world, every Tuesday. Join our community of over 15,000 project professionals (and accidental project managers too!).
Hello Reader, I believe that some of the old comms tools aren't good enough any more. Take the communication matrix. It's a classic tool where you list out the stakeholder group, what information they need, what format you are going to provide it in, the frequency of update and the owner. Nothing is inherently wrong with it, but it describes the production and distribution of communication, not communication effectiveness. Shouldn't we be asking instead: What does the audience need to...
Hello Reader, What's the point of a gate review? It's easy to let one blur into just another status meeting on the calendar. A gate review is a control point: a go or no-go decision on whether the project should continue. It's a formal governance step, not a progress update. At a normal status meeting, you're reporting how things are going. At a gate review, the reviewers should be working from agreed criteria and evidence, and actually deciding whether the project carries on, pauses or...
Hello Reader, There are problems you can solve with a framework, a course, or a meeting. And then there are the problems where you have a pretty good idea of the lay of the land, you just need someone to think it through with you. Not because you don't know anything about it, but because you've got too much context and you're too close to it to think clearly. You know what the textbook says. You know what you'd probably advise someone else to do. But when it's your project, your stakeholder,...