Episode 174: How to embrace project management in your agency with Tim Johnson

Agencies are creative spaces. Especially as owners, we may bristle at the thought of being managed. But as your agency grows, there a definite need for systems and processes that ensure that things get done on time, on budget, and as promised.

I understand that even as the owner I get managed in order to keep tasks and projects on track. As agencies grow and need more structured management of tasks and processes and eventually, a full-time project manager. I did a solocast on the role of the traffic manager, if you’d find that useful.

But on this episode of Build A Better Agency, I have Timothy Johnson as my guest who is a seasoned project manager for hire and a professor of project management at Drake University. Tim also has been known to wear a pink bunny suit for reasons I may or may not be at liberty to discuss.

Bunny suit aside, Tim knows a thing or two about getting down to business. We talk about the needs of project managers, agency owners, and the agency staff. Often project managers feel like the odd person out, especially in the agency world. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Project management is necessary, but it is not an evil. Tim is the perfect guest to help us really understand the ins and outs of project management, and maybe even getting a little excited about upping your PM game.

Tim has successfully led many high-end projects and programs, serving as both a project management consultant as well as a business analyst consultant across the U.S. He is the author of Race Through the Forest and other project management books. Timothy believes in delivering value, completing the deliverable, seizing the accomplishment, and getting out.

What You Will Learn in This Episode:

• Working under the triple constraints: on time, on budget, and delivered as promised
• Components of a S.H.A.R.P. report
• How Agile is so useful in scaling the management to the size of the project
• The communication and other skills to look for in a good project manager
• How creating quick wins can create buy-in around new process frameworks
• Why you should avoid the phrases “we need” or “we have a lack of”
• How to ask for project management to share stories in the interview
• Why agency owners need to hire people who can manage them
• How to define the specific requirements of what done looks like
• How to give project managers time to find their way in a new agency setting          

Ways to Contact Tim Johnson:

• Race Through the Forest Book: https://amzn.to/2QNj9Yx
• Website: https://carpefactum.typepad.com/