For the first time, Kate and Kim find an Agilist brave enough to join them on the podcast to talk about some really hard questions about working Agile vs Waterfall. Let's get it on! We ask the questions that PM's want to ask - frustrated, annoyed PM's who are told to work "agile" by people who maybe don't even understand Agile - or Waterfall, for that matter. In this refreshingly honest talk about the reality of ways of working, Kate, Kim and their guest Agilist, David Asch, talk in real-world t...
May 14, 2024•1 hr 11 min
Project Management is weird. You can have the same job title and be a very tactical execution-minded project manager - which is the way most of us start. Or you can be a strategic part of the leadership team, recognized for your ability to help executives make their vision a reality. So, how do you develop yourself from tactical implementer to strategic partner? This episode we are joined by two experienced leaders, Ralph Kliem and Gregg Richie, who have made this transition, and rose to provide...
Apr 16, 2024•1 hr 9 min
Meetings. Love them or hate them, they are core to what we do as project leaders. We need to pull people together (real or virtually) to discuss, plan, check-in, and get things done. But as we know, when we get people together, sometimes their misbehaviors - "goblins" - tag along, too! Being able to manage effective meetings can make or break us as PMs. And learning how to manage these misbehaviors in meetings can make or break each meeting. Fortunately, we have help! This episode we are joined ...
Feb 16, 2024•1 hr 2 min
"What percent done are you?" Status reporting is a core skill (and responsibility) of project managers. It is an opportunity for you to check in with your team, and to build rapport and engagement with stakeholders. But it's also something we often take for granted. In this episode, Kate and Kim talk about how to approach status reporting whether your project is big or small, and how to leverage this key communication point to help with overall project success. Why Status Reporting? Essential fo...
Dec 26, 2023•47 min
Being a project manager is tough. You are assigned a team of people who may never have with each other (or you) before, and you need to lead them to accomplish a task, solve a problem, or create a new deliverable. And by definition, this is a unique task - so it hasn't been done before, at least not in this way, for these stakeholders. In among these challenges is perhaps the toughest one: you have to lead this group of people. As project managers, these people almost never report to us - someon...
Sep 19, 2023•43 min
It can be hard getting a project started correctly: getting the right executive and stakeholder sponsorship and support, getting them all to agree on the scope and approach, getting funding, approvals, and all the other things required to get a project off the ground. You negotiate with other departments and get committed resource assignments and timelines. You finally get your amazing project off the ground, you're humming along then, BOOM! The organization changes. Your stakeholders change. Yo...
Aug 10, 2023•47 min
Projects are hard. And a lot of them - maybe most of them - fail to live up to their expectations. Missed timelines, quality issues, budget overages, customer dissatisfaction - it seems sometimes like projects miss the mark more often than they hit it. But why is that? What can we learn from all those past projects that can help us make future projects more successful? This is the question Jim Johnson set out to understand. In his years with the Standish Group, he and his team set the benchmark ...
Jul 06, 2023•41 min
Creative decision making is key to what we do in all our projects. According to FourSight, there are 4 distinct voices in the decision making process. Do you have these voices in the room when you make decisions? Do you know when you need all 4 voices - or only a couple specific ones? We are joined today by Teresa Lawrence who gave one of the most fun and engaging talks at this past year's PMI Global Summit in Las Vegas. She talks us through the FourSight approach to creative problem solving, th...
May 17, 2023•1 hr 9 min
"I know the world is ending, but do you have wifi here?" Sounds funny, but it's deadly serious. Natural disasters impact critical infrastructure that we depend on every day: shelter, fresh water, food distribution, and power. These are the ones we think about. But what about communication? How do relief agencies, police, fire, and government coordinate a disaster response when there is no power, no cell signal, no wifi? How do community members communicate with each other, find out where to get ...
Apr 07, 2023•46 min
Decisions make or break your project - starting with the decision of whether or not to even do your project. Beyond that, we have planned decisions / phase gates and ad-hoc decisions that happen throughout the entire life of our project. And if you've been around long enough, you know that one bad decision can sink your whole project - or at least have it taking on water, fast. So, how should we approach decision making in a logical way which helps ensure that: The right decisions get made Decis...
Feb 28, 2023•1 hr 6 min
Yeah! One of our favorite guests, Tim Creasey, returns! This time we are talking about what happens if you realize, too late in the game, that you really didn't consider Change Management enough in your planning cycle. It's such a universal experience of a project manager to not have change management, and so many of us end up in these situations where we struggle to see the real benefits of a change we've implemented. We figured: why not start where most of us end up: in trouble! Join Kate and ...
Jan 10, 2023•1 hr
As a project manager, the time you get with an executive sponsor is critical: you don't get much of it and you cannot blow it! For many of our listeners, you may be new to executive meetings. But, how do you get the most out of these meetings and give a good impression so you can get the confidence of your executive sponsors? It's something we ALL struggle with and can all get better with. On today's show, Kate and Kim talk through how to win with these meetings. Jokingly the 30/60/90 minute pla...
Dec 22, 2022•1 hr 1 min
Tech startups drive the technology around us, and a good bit of the economy. They use creativity, ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit to solve problems and build the world of tomorrow. But how do they do that? Is it really like the "Shark Tank" or "Dragon's Den" tv shows? Today we are joined by a real-life tech founder who has successfully built his company and introduced a new tool to the market - a PM tool, no less! Pete Bernardo, founder of Punchlist tells us about the project behind foundin...
Sep 29, 2022•56 min
When the first Covid vaccinations were released, massive vaccination sites were launched, seemingly overnight, to vaccinate millions of people. If you volunteered or were vaccinated at one of these sites, you may have witnessed how huge, sophisticated and well run these sites were. But how did they do that? How (and who) planned, organized, stood up and ran these massive sites vaccinating thousands of people a day - at a time when you couldn't even hardly hold an in-person meeting? Kim volunteer...
Aug 30, 2022•46 min
This episode is based on feedback we've had from our member 1:1 coaching sessions, one of the benefits we provide our PM Happy Hour members. Many PM's find themselves in a position where they are the first project manager in their organization. Whether you are a newbie or an experienced pro, this will be a challenge. The organization probably has a low (or no) level of project management maturity, no organizational concept of what project management is or how to make projects succeed, and probab...
Jul 19, 2022•42 min
OK, originally this was going to be an April Fool's goof podcast, but it turned out to be a lot of fun and maybe a bit educational. But, nope, it's not your usual PMHH episode, and DEFINITELY not your typical PM podcast. So, if you are looking for something serious and academic, this episode is not the one for you. Kate will be your dungeon master in this fun (and, yeah, weird) episode! Kate walks Kim through building his PM character, then takes him through a tabletop RPG (role playing game) of...
Jun 14, 2022•57 min
PMs are accountable for project success. As such, we are keenly aware when things are failing! And because most PM's are process and goal oriented, we can think of a lot of ways to improve an organization. But how do you propose a change in a way that gets support - instead of damnation? If you don't do it right, pitching a change can sound a lot like giving a bunch of other people more work to do, or telling everyone else that they've been doing it 'wrong' for the last 10 years, and you as a fr...
May 24, 2022•38 min
Wouldn't it be cool if everyone followed all the processes we built? If everyone on our team followed the PMBOK or SCRUM methodologies perfectly every single time and every estimate we ever received was perfectly accurate? Of course that doesn't happen. But did you ever stop to think - why? Well, our guest today has. Dr. Josh Ramirez has combed the scientific literature on human behavior and combined that with his love of project management to help explain why people do the things they do - and ...
Apr 19, 2022•1 hr 19 min
"I am in way over my head." "I have no business doing this job" "I am totally not worthy of this role" "There is no way I'm qualified to do this" Have you ever told this to yourself? You may be infected with Imposter Syndrome! That's OK - all highly capable people, especially project managers, find themselves with this affliction at one time or another - and again and again :-) Not only can Imposter Syndrome take the fun and motivation out of your job, we see it holding many professionals back f...
Mar 02, 2022•48 min
The same way sports teams have coaches to help optimize their performance, organizations can engage PM coaches to help their project management team win. In this episode, we are joined by Heather Gates, a PM coach who has worked to help develop project managers across many organizations. In this episode, Heather shares a few of her top coaching tips in some key areas: Self Awareness Communication Time Management Stakeholder Management Cross functional Collaboration About our amazing guest, Heath...
Feb 04, 2022•53 min
Did you ever watch the credits at the end of a movie and think, "wow, that's a lot of people?" You're right. Hundreds or thousands of people engaged to deliver a massive, multi-million dollar project that is a feature film. How do they do that? Our guest today walks us through the project behind a feature film: how do they plan a movie? How do they get funding? Who is really the PM in charge of pulling this thing off? (hint: it's not the director) This episode is a trial of a new format, "The Pr...
Jan 12, 2022•1 hr 18 min
We are joined again by one of our favorite guests, Tim Creasey, Organizational Change Wizard. This time he shares 12 different methods for creating better alignment with your team and your stakeholders. In this first part of a 2 part episode, we share the first 6 of these hacks to help get two people on the same page. 7- Marathon Measures 8- Context and Contrast 9- Zoom 10- Top of Mind Not Top Priority 11- Progress Over Perfection 12- Time and Place If you missed part 1, you can find it here . A...
Dec 01, 2021•56 min
We are joined again by one of our favorite guests, Tim Creasey, Organizational Change Wizard. This time he shares 12 different methods for creating better alignment with your team and your stakeholders. In this first part of a 2 part episode, we share the first 6 of these hacks to help get two people on the same page. Pivot around Purpose "To What End?" To _____ By_____ statement Name it to tame it Matching Matters Solution Laps About our amazing guest, Tim Creasey An author, researcher, change ...
Nov 23, 2021•1 hr 11 min
The Ironman Triathlon. Without exaggeration, it is truly one of the most epic endurance events that a mortal human can participate in: 140.6 miles covered in a single day by swimming, biking and running. As epic as it is to participate in an Ironman, it may be even more daunting to plan and manage one. 140+ miles of race course. 3 totally different disciplines (Swim, Bike, Run). As many as 2,000 - 3,000 participants. Literally tons of food and drink to get out across the course. Thousands of vol...
Sep 23, 2021•1 hr 11 min
Project Managers are agents of change. Whether your project changes organizations, technologies, infrastructure or processes, the success of your project likely depends on *people* actually using your deliverables. But how much of your project is really focused on those people and helping them understand and make those changes? Spoiler: Kate *totally* nerds out on this one :-) After we recorded this, Kate and Kim quoted Tim to just about everyone they met. Mic drops! In this podcast we are joine...
Aug 16, 2021•1 hr 11 min
You're a PM and you have landed on a strange new world where you don't know the industry, the organization the people or the subject matter. How do you get oriented enough to intelligently deliver a project? How do you succeed in this alien environment? In this episode, Kate and Kim talk about how to approach getting up to speed when you are faced with leading a project in a new department, new company, new domain or totally new industry where you don't know the subject matter. In summary: Get a...
Jun 22, 2021•40 min
Whether you are hiring project managers or hope to get hired, do you know what hiring managers should be looking for? What's going on in a hiring managers mind when they look at your resume and when they interview you? In this episode we are joined by Matt Henderson - a long time PMO manager who has hired hundreds of project managers. In fact, at one point he managed both Kate and Kim. How on earth did he manage two such unruly PMs?! We'll maybe cover that in another episode. In this episode, Ma...
May 17, 2021•52 min
If you are a PM working in or with a large enterprise, you may have heard of ITSM, or the ITIL framework. And you may well have been asked to create additional deliverables and go through some processes to support ITSM. But what is it? How does it work? Why is it good for organizations? And as a PM, what do I typically need to do to support it? And, what's the difference between ITSM and ITIL? To help us better understand ITIL and ITSM, we are joined today by one of the most respected experts in...
Apr 06, 2021•1 hr 5 min
If your project customers are external to your organization, you have a lot more to worry about than the success of your project. You also have the carry the weight of building and maintaining a relationship with your organization's customer. And if you do it wrong... you are toast! In this episode, Kim shares some points from training that he gives to new Project Managers that are transitioning from "internal" facing projects to "external," customer facing projects. Follow along and learn how t...
Mar 09, 2021•38 min
Are you trying to get into the field of Project Management? Or, are you ready for the next step and to move out of the PM field? This week Kate and Kim have a very special guest, Ben Aston, the host of The Digital Project Manager podcast - one of our favorite PM podcasts. Kate, Kim and Ben talk about how to break into the field of Project Management, and talk about what may lay beyond project management. In either case, we share our experience and some examples to help you with your transition. ...
Dec 01, 2020•1 hr 26 min
