Control-Command-Shift Your Perspective: A few thoughts on strategic project management

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Control-Command-Shift Your Perspective October 23, 2023 A few thoughts on strategic project management by Brett Harned

HELLO, FRIENDS! 20+ years of experience leading digital teams Experience in higher education, large and small agencies, product development, and marketing Empathic leader and direct communicator Mentored and coached dozens of project managers, designers, managers, and owners Founded the Digital PM Summit Authored Project Management for Humans brett@sameteampartners.com linkedin.com/in/brettharned/ C I R C U M V I T A T E E M A I L 3. The Achiever - Success oriented and pragmatic 2. The Helper - Caring, interpersonal, and generous 1. The Reformer - Principled and purposeful Cognitive Style Creative Imaginative Unconventional Forward-Thinking E N F J Values Style Passionate Empathetic Supportive Warm Energy Style Enthusiastic Gregarious Sociable   Expressive E N N E A G R A M M E Y E R S B R I G G S

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SAME TEAM PARTNERS We know agencies and creative teams, and the many challenges they face.

What is Strategic PM?

Strategic project management (SPM) defines how a project may benefit a company's efficiency and strategic plan as a whole. It is the process of thinking about your projects in light of their connection to your strategic plan.” “ — Cascade Strategy

This requires: Clear organizational vision and goals Clear PM goals and metrics A collaborative, accountable and empathetic team Flexibility and enthusiasm

Can you do this?

Why do you want to talk about this?

Why aren’t DPMs seen as strategic? Everything we do is repeatable Strategy is another role We focus on project profitability We often work with account managers Teams dictate process

It’s time to evolve your practice.

You can spark the evolution of DPM

Ditch dogma Learn leadership Exercise empathy Command curiosity

Ditch dogma

This teams needs someone to push us to evolve our practice.” “ — Agency development leader

Deliver Develop Define Discovery The dream…

Deliver Develop Define Discovery The reality

— Colin Powell Fit no stereotypes. Don’t chase the latest management fads. The situation dictates which approach best accomplishes the team’s mission” “

A quick illustration

Why they don’t actually work Waterfall Agile

Why they don’t actually work Waterfall Agile Creates silos Hand-offs No room for change Clients Meant for iteration Clients & approvals Team & staffing Budgets & deadlines

Mix it up to get the best results… Hybrid Sprints & milestones Clients & approvals Collaboration, iteration, innovation Deadline & scope driven

©2023 workwith@sameteampartners.com Control-Command-Shift Your Perspective Kick Off Launch! Iterate Standups
Sprint Planning Hybrid Process v1 Project Brief and Requirements Process and Clients Approvals Research Sprints Design Development Q&A Retrospectives Status Updates

©2023 workwith@sameteampartners.com Control-Command-Shift Your Perspective Kick Off Launch! Standups Sprint
Planning Hybrid Process v2 Project Brief and Requirements Developer Sprints Research Retrospectives Status Updates Client Approval Design and Iterations Client Approval

Benefits to consider Holistic approach Focus on improvement Best of Waterfall and Agile Ability to adapt

Challenges to consider Practical experience Stakeholder (client) understanding Flexibility Communications

When crafting your process, consider Project goals Team/talent Stakeholders/clients Scope Deadline

How to implement Examine Plan Confirm Review Adjust

Examine your project: Size and type Large vs. small Hard deadline vs. open-ended end date Scope vs. free-for-all Outlying dependencies

Examine your project: People Your team: Individual skill and experience levels Are they 100% dedicated to the project? How do they perceive the role of PM?

Examine your project: People Your stakeholders: Internal colleagues or external clients? How large is the team? How much do they know about this type of project or subject matter?

Planning & confirming your plan Discuss variables and approaches Draw from experience Present your plan; leave room for change Communicate fl exibility

Reviewing and adjusting your plan Agree to adapt as needed Review process, adherence, happiness Conduct regular retrospectives Communicate and document changes & impacts

Keep at it. Test. Iterate. Discuss. You will get better.

— Nelson Mandela It always feels impossible until it’s done.” “

Adoption Define how new contributions are added and measured Contribution Create multiple ways for people to collaborate and contribute Collaboration Build a coalition to co- create the system with shared ownership Develop a process governance strategy Implementation Map out when new elements are clear for implementation Measurement Measure to inform how the system needs to evolve

An ideal process governance strategy Adoption Contribution Collaboration Implementation Measurement

A.B.C. Always Be Communicating

Learn leadership

Please stop thinking of yourself as just a PM.

— Peter Drucker Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” “

Ways to think and act like a leader Be inspirational; act on values Promote partnership and collaboration Empower others Communicate clearly, with candor Make tough calls; making a decision

The only way to think like a leader is to first act: to plunge yourself into new projects and activities, interact with very different kinds of people, and experiment with unfamiliar ways of getting things done. In times of transition and uncertainty, thinking and introspection should follow action and experimentation, not vice versa.” “ — Herminia Ibarra

Your growth= team growth= company growth

Control-Command-Shift Your Perspective Exercise empathy

— Design Director I’m always amazed at how little each function knows about the work and responsibilities of the other team members they depend upon. ” “

An actual exercise in empathy

Ensure schedule commitments are set and communicated Select features/user stories from product backlog and assign to sprint Ensure stability, performance, quality of product Run feature prioritization exercises Prioritize a backlog of product features Write feature/product briefs Communicate with Sales & Support Get strategic alignment with other squads, zones, and leadership Ensure delivery of squad commitments Run sprint meetings Track progress of work Estimate work Talk to users Set product vision and strategy Understand business goals Write user stories for features Interact with other squads to align dependencies Groom upcoming backlog tickets Create user fl ows Run story mapping exercises Understand and represent customer needs and problems to the team Assign engineers to user story or epic Facilitate technical discussions Identify technical risks and advocate solutions Assign engineers to work on a feature Move engineers from one priority to another Manage career growth of engineers Set engineering processes and expectations De fi ne technical hygiene/ architecture work which needs to be on the roadmap Analyze customer data Report progress of work to ZLs or TPMs Understand the competition and communicate to the squad Run validation exercises Create product demos for CFT Run user research Create prototypes Ideate UX solutions Create high fi delity designs Create user personas Create low fi delity wireframes Ideate technical solutions Jobs to be done

Engineer Product Design

Engineer Product Design Design Director

Engineering Director Engineer Product Design

Engineer Product Design Head of Product

How are our perspectives so lopsided?

©2023 workwith@sameteampartners.com Control-Command-Shift Your Perspective Cross functional teams struggle to
interface with each other because they continue to use their own language, bias, perspective, and processes while hoping for improved outcomes. And project managers can help fix this!

©2023 workwith@sameteampartners.com Control-Command-Shift Your Perspective The Big Problem — The
root of our mutual problem is that we’re not listening to each other, because…   We can’t—we’re talking in different languages because… We see the work and what’s essential through a very different lens, but… We don’t fully understand this is happening because… We aren’t investing the time to develop empathy for each other and how our individual or team success is measured; therefore… We are not creating an understanding of each other that drives a shared language and processes for research, innovation, production, support, and management of our customer experiences.

Problem Solution Outcome We do not have a shared practice of empathy to understand what drives our behavior. Co-create empathy maps for each role on the team. Developed empathy for what’s is important   to each other and how to work together. We do not have a shared understanding of roles and responsibilities. Use RACI to assign roles and responsibilities. Clear assignment of roles and responsibilities   Cross-functional teams do not have a shared set of principals to guide our work and how we work together. Co-create principals to drive collaboration, inclusion, and the work itself. Better trust between teams and collaborators   Our processes are likely developed with little to no input from peers or stakeholders. Make toast. Get into cross-functional teams and map out how to create a feature from start to fi nish. Synthesize. A co-created process that meets everyone’s needs. We do not have a shared understanding of how our work is measured/OKRs. Examine and explain OKRs in plain language as a combined team Examine OKRs as a combined team Highly likely that your combined teams do not have shared OKRs. Co-create an OKR for the team, whether the business cares or not. A north star for the combined team to work towards We do not have a shared means to align on work in progress. Create a culture of playbacks A process that can be scaled from informal to formal for presenting work in progress for the sake of alignment across RACI. How to fi x the Big Problem

Empathy mapping

Understanding can help you to Create accountability Bolster collaboration Work smarter and faster Build a stronger team culture Improve morale Act/react strategically

Never forget: You’re on the same team.

Control-Command-Shift Your Perspective Command curiosity

Our primary value as project managers is not tied to the PM tools. We crossed that line a long, long time ago.

Harness the power of PM tools

Keep consistent Project plans/timelines Task estimates vs. durations Workloads Risks Communications

Garbage in. Garbage out. Get it right.

Make time. Develop routines. Project plan updates Task estimates Workload planning Timesheet reporting Client satisfaction

Accurate data allows for strategic decision making.

What about AI?

AI is not taking over project management. That said, it can help you.

Utilize AI for Meeting notes Task scheduling Reminders Risk assessment Reporting Scoping Estimating Planning Testing Resourcing

Wait, isn’t that 95% of your job description?

AI doesn’t have ‘shower moments.’” — Gabe Hongsdusit, The Markdown “

AI isn’t a leader.

AI isn’t a leader. You are.

Ditch dogma Learn leadership Exercise empathy Command curiosity

Thank you!

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Control-Command-Shift Your Perspective: A few t...

Control-Command-Shift Your Perspective: A few thoughts on strategic project management

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