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Helping People Meet Deadlines (Especially Creative Types) pain points people May 10, 2024

Ah, deadlines.

In one sense, a great project manager rises above deadlines and keeps everyone focused on what meets project goals under current circumstances, even if that means original deadlines shift or fall by the wayside.

But in another sense, project schedules DO matter, and meeting a...

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5 Practical Tools for Getting Decisions Made pain points people Apr 26, 2024

A lot of project management is getting other people to make decisions.

As project managers, some decisions lie with us, especially when it comes to choosing the right tools to use to move a project forward. The decisions that lie with the project manager can vary depending on how this role is...

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5 Practical Tools for Protecting Your Time pain points philosophy Apr 19, 2024

I once had a coworker who had clearly mastered the art of managing his own workload. He had a really positive way of saying no to new requests that were beyond his capacity. His response would almost magically leave you feeling good, even though he’d just declined to do what you asked.

At...

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Handling “Crazy” Project Ideas with Class pain points philosophy Mar 29, 2024

Once I was supporting a project that lasted about 18 months. About a month away from the project deadline, I was feeling proud that I’d built trust with a new team on this project and led them through all the required decisions in a timely fashion. Most of the big project deliverables were...

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Ask More Questions pain points philosophy Mar 22, 2024

I was perusing r/projectmanagement on Reddit and I found a post from a new IT PM who asked, “How do you gauge severity of testing issues that you don't fully understand?

I didn’t weigh in on the conversation because I agree with a lot of the advice already provided: Lean on the...

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Is a Project Manager a Glorified Secretary? pain points philosophy Mar 15, 2024

I was chatting with a friend whose role is transforming more and more into a project-management-type role. Occasionally, even as somebody with the responsibilities of a project manager, she feels confined to tasks such as scheduling meetings for others that are traditionally associated with an...

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Can't Get Project Status Updates? pain points people Mar 01, 2024

This blog was inspired by this post on Reddit, and is an expansion on the comment I wrote in response.

How clearly do you understand the status of each of your projects?

The real status—not just the status your software is telling you.

There are plenty of robust project management...

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Too Many Projects: Move Past Overwhelm and Make Meaningful Progress pain points Feb 02, 2024

This blog was inspired by this post on Reddit, and is an expansion on the comment I wrote in response.

What’s a “normal” number of projects for one project manager to lead or support at a time?

Usually I don’t find the word “normal” very helpful, but it’s...

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How to Lead Agile Projects with No Experience concepts pain points Jan 19, 2024

This blog was inspired by this post on Reddit, and is an expansion on the comment I wrote in response.

This month, my company—accustomed to projects with a waterfall or hybrid methodology—started running its first intentionally agile projects. I've been delighted to watch a project...

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People: This is the way. inspiration pain points people Jan 05, 2024

I was talking to a peer mentor the other day, and she was giving me some great food for thought on simple ways to add data to project reports. As I complimented her approaches, she told me that out of all the parts of her job, manipulating project data comes easily to her—but project team...

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