The Digital Project Manager

In this episode, we tackle the golden question: how do you scale agile teams and organizations? Following up on his article on "The Hard Truth About Scalability", Software Architect, Programmer, Coach, and Consultant Giovanni Asproni talks about the pitfalls of scaling agile—and how to avoid them.

Following her article on How To Write An Employee Handbook, PMP certified project/program manager and strategy consultant Sarah Hoban shares her thoughts on how we as project managers can help onboard new employees the right way.

A must-listen episode for anyone in account or project management who finds themselves stuck in a perpetual cycle of chasing down clients for files and assets. We talk with James Rose, Co-Founder of Content Snare, a tool designed to help agencies get the right files from clients, on time, and in the right format. Yes, please!

There is no one-size-fits-all management style that works. In this podcast, we dig into the good and the bad of various management styles: Results-based, Democratic, Transformational, Servant Leadership, Transactional. We talk about how personality plays into it, and which styles have worked best for us—and why.

How do you give useful feedback to people on your team, even when you don’t have domain expertise? Do you embrace the feedback process, or run from it? Today, we chat with Ryan Schaefer, a digital agency PM who’s worked with brands like Dole Foods and Disney, as he explains how to give great feedback that’ll help your teams deliver better work and keep your projects on track.

Pick the brains of Tomislav Car, the CEO at Infinum, an independent software design and development agency that Tom co-founded while a college student. He went on to create Productive, a web-based agency management tool built to fix the problems his own agency was then experiencing. Learn about managing a profitable agency and using tools to be more productive from a Founder and CEO with a deep un...

In this episode, we join Kelly Suter (as of her last episode, she was in a Technical PM role; now she’s an Executive Producer at Mirum agency) to talk about stakeholder management. Learn her expert tips for managing various types of stakeholders—clients, technical stakeholders, executives, and more.

A project objective describes the “what” of your project. But a well-defined project objective does so much more—it wraps your deadline, your KPIs, and your process all into one guiding statement. Listen to PMP and CSM certified Mackenzie Dysart as she talks about how to write objectives that truly guide your projects. 

Learn about agile-based contracts from Tucker Sauer-Pivonka, Director of Product Management at an agency that uses something called a “Duration & Price” contract. He dives into his DPM Case Study to talk about why this contract works for their agency and the practicalities of implementing it with clients. 

Ever managed a super short project? Learn real-life tips for short projects in this episode, where PM Jenna Trunzo discusses the case study she conducted after managing a 2-week project. Learn what worked, and why—and what she had to change in order to deliver a project within such a short time frame. 

Feeling strung out? Isolated? Indifferent? In this DPM podcast, we take a pause to talk about an important topic for digital workers: burnout. Join Lynn Winters as she shares her burnout stories and gives tips for identifying and recovering from burnout. 

Get the scoop on all the latest from The Digital Project Manager in February 2019—new case studies, podcasts, and articles to help you deliver better projects!

Building a web portal? In this episode, Rebecca Germond (Director of Client Services at FCV) dives into the tools, processes, and day-to-day challenges specific to managing a portal build. Ace your web portal build as you learn from her team’s real-life mistakes and success stories. 

How can project managers work better with business development and sales in order to win more projects that your agency can successfully deliver? Find out in this interview with agency growth consultant Peter Levitan, who has owned his own shop, worked with clients like Nike and Saatchi & Saatchi, and has bought and sold three ad agencies. 

Do you feel like you have to prove your worth as a project manager? In this episode, PMs Ben Aston and Tucker Sauer-Pivonka make the case for project managers, talking about why the PM role is important and how to deal with negative views from various stakeholders on a project. 

 In this episode, PM Suze Haworth shares insight for new PMs, talking about what project managers do, how to build the right skills for the role, how to prepare for a project manager interview, and where you can plan to take your career. 

Are you starting your projects off on the right foot and giving them the best chances for success? Project beginnings can be ambiguous and confusing—in this episode, Suze Haworth shows us her approach for getting clarity, setting expectations, and making sure the bases are covered, before the project is underway. 

Planning a vacation? In order to step away from work without having to answer emails during your time off, you need a successful project handoff. In this episode, PM Mackenzie Dysart walks you through the steps to make project transitions a breeze so you can enjoy your vacation and ensure you don’t return to chaos!

When requirements are too loose, your results are undefined and unpredictable. Too tight, and you end up with blind spots. In this episode, PM expert Kelly Suter tell us how to nail the requirements gathering process so your clients know what’s being delivered and your teams know exactly what they’re delivering.

If you ask just about any PM how their work is going, how do you think they'll respond? 'Sorry, I've got no time to talk right now, I'm totally slammed! Maybe we can touch base next week? ' My own experience of PM'ing is that it's a demanding role, we carry the responsibility of delivering a project to our best ability and we desperately want our projects to succ...

Scope creep can be very costly and very hard to identify—and, luckily, very manageable. In this episode, we talk about scope creep, what causes it, and ways to manage scope creep with Suze Haworth, a Senior Digital Project Manager with over a decade worth of experience in web builds, social campaigns, and digital media.  

How do you draw the line between project management and becoming everyone else’s personal admin? As a PM, do you find yourself doing the “project dirty work?” In this episode, PM expert Patrice Embry dishes out valuable advice for PMs who suspect that they’re taking on too much admin work and want to get back to doing what they do best—being a PM!

“Oh, I love being managed!”, said no one ever. How do we manage our teams effectively without being micromanager? How do we manage agile teams who don’t want to be managed? In this episode, Sarah Hoban, a PMP-certified Project and Program Manager, talks about how to do your job effectively as a project manager on the sly. 

Are you delivering projects on budget, on time, and in scope? You want your team to be able to hit their milestones—and it’s your job to guide the process with project controls. In today’s DPM podcast with project manager expert Maik Stettner you’ll learn how to use project control documents like status reports and RAID logs in order to keep your projects on track.