Author: Kim Essendrup

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

“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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

“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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 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. […]

Project Managers are agents of change. Whether you’re 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 […]

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 […]

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 look you in the eye when interviewing you?  In this episode we are joined by Matt Henderson […]

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? […]

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 […]

As PM’s we are often privy to confidential information. How do you manage that info, even when you know it will impact your friends and colleagues?  This week Kate and Kim share some of their experience managing confidential information – how to do it, and how to react when you or someone else inadvertently lets […]

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, […]

Do I need a Project Management Office (PMO)? Does anyone REALY need a PMO? Why, aren’t those all going away because of Agile? What value can a PMO give to an organization? And when does it not make sense to have a PMO? We go through all this and more on this 2 part podcast […]

Are you looking for a PM job? If not now, one day you may be. So, why not talk to a pro who knows the market and help you find the right job? A Project Management Recruiter!  Building a relationship with a recruiter can be a gateway to a great PM career, or to your […]

Do I need a Project Management Office (PMO)? Does anyone REALY need a PMO? Why, aren’t those all going away because of Agile? What value can a PMO give to an organization? And when does it not make sense to have a PMO? We go through all this and more on this 2 part podcast […]

We get asked a lot about what project management is about, what it’s like to get into the profession, and what are the most important things to do as you get into the field. There are so many things to think about, so many considerations that it can be hard to think of a simple […]

Project Management can be tough – full of stress, emotion, passion and… more stress. You, your team and your stakeholders are trying to make big changes happen in the intense pressure cooker that is a project. And if you’ve been around long enough you will know that tears sometimes happen in the workplace. But how […]

Many of us are suddenly finding that we – and our teams – are working remotely from home. While this is normal for a lot of our workforce, it can represent a very big change for a lot of teams. How do we stay focused and stay productive – and help our team stay focused […]

Projects are about change – but what are you doing to manage that change in your project? Fortunately, there’s an entire field of practice to make changes stick – Organizational Change Management Today our guest walks us through the Prosci ADKAR model for implementing change – one of the most well known and popular methodologies […]

Whether we realize it or not, we are influenced by bias in the way we think about things. Maybe you are overly optimistic in your estimates, or under estimate the impact of risks. Planning fallacy, illusion of control, confirmation bias – the list goes on of different ways bias can mis-shape our perceptions and our […]

Hiya listeners, in this episode we share what we’ve been up to and why we’ve been a bit quiet, some amazing PDU stats and share some things that we’re thankful for.  Cheers! And thanks to our amazing listeners   JOIN THE HAPPY HOUR! Get access to all podcasts, PDU certificates, bonus content, exclusive member Q&A […]

For this episode the tables are turned – Kate and Kim get interviewed! Arizona State University student Krystal Ebadi contacted us and asked if she could interview us for her PM class about the realities of studying PM and getting a job. Of course we said yes! And Krystal let us share that interview with […]

This episode we talk with one of our amazing listeners, Josh Mildren, who shares his story about how he became a project manager – or rather, how he realized he was a project manager all along. Like a lot of our Happy Hour listeners, Josh was looking for new ways to address challenges his organization […]

This episode we talk about that make-or-break moment in project closing: handing over your project deliverables. If you plan your project right, this can be a moment of victory for your team, your stakeholders, and for yourself. But if you don’t plan for it, handover can become a never ending death march to nowhere. Kate […]

We love our listeners, and we love to answer your questions! In fact,  this episode comes straight from a call for help we received from one of our listeners. She shared with us that her manager told her that she was “too nice” with her project team, and asked us for help in how to […]

Ever have a project that costs money? Well, this podcast is for you! In this episode, Kate and Kim give you the quick and dirty rundown of basic project financials – not just within your project, but how money gets to your project, and how your finance team may view those financials. In a study […]

Communication is a critical part of a Project Manager’s job, and perhaps no aspect of comms is more important than ensuring that what is communicated is correct and truthful. But when someone is not being truthful – to themselves or others – how do you call that out? Or, as we say, how do you […]

Many Project Managers are on a trajectory that takes them from a more technical or tactical focus to a more leadership focus in their career, possibly transitioning from Project Management eventually to the Board Room. But how do you do that? How do you make the transition from being known for technical execution to strategic […]

Burning Man is a famous event held in a temporary city the middle of the Nevada desert, dedicated to self expression and artistic freedom with 80,000 people. Can you imagine managing a project there?! One of our very own PM Happy Hour members does so every year! This episode we are joined by Kayla Glenn, […]

We all  assume that following process, better data and improved maturity will fix all our PM issues. That make sense, but is it true? What does the data say? This was our question last fall going into PMO Symposium. Then we realized, we’d be surrounded by hundreds of amazing Project and PMO leaders who could […]

Today we are joined by Rolondo Talbott who gave an amazing presentation at this year’s PMO Symposium. He is going to share with us an amazing story from his time in the military which inspired him to come up with the concept of  Entrepreneurial Project Management. If you’ve heard about us contrasting “box checker” PM’s […]

Hiya Happy Hour! We thought it would be fun to pilot a program where we offer 1:1’s to our members! For the month of February, Kim is opening a few slots on his calendar on Mondays for 1:1’s with PM Happy Hour members. Looking for PM career advice? Feedback on a tough project issue? Or […]

In today’s world we are bombarded with more information than ever before – it’s on our mobile devices (social email, etc.), daily stand-ups, 24 hour news networks telling us about how the world is collapsing every day, so much going on. That’s a lot of information coming in – so how do you sort through […]

A natural stage in PM professional development is when you become the ‘fixer’ – the one called in to take over or fix ‘broken’ critical projects. This  is hard, stressful work, and you may wonder why you get (or keep getting) the ‘dirty’ jobs. But these assignments mean your management team has a lot of […]

A defining characteristic of a project is that it ends. Finally. Please. Let the hurting end. Just get it done, right? If it were only that easy! This episode Kate and Kim talk about what it means to close a project, and walk through some typical scenarios where closing can be really tough. Then they […]

Have you ever had to justify the value of Project Management in your organization? Doh! So do we. Listen in as we share our best responses to, “is PM really needed?” You don’t have to justify the existence of the Finance team. Or Sales & Marketing. Or Executive Management. So why do we have to […]

Many organizations employ personality assessments to help their team members understand their strengths or communication styles. Are these a waste of time? Or do they have value we can leverage as PMs? Today we are joined by Fai Mo, long time project manager and manager of project managers. Fai will share his experience in leveraging […]

As we gorge on our kid’s leftover Halloween candy, we answer a number of Listener questions left on our Facebook and Linkedin pages. What are some good ways to describe PM-ish duties on a resume/CV? What are some tips on holding someone accountable? How do you create a timeline for a project with a new […]

“What are we even doing in this project?” If you’ve ever asked yourself (or been asked) this question, go back to your Project Charter right now! The Project Charter is a keystone project artifact, authorizing the very existing and base assumptions and structure of your project. It can be called many things – a statement […]

This episode we are joined at Happy Hour by prominent PM thought leader, Naomi Caetti. We chat with Naomi about what it takes to transition from being “just” a Project Manager to a Leader – both for your project and your organization. Check out this episode to learn how to take your game to the […]

This episode, we get the great opportunity to speak with Hussain Bandukwala, PMO Coach and founder of the PMO Virtual Summit this October. Hussain helps us understand what a PMO really is (and should be), then shares some great insights into the career path of someone who wants to be a PMO leader. He really […]

This episode, Kim shares some lessons from his time studying martial arts with some amazing instructors which can apply to Project Management! And no, they do not include giving that troublesome stakeholder a spin-kick to the head 🙂 But they do include lessons on how to assert yourself, how to focus on the important things […]

This episode, we are excited to have Elise Stevens, podcaster, speaker and PM thought leader join us on our show! Elise shares what she learned in undertaking the task to interview 50 women in Project Management over 50 days, and gives us some great tips to help us support our fellow PM’s ABOUT OUR AMAZING […]

Project Managers can be categorized as “internal” project managers, who deliver projects for stakeholders within their own organizations, or “external” project managers, who deliver projects to customers outside their organization. Although both are project managers, there are some important differences between the skill sets they use. But which is better? Which role fits you best? […]

One of the toughest – and most important jobs – of a PM is having difficult conversations. These can be with sponsors, stakeholders, team members or other PMs. And the ability to successfully manage these difficult conversations can make the difference between success and failure – for your project, and your career! Continuing our deep […]

Management escalation, oh, no! When issues get escalated to our managers and executive stakeholders, our hearts sink, a sweat breaks out and we start to freak out. But should we? Maybe we should “flip the script” and think of escalations as good and even necessary – when done correctly. In today’s show, Kate and Kim […]

One of the toughest – and most important jobs – of a PM is having difficult conversations. These can be with sponsors, stakeholders, team members or other PMs. And the ability to successfully manage these difficult conversations can make the difference between success and failure – for your project, and your career! In this episode, […]

While the term “mastermind group” was coined in the 20’s, it has been used by business leaders, writers, artists and philosophers going back much further to develop new ideas, themselves and accomplish amazing things. In this episode, we get some coaching from a Mastermind Master, J.R. Russell on how to facilitate a mastermind group – […]

Here’s an episode inspired by the mathematical study of Game Theory! Not only can “moving last” (or latter) put you in a strong strategic position, but can also make you a better listener. We’ll also talk about some of the downsides of “sequential” turns in meetings, and how to keep that from stifling honest feedback […]

A lot of Project Management is about communicating and managing people. And one of our most frequently used tools for this is the meeting. In this episode we share some tips our best practices for making meetings productive – and not wasting yours and everyone else’s time. Based on popular demand, Kate and Kim share […]

Getting started in a new organization, new customer, or new parts of your current org can be tough, especially since managing a project usually means you need to navigate all those waters like a pro – out of the gate. But how do you do that? How do you “get to know” the organization quickly […]

Negotiation is part of what we do every day – from negotiating for the best project resources to negotiating what you and your significant other are going to have for dinner. But for those of us who don’t feel like natural negotiators, how can we learn to negotiate in a way that helps us address […]

Negotiation is part of what we do every day – from negotiating for the best project resources to negotiating what you and your significant other are going to have for dinner. But for those of us who don’t feel like natural negotiators, how can we learn to negotiate in a way that helps us address […]

How do you get people to get stuff done when you have no “authority?” That’s a lot of the art of Project Management! In today’s episode, we walk through a few of Kate and Kim’s secret weapons that  you can use to get things done even when you don’t have formal authority. This entire podcast […]

It can be challenging enough to deliver a project with tough timelines, budgets and limited resources. But what happens when your project is high profile? I mean, REALLY high profile? High profile in that your stakeholders include business executives, regulatory agencies, and heads of governments who do not align on key issues?  And what if, […]

Oh, this was a fun one 🙂 Kate and I share a happy hour with you as we think back on all the things we wish we knew when we started project management. We trade lessons-learned back and forth – and we’re sure you can identify with some of these! Warning in advance – audio […]

How do you make sense of (and get your stakeholders to understand) a 200-line project plan? Or how about a program with 6 workstreams, each with 200 line project plans? How do you make a useful schedule for a smaller project, maybe for a personal project that you can share with “non-pm’s” that they can […]

Creative projects can be very fulfilling and provide tremendous value to any organization. But, they can also be very susceptible to scope creep. For those of us used to dealing in data-driven GANTT charts and Risk reports, how can we effectively approach a project with creative deliverables? Especially if we are not sure what those […]

A big differentiator between projects that succeed and projects that fail is the engagement and commitment of the Project Manager. Are they just going through the motions? Or are they taking charge? In this short “Appetizer” episode, we share some tasty bites which might help you re-think how you approach leadership in your project.   PM […]

In today’s episode, Phoenix-based head of The PMO Squad, Joe Pusz (also known in the PM community as PMO Joe) will share his knowledge on Mentorship with us. In addition to his deep experience on the topic, his organization partners with Vets to PM, a mentorship program which pairs US Veterans with experienced PMs to […]

Project issues! Everyone has something go wrong on their projects at some point. As much as we dread breaking the news, how we communicate critical project problems to our stakeholders can have a greater impact on our project and long term relationships than the problems themselves. In today’s episode we share our own horror stories […]

There is enough to deal with in project management without gender issues making it even tougher. So, today we openly talk about challenges women can face in the workplace. Rather than hit you with a bunch of statistics (which are also important), Kate will share some real-life examples of challenges she’s faced, and we talk […]

Today we have another PM Happy Hour Appetizer episode! What’s an appetizer? These are short format episodes (10- 15 minutes) in between our main shows where we hit on short, informative topics. These topics are too small to fill up a full show, or we want to see if there is enough interest from you, […]