PM ExcellenceA recap of the August 6 call, for anyone who could not attend.
A synthesis of the fourth live discussion, covering how a project manager takes ownership of a project born from pursuit and contracting, and closes the information gap between handoff and kickoff. This summary carries the substance of the full hour.
Meeting RecordingFull August 6 discussion · ~80 minWhat Came Out of the Feedback
The Week 4 survey opened with a line pulled straight from the feedback. The gap between a PIC’s handoff and the design team’s kickoff is full of information a PM may never see. Three scenarios then tested where a PM’s own behavior closes that gap, or leaves it open.
The Standard the Program Builds Toward
The clearest example came from a regional water utility. In the very first conversation, the utility director handed the incoming PM two expectations. Neither one was written down anywhere.
A measurable, technical outcome. The utility’s SCADA control room could not lose control during the cutover. Miss this, and the project itself has failed.
A relationship outcome. The director did not want to walk into a board meeting without news she had already heard from the PM. Miss this, and the client loses confidence long before the design does.
A performance target without an experience target still damages the relationship. An experience target left unmanaged can quietly consume the schedule and the fee. A PM who reads both on day one plans for both from day one.
Reading both targets starts long before the kickoff call. Three habits came out of the discussion for closing the gap earlier, instead of discovering it after the project has already changed hands.
Ask the PIC or the marketing team what is coming, on a regular cadence, instead of waiting to be told. Nobody decides to leave the PM out. Silence just happens when nobody asks.
A first list of ten questions worth asking at the start of every project, built from this week’s feedback. Use it when a file is handed over with real gaps.
Define communication frequency and client updates at the proposal stage, the SAFER approach from earlier in the module. Do this, or inherit whatever the client decides to expect once the project starts.
Two Scenarios From Today
Most of the live discussion worked through two scenarios pulled from the survey, each one testing what a PM does after taking ownership of work someone else set in motion.
Grace won a county courthouse renovation in part because the firm had a specialist for that jurisdiction. By the time the project started, that person was gone. Everything else about the deal still looked fine, so the easy move was to keep going. 92% of the group said something different. Go to the PIC now, confirm that the condition behind the win still holds, and build a plan before the client finds out on their own.
A water utility’s operations center could not lose SCADA control during the cutover, a performance target the design has to meet. The same director expected to hear news before every board meeting, an experience target nobody had written into the budget. 76% of the group read the SCADA requirement as the one the project could not fail on. The reporting expectation will not sink the project by itself, but ignore it, and the director stops trusting the PM long before the design ever lets her down.
What Comes Next