Project Managers Buried in Bureaucracy

“You'll need to be quick with context switching and making good quick decisions. No one is good at this regardless of what they tell themselves.”

Do you mind giving feedback on Rocketlane or PM me? We are looking to change vendors and while RL looks nice and shiny and pretty, I also work for a software company…

“My company is doing a 2 MONTH BLACKOUT whilst they transition to a newer version - never known anything like it”

“I can make up a whole stack of possible reasons why this might be happening: Previous bad experiences of product folk; Bad incentives; Terrible engineers; Additional work outside of your brief that's being prioritised; an organisational game of chicken in progress over watermelon metrics; etc. etc. etc. Unfortunately the only way to figure it out is by talking to people ;-) Things that can help: Go write down all the things that you think could be causing the problems you're seeing. You&”

“When I take something like a shipping delay to our leadership, the thing that lands is not the two weeks, it is what I optimized for and what I gave up to get it. So I open with the tradeoff: shipping on time risked brand damage that outweighed the benefit, so I chose to delay. Same facts as "I delayed to fix edge cases," but it shows there was a decision and I weighed the other side. What I have noticed execs are actually listening for is the option I did not take and why. That is the”

“With seven weeks left and a messy inheritance, I'd resist the urge to fix the whole thing - the extension gets earned by visible progress on the client's critical use cases, not by cleaning up the internal mess. So I'd force one prioritized list of those use cases, get it agreed in writing, freeze everything else, and run a weekly demo against that list so progress is undeniable to the client. On the tech lead: stop trying to make him a people-manager, he won't become one in seve”

“Frame this as : what, why, so what Launch is delayed, because there are a few gaps which in a rare case affect our brand. It will just take us 2 weeks to address them, so its a minor delay and we are still looking good at a business level”

“I think that's a good way to frame it. A lot depends on who the primary users are and how much cross-functional work you actually have. If most of the work stays within IT or engineering it often makes sense to optimize for the tools those teams are already comfortable with. But once projects start involving marketing, operations, finance, customer success or leadership the requirements change. At that point its less about which platform has the best feature list and more about which one hel”

“been in a similar spot - what actually worked was getting the reporting structure in writing from leadership, not just verbally agreed. once it's documented, the pushback usually stops because now it's not just your opinion vs theirs. verbal alignment doesn't hold once things get stressful.”

“This is the type of thing that a lot of teams will have to learn through the pain of consequence instead”

“If you want more work to be done, allocate the hours and put the homework on their weekly task. If its requied for the product quaility find a way to justify the budget allocation. Asking people to do work outside of work, is the innapropriate thing here..”

“I’ve done program management with international teams. I’m based in NY. For EMEA I’d have early morning meetings. For APAC usually late evenings. Not ideal but it’s the nature of the beast.”

“Hey, I'm a new PM/manager (came from a software engineering background, but I've also built and managed products in the past, some of them even my own). I joined this agency to take over a project that is now in week 9 of 16. The team is small: 1 Tech Lead, 3 devs (1 senior, 2 mids), 1 QA and me as PM. We all work remotely. The situation is classic: messy project handover from the previous agency. Our job is to either fix the existing system or rewrite it to cover the client's critic”

“This lines up with something I've seen on the PM side too: a Definition of Done or a process doc that people have only ever read is a demonstration problem waiting to happen - it gets nods in the meeting and then quietly ignored on the actual work. The one thing I'd add to your handover story is closing the loop: demonstrating once removes the ambiguity, but it sticks best if right after you have them do the next one while you're still standing there, otherwise it can quietly become”

“The time-zone math is the visible problem, but the harder one is that you've got senior leads who've never operated as one team, plus a PM who's junior to them in grade - no amount of overlap hours fixes that by itself. When I was in a similar spot, what actually moved the needle was leaning on my sponsor's backing to make coordination async by default: a shared decision log where any lead could raise or resolve an item in writing, so progress didn't depend on catching everyo”

“The time-zone math is the visible problem, but the harder one is that you've got senior leads who've never operated as one team, plus a PM who's junior to them in grade - no amount of overlap hours fixes that by itself. When I was in a similar spot, what actually moved the needle was leaning on my sponsor's backing to make coordination async by default: a shared decision log where any lead could raise or resolve an item in writing, so progress didn't depend on catching everyo”

“Project managers are a cost center and overhead. They don’t create the product, provide service, or sell anything. We compile and package. You aren’t implementing the oil and gas, you’re managing others to implement.”

“Why wouldn't PM be revenue generating? I'm in oil & gas. In our proposals to customers for enfinwering services, the proposal costing includes lines for project implementation. We also bought consultancy services for design and implementation of a major SAP product, the consultant is charging us on time & material basis - every change request we have drives up the vendors revenue - just charge more hours. We are also currently evaluating tenders for another major IT system, the p”

“If there’s that many projects, you guys need to push back and prioritize PMs are non-revenue generating roles. If there aren’t enough people, you need to road map the projects and prioritize. If there’s push back, well, there’s your justification to get more help. And that’s where AI can help”

If you can get a new job its not too early.

“I've been doing IT professionally for approximately 40 years now; run my own company, worked as a consultant for very large projects/industries/multi-nationals in multiple countries - always as the technical lead, architect or in the early days as the guy hitting the keyboard to code, fix, design etc. Your cutting everything very broad and stereotypes. They exist on both (all) sides here. People come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, including when it comes to their capabilities and personal”

“Ive only been at this job for 8 months but also was hired as a manager (doing two jobs , full project load and also have a team). I want to get the manager experience but leaving now might not be the best resume move . Should I wait, even though every day is dreadful?”

“we are already absolutely stretched to the limit. new projects keep coming in and he just keeps saying the data doesn’t support hiring more PMs. after a few of us worked 13-14 hours a day for a few weeks, our exhaustion was made apparent and he decided to hire one more PM. but I fear this strategy will continue backfiring in the future, not only for my company but others . I feel it is an alarming strategy. the PMs are already burned out and there’s not enough respect given to our workload or th”

“You have to start earlier until/if you can get people to actually communicate . Im a pm (east coast) in clinical research and lead global teams and there are 2-3 hours a day where everyone on the east coast, India, and Europe overlap. Im basically booked with internal or external calls first 2-3 hours to get updates and connect people across the globe.”

“Just curious where the gap actually is. submitted by /u/krishna_bidkar [link] [comments]”

“This is the way. And get a good mentor. Vast majority of PMs are really not that good (no offense intended)”

“I think another bone of contention is that at a certain point in management, you're dealing with people and personalities. On the technical side, what you want, what you think, what your job title is, how important you are-none of that matters even the slightest little bit. Either the technical requirements are met or they aren't. It's difficult for those two viewpoints to interface. The problem is that the technical viewpoint determines the results, but the "business" pers”

“No, I agree, and that wasn't the point of my post. It's just this is the field I'm working in currently, so I was genuinely interested in the opinions of that specific field. I can go to the postal workers' Reddit thread, but I doubt that I can get the same information I can get here. For the most part, people have been really forthcoming in their opinions, so I'm glad I made this post in this thread. But yeah, I do agree. Very general. It's not specific to this job at al”

“I live in the US and I joined a very large company 6 months ago as a digital project manager in the technology space. I really love my team and the company but have always intended on growing my career towards PRODUCT management rather than project management. One of the product managers on our team that I partnered very closely with (also reporting in to my boss) left a few weeks ago and I have been considering asking my boss if she would consider me as a candidate for the open position. Any th”

Agree. First version is for your boss. What you said is for c suite.

“Ask your boss and your head of eng what their top 3 problems are every week. If you can solve them, solve them. Nothing else will move the needle like this”

“The pyramid principle helped me more than I thought it would - getting into their perspective that they really do care about and have an attention span of about 3 lines”

“Background: I'm in my 40s and have been a Product Manager for about six years, primarily working on customer-facing digital products from the business side for a major financial institution. Over the last couple of years I've become increasingly dissatisfied with my current company. We're required to be in the office three days a week, leadership has been frustrating, and I feel like my career growth has stalled. That said, it's not all bad. My work-life balance is actually very”

“I don’t have an engineering degree. I graduated with a business degree. very unrelated. I’ve been an estimator for six months. I like learning it but there’s no structure or little to no training at where I am now as I was promised. I even took a pay cut to pivot and learn. It’s been an upward battle since. I’ve traveled with PM’s at where I work and I want to eventually try to apply to entry level jobs at a GC and hopefully they train better. I don’t have guidance in my circle on how I can get”

“I got a teams meeting today for Monday at 1030an , titled (Project Name) Leadership Update, it’s me, a developer, my manager, Director of the dept, and HR. The business is very profitable, and I have been here for the last 9 years. I’ve been apart of reorganizations but there was never Hr in those meetings. EDIT: both of us are the only FTE’s on the team the rest are contractors EDIT: HR was optional on the meeting invite but they accepted the meeting Last Edit before Monday lol: I think it’s fu”

“You need to use digital communication channels. Excessive meetings tends to be a sign of poor day-to-day communication. When leaders start getting THAT involved, it’s because they are anxious. Meet less and drive more. Send out a weekly or daily action summary in the morning. Quick punch list of work everyone is responsible for and then get after it. You don’t need more visuals - you need a call to action each day/week. Thats what I’ve always done and then people start to find a groove. I do it”

“Hey, if it’s any consolation, I often find myself asking (in polite corporate speak) exactly what Ryan is asking here. The “scope and requirements” may not appear crystal clear but I always ask them exactly what their Acceptance Criteria will be “for me to walk away with my guys, and you feeling you don’t need to call us back”. When said like that, people can usually be more clear about “what do they want”. Then, as this other commenter just said, it is a little bit up to us to help them formula”

“i use the teacher trick: decision first, why it matters, what risk you avoided. execs mostly want the why not prettier words”

“Spent months convincing my team to stop emailing separate Word versions around and start using one Sharepoint document with comments and track changes on. Today got shared a new link to existing project document “I saved my own copy in Sharepoint with my suggestions” Nature finds a way. submitted by /u/weirdwormy [link] [comments]”

“New program manager, finding myself a little overwhelmed by the amount of organization needed in this role compared to my last. I know there are a million tools out there to keep things in check - what's your go-to? For context, I am running multiple training programs, so including some form of scheduling management is a plus especially. Right now I'm using OneNote and creating various notebooks, but some kind of workflow tool would be great. submitted by /u/rainblowfish_ [li”

“Hi all! I’m fairly new to PM and am stepping into a Project Coordinator role for a Division 32 company in Ottawa, ON. No real software for PM stuff but the company started using Trimble’s B2W two years ago and it sorely needs a lot of housekeeping. How do you all manage your submissions? Specifically the formats thereof. Am I to manually create new PDFs with a cover page and specifications? I’m by no means slow, but one project had me busy with submissions for ONE whole ass day! Any advice for e”

“Oh poor soul… this is not for a faint of heart. It’s a hard job and generally requires managing aspects of a project that generally people don’t think about. Environmental, existing infrastructure, remediation, municipal and regional government BS, so many freaking studies… I generally charge about $250-300/hr for this type of work and I’d never do it as a W2. For you, my advice is take it but be ready for consequences of failure… enjoy the ride”

“It's actually become less and less stressful as I've progressed in my career. You become more confident in your role, and you get to work on more interesting and rewarding projects. Of course, the problems become more challenging, but you're not solving them alone—and isn't that part of what makes the job enjoyable? Managing projects doesn't, and shouldn't, become a chore just because you move up the ladder. What is it about project management that you find so taxing? If”

“So I've been in Ops/Logistics for almost 10 years. I started out as a coordinator and have mostly been working with B2B retailers, B2C, retailer compliance, 3PLs, EDI, etc. I've managed small teams. I'm pretty much self taught, never taken a class for supply chain, just kind of learned as the years went on. I'm having a hard time breaking into serious management roles. It's like I know how to walk the walk but not talk the talk as I don't use alot of corporate lingo regar”

“The list of artifacts is what's overwhelming you, and the secret is that the artifacts were never the job — every item on your list is downstream of one question: what's the next decision this project needs, and who needs what to make it. When leaders have pre-picked a solution and there's no BA, I start with an assumptions register instead of formal discovery: one page of 'here's what we're all believing without evidence' (feasibility, data privacy, supplier scope, w”

“I think you're asking the right questions, but I also think you're putting too much pressure on yourself to know everything before you start. One lesson that took me years to learn is that a PM isn't expected to be the technical expert in every discipline. Your job is to create enough structure that the right experts can make good decisions at the right time. Early in a project I normally focus on just a few things: What are we actually trying to achieve? Who makes decisions? What co”

“They likely mean sales/cs taking screenshots and sharing with customers/committing to delivery dates. Sharing the roadmap internally isn’t the issue, this issue is what other teams are doing with the with the roadmap. If this is the case, you need product leadership to chat with sales/CS and set the expectation that only product can share roadmap and dates with customers. This will take time to change, but it’s the only way. Preventing this from happening as an IC PM by just blocking them from s”

“A good way to achieve this is to timebox it (e.g. make a business case that says give me 3 months and we will do X. This should be enough time for me to properly achieve my KPI). and hopefully by the end of the 3 months the outcomes prove themselves and you will get to have more influence and they will allow you to keep resources. OP you have love for the product and that will take you very far in this environment. Once you crack it you will soar.”

“As frustrating as it is (and we have all been there!), it's your job as the PM to know what's going on, especially around any changes to the work and the impact this will have on the timeline or cost. I would take this as a lesson learned and create some processes ASAP to stop this happening again. My immediate suggestions would be: 1.You must be included in all change requests All change requests, no matter how small, are documented formally, with an impact assessment completed and comm”

“Hey everyone! Disclaimer: it's going to be a long post. I'm currently working in this ecommerce/omni-channel company for 3 months as a PM for Search. Previously I worked as an ecommerce consultant where my role was as PO, and in another job before where I have experience as PM Search (though not fully technical) and I had my own product team (QA + devs). I took this job since it's the first job offer I had after being 6 months unemployed and I thought it fits my passion and my experi”

You get double the stress and half the pay.

“Hi all, I've ended up in a GMP role despite not directly working in it before due to the company's recent restructure. They are aware of this but now I have to do a GMP audit and I'm not sure where to even start. I would like to perform well but idk how do I even gain these skills. Company provides only data integrity training submitted by /u/BackgroundCheck786 [link] [comments]”

“I’ve gotten lucky in my old age and work a couple levels under CIO types, as a contractor, and I specialize in fixing their problems. Before that I spent decades working on making things not become problems for the CIO. I got to misled management by mentoring others effectively on things that I knew, then moving on to figure out the next system, rinse and repeat.”

Thanks Claude!

“Project management is generally guiding specific projects: we want to implement Intapp Time to replace Aderant timekeeping software, etc. It’s an inherently “one job after another” role, generally without the long term ownership of whatever is delivered (because it gets handed off to a business owner or a product owner). The product owner then is responsible for ensuring the products within their portfolio are kept up to date, new versions procured, vendor relationships managers, vendor roadmaps”

“Looking for some advice from the experienced supers and PMs in the group. I’m a newer superintendent running one of my first projects on my own, and I’m trying to make the most of a situation where the schedule has slowed down. The project has two phases. Phase 1 is essentially complete. I’m working through the punch list and coordinating subcontractors back to the site to close everything out. The unique part about phase 1 is that the space is now occupied by my construction company. We took an”

“Looking for some advice from the experienced supers and PMs in the group. I’m a newer superintendent running one of my first projects on my own, and I’m trying to make the most of a situation where the schedule has slowed down. The project has two phases. Phase 1 is essentially complete. I’m working through the punch list and coordinating subcontractors back to the site to close everything out. The unique part about phase 1 is that the space is now occupied by my construction company. We took an”

“Part of the problem with all this is the unquestioned validity of the idea of a "superior".There are things that managers are good at and things that their staff are good at. For technical roles, a manager doesn't need to be superior to their staff when it comes to technical decisions - in fact if they are, it implies a problem.Once you start viewing work as a collaborative exercise, a lot of these problems disappear.”

“Mechanical engineer at a mid-size engineer-to-order manufacturer. We've grown to the point where "program status" lives in five places that don't talk to each other: customer email threads, Teams, our ERP, and a graveyard of spreadsheets that were each somebody's good idea at the time. When leadership asks some version of "which jobs are at risk this month?", I become a search engine for a few hours - pinging engineers, scrolling Teams, squinting at the ERP, tryin”