She Writes Change

Customer journey mapping, be it internal of external customers, is more than a fully CX exercise. It's an excellent project planning tool that spots problems before a line of code is even written. 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬 Map out every touchpoint your customer will have with what you're building. Do this upfront, before you've committed budget. This will let you see and structure processes and features early on, making sure you also spot issues that could blindside you after l

The team, the sponsors, and the stakeholder are all there. Scope, goals, and timelines are aligned. But the most critical voice is missing: the end-user.  Not the internal client. Not the budget holder. But the person who really matters, whose life or work we are supposed to be improving. When the customer isn't represented from day one, we risk delivering a project that's on time, on budget, BUT isn't fit for purpose.

Post-Mortems or Lessons Learned are useful if run properly, of course, BUT they won't save your project. We've normalised learning lessons after delivery, after the damage, after the failure. But what if there was a better way?

The most expensive thing in your project isn't what you think. It's a the endless one-hour meetings with either the wrong people, or the wrong agenda. And I've seen this everywhere, hell, I've definitely been guilty of it myself in the past!

Stop asking for "Lessons Learned". Start asking for "Lessons Applied". How many times have you sat in a post project meeting review, listing out all the "Lessons Learned", only see them filed away in a document that's never read again?

I've delivered both projects and products (from idea to market), and there are significant differences in how you need to approach them. Many "projects" are actually products in disguise, and that's why they fail to deliver long term value. 

Debunking a Persistent Project Management Myth: It's not just Time and Budget we manage. One of the biggest misconceptions in project management is that PMs are simply “deadline-and-budget enforcers.”  In reality, the best project managers know that success is measured by more than on-time delivery and cost control. While timelines and budgets are essential constraints, modern PMs balance a wider set of priorities, quality, stakeholder satisfaction, team morale, and business

Stop annoying your sponsors: 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 "𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐄𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧". Escalate too often, and you look incapable. Escalate too late, and you become a liability. Sound familiar? Before even thinking about your sponsor, ask: "Can my team and I solve this without external help?" and "Is this issue significant enough to warrant executive attention?" This shows you respect your own authority and your sponsor's time.

Your project dashboard is a sea of green but you know something's off.  Your status updates say everything is on track, your weekly reports are all positive. But you know that it's not accurate. 𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐋𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐒𝐲𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐞!

Whilst AI can handle more of the technical and admin work, the uniquely human aspects of project management become MORE critical to success, not less.

Launching a new digital product across 12,000 retail locations taught me that scale isn't about size, it's about psychology. You can't just double the resources for double the locations. The real challenges are human. Here's what I learnt about scale:

There are two types of Project Managers who walk into your business. And the wrong type of PM, no matter how talented, can kill your delivery.

Navigating AI Adoption: What's your biggest challenge and how do you solve it? Trying to harness AI can feel overwhelming. It's complicated and it's not SaaS, there are key challenges that need to be faced. From decision paralysis and a lack of skills to trying to grapple with infrastructure, ethics, data, security and change management.

Project resource wars aren't just a theoretical issue, they're a real challenge for project managers and teams.

The reality is that the rigid application of either Agile or Waterfall rarely fits the messy reality of complex delivery. 

Successful projects are more than just on-budget and on-time, real value comes from benefits realisation. You can deliver the best project in the world, but if it doesn't deliver the benefits, then it's all been for nothing. Make sure there are measurable benefits at the start of the project, review them regularly and host post-project reviews with Business Owners.

The difference between strategy and success is delivery. Without it, every brilliant idea remains just that - an idea. Brilliant ideas don't deliver outcomes, unfortunately. It's project management that ultimately makes those ideas a reality.