In today's episode we talk with Emma Kelly, a program manager from The Water Project. She shares about managing projects in the humanitarian sector where projects can span across continents...where part of your resource force is the community you are working in... and when you don't always have access to the internet. Hear about how program managers align projects with strategic initiatives and empower people to do their best work for a very important cause.

Episode Highlights:

1. Emma's Passion for Water

2. Community management in Humanitarian Projects

3. Project Implementation in the Humanitarian Sector

4. From Research to Projects in Action

5. Community as Stakeholders and resources

6. 3 Main program locations: Uganda, Kenya, Sierra Leone.

7. Mission to provide full saturation/coverage of the area. A framework of coverage

8. Program Management: Managing Projects: Aligning projects with strategic initiatives.

9. Program Management: People Management: Empowering people to do their best work.

10. Cultural nuances of Intercultural teams

11. Diversity of Understanding = Diversity of Ideas

12. Coming into a new community

13. Strengths of Intercultural teams.

14. Managing teams in different countries

15. Project Types in the Water Sector

16. Ground Nut Soup

17. The goal of full saturation

18. Shared vision with teams

19. Transparency with public and donors

20. How can you support the Water Project

21. The Water Promise

22. Commitment to Monitoring and Reporting and Evaluating Projects

23. Emma’s superpower of empowering people to do their best work.

24. Relationships, Trust, Reliability: The Water Project's pillars

25. How do you manage projects without the internet

26. Working to understand risks and issues to reduce future downtime.

27. Sticking to the plan when there are obstacles.

wyctw.com

Hosts Trina and Mathew recap the first season of "Wear Your Cape to Work."

Tune in to reminisce about a great first season.

Season One Superheroes:

Stephen Hall, Project Manager, fairlife Milk.

Jen & Sukanya, Cybersecurity Program Managers, Activision Blizzard King

Lindiwe Stenberg, Project Manager, PayPal

Michelle Dickstein, Project Manager & DEI Co-Chair, Non-profit Healthcare

Mehul Shah, Senior Director PMO, Universal Destinations

James Phillips, PMP & Informatics Analyst, Healthcare

Sree Karanakarun, Senior IT Project/Program Manager, Community Government

Kevin Perkins, Sr. Director Product Management, Inovalon

Jeremiah Hammon, PMP, Project Revolution

Emma Kelly, Program Manager, The Water Project

Kristina Curtiss, PMP, CEO, VP of Communications, PMI San Diego

Season Two will Air in May/June 2025.

In this episode, we sit down with Kristina Curtiss to discuss the unique role of project managers as translators—bridging the gap between technical teams, stakeholders, and business objectives. Kristina shares her journey from office management to leading large-scale healthcare and IT projects.

Timestamps & Topics:

2:12 Kristina’s early career at Home Depot

3:00 Transitioning from office management to construction projects – similarities in organizational skills

3:35 The role of time management, operational logic, and communication in project management

4:30 Entering the healthcare project management space

5:41 Implementing EPIC healthcare information systems

6:00 Moving into IT project management and navigating the transition

7:30 How leaders identify and nurture talent within their teams

8:20 The challenge of relocating IT teams across 5 hospitals and 28 clinics

9:42 The importance of change management—engaging stakeholders and addressing resistance

10:15 Using emotional intelligence to understand and address concerns

10:55 Managing scope creep and keeping projects aligned

11:15 The unique skill of translating technical details into business impact

11:45 Preparing organizations for transformation—from paper-based health records to digital systems

14:45 How Emotional Intelligence 2.0 helped Kristina refine her ability to translate across teams

🔗 https://www.amazon.com/Emotional-Intelligence-2-0-Travis-Bradberry/dp/0974320625

15:45 Building strong workplace relationships for career success

18:00 Level Up Your Leadership—the role of emotional intelligence in advancing leadership skills

19:00 PMI San Diego and the value of professional communities

🔗 https://pmi-sd.org/

20:20 Relationship management as a key leadership skill

21:00 Getting the PMP Certification and its impact on her career

🔗 https://www.pmi.org/certifications/project-management-pmp

22:30 How great leaders recognize untapped potential and open new career opportunities

23:00 Accepting constructive feedback and authentic compliments to grow professionally

23:50 The debate: Are project managers born or made?

25:00 Coaching and consulting—helping others shine in their careers

26:00 Finding fulfillment through volunteering and mentoring

27:15 Team assessments—recognizing individual strengths to build high-performing teams

28:00 Kristina’s role as VP of Communications and its impact on her leadership journey

📖 Kristina’s Featured Book: Unstoppable: The Rise of Female Global Leaders

🔗 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C7L6PX7N

🌐 Resources & Links:

🔗 Project Insight Website: https://www.projectinsight.com

🔗 Watch the Video Podcast:https://projectinsight.com/wearyourcapetowork

🎧 Subscribe to Wear Your Cape to Work Podcast:

YouTube / @projectinsightpmsw

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Today's guest is Jeremiah Hammon, PMP. His passion for PMBOK guidelines is contagious, and his company, Project Revolution stands, by and supports project managers who are headed to certifications or who want to gain leadership roles in their organization.

He believes in the power of people in projects, and we're going to talk to him about laying the best foundation for project management work. His superpower is building bridges on teams and bringing emotional intelligence to your relationships and leadership roles.

02:00 – Jeremiah’s history: How he became an accidental project manager in the production & manufacturing sector.

02:15 – Why he believes people are the power in business.

02:40 – The key to success: Learn the sector, understand processes, and build relationships.

03:02 – Jeremiah’s deep dive into Project Management principles and how he felt the power of PMBOK-aligned methodologies.

03:30 – Earning his PMP certification was a turning point, giving him access to higher industries like nuclear energy.

04:00 – Transitioning into the nuclear and robotics sectors—how PMP was essential for entry and success.

04:45 – The role of PMBOK-aligned project management in high-stakes industries.

05:15 – Jeremiah’s new sector: Missile Defense. Standing up Quality Systems, Manufacturing Teams, and Compliance Work.

06:17 – A reminder that there’s always a team behind success—no PM works alone.

06:45 – Building bridges as a project manager and aligning diverse stakeholders.

07:19 – Your network is your net worth – inspiring teams to achieve what seems impossible.

08:00 – Tapping into team potential: Listening, understanding, and truly caring about each individual.

09:30 – How to fit relationship-building into a busy project schedule.

09:55 – Project Revolution’s mission: Creating better leaders for a better world.

11:05 – Helping professionals pass the PMP exam and implement its principles effectively.

12:00 – Leadership training and PMBOK as a guiding framework.

13:00 – What is PMBOK? Breaking down its role in structured project management.

15:00 – Project Insight: A project management software built on PMBOK best practices.

15:36 – The impact of earning the PMP certification on career growth.

16:40 – The societal impact of project managers—how PMs shape the future.

17:00 – Project Revolution as a strategic partner for organizations implementing project management.

18:00 – Combatting resistance to change in project environments.

19:00 – The importance of aggregating data across teams and software tools for better decision-making.

20:00 – Managing healthy tension in projects.

21:00 – Emotional intelligence as a key skill for project managers.

21:30 – Leadership training and the levels of leadership in project management.

Find Jeremiah on LinkedIn

Follow Jeremiah https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremiahrhammonjr/

Follow Trina: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trinaschaetz

Find Mathew https://www.linkedin.com/in/mathew-sparkes/

Project Revolution website https://www.projectrevolutionllc.com/

Project Insight's PMBOK-compliant Features by Domain: https://projectinsight.com/project-management-software/project-insight-pmbok-aligned-features-by-domain.pdf

Project Insight Website: projectinsight.com

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Website: projectinsight.com

LinkedIn: /company/projectinsight

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Free PDU Project Management Webinars: projectinsight.com/project-management-webinars/

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Today’s superhero guest is Kevin Perkins, a long-time technical product manager with years of experience shaping and considering SaaS product development.

He joins Steve West, CEO of Project Insight, for an engaging conversation on their early entrepreneurial friendship and the evolution of project management—where it was 20 years ago, where it stands today, and where it’s headed in the future.

Can we trust Kevin’s insights on what’s next? Absolutely. His superpower lies in his ability to see the big picture, anticipate industry trends, and lead innovation before the rest of the world is ready. You won’t want to miss this discussion!

1-5 min: Kevin’s Journey in Product Management

-Kevin’s career path and how he got into product management

-Steve and Kevin’s entrepreneurial connection

-Early entrepreneurs when the internet was born

-What was data connectivity like before the internet?

-Pre-online project management and learning as you go

5-12 min: The Evolution of Project Management & Kevin's Superpower

-Early tools in the early internet

-Agile born out of necessity

-Creating products to be monetized or invested in

-Digitizing businesses

-Superpower of self-placement in the history and future of project management

12-16 min: Building High-Performing Project Teams

-How teams adapted before modern PM software

-People want software developed yesterday – agile as a response

-How Agile helps keep projects iterating and customers informed

16-23 min: How Tech is Transforming Project Management

-The first chats weren’t Teams and Slack

-Extranets – before the cloud application idea

-Taking company intranet activities and exposing them to external platforms

-Transformation of PPM tools – many tools emerged and disappeared

23-24 min: Expert Insights on Scaling & Growth

Willingness to change – staying adaptive in tech and business

Don’t have to be an expert, but must keep moving with technology

24-36 min: The Future of Project Management

-Project Management from the dotcom days to now

-Kevin’s endeavor with Squeezer app – making web pages mobile-friendly

-Cobbling tools together to make systems work

-Putting project management online

-Interoperability with best-of-breed tools

-Bringing in t-shirt sizes and story points and converting them into measurable data

-Tightly integrating applications to bring data to PMs

36-41 min: Riffing on the Future: AI, PM, and Beyond

-Future of project, program, product, and portfolio management

-AI skepticism & anticipation

-2025 – the year of the agent?

Follow Kevin / kevinperkins

Follow Steve: / steve-west-cali

Follow Trina: / trinaschaetz

Project Insight Website: projectinsight.com

Follow Wear Your Cape to Work

Website: WYCTW.com

Follow Project Insight

Website: projectinsight.com

LinkedIn: /company/projectinsight

Instagram: /projectinsight/

X formerly Twitter: /projectinsight

Facebook: /ProjectInsightPMSW

Free PDU Project Management Webinars: projectinsight.com/project-management-webinars/

Subscribe to Wear Your Cape to Work Podcast on:

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#projectmanagement #projectmanagementsoftware #project #pmo #projectmanager #dotcom #azuredevops #jirasoftware #msprojectonline #msproject #projectmanagementpodcast

Our superhero PMP guest today is Sree Karanakarun!

Born and raised in India, Sree earned a degree in engineering and began her career as a mainframe IT developer. She quickly advanced through roles as a Business Analyst, Project Coordinator, and Project Manager, spending over 20 years in healthcare project and program management.

Then, she made a bold career pivot—leaving healthcare to become a Senior IT Project Manager for Douglas County, Colorado, managing projects in the community government sector.

In this episode, Mathew and I will dive into what it’s like to switch industries completely and explore her superpower: cutting through chaos as a project manager. 🚀

2:00 – Introduction to Sree

Sree shares her journey in IT, healthcare, and government project management.

4:00 – Walking in the Shoes of the Team

Her rise through roles—Business Analyst, Tester & QA, Developer, Architect, and Project/Program Manager.

5:00 – Speaking "Developer" as a PM

Understanding terminology, methodologies, workflows, and processes to bridge teams effectively.

6:00 – Seeing Through the Chaos

Using experience to close the gap between business and technology.

7:00 – Solving Puzzles

Balancing tools, technology, and teams. How PMs build trust and highlight contributors.

10:00 – Representing vs. Doing the Work

A PM’s role in ensuring work is accurately represented.

11:30 – Healthcare Project Management is Like an Ocean

Managing large-scale projects with a broad perspective.

12:18 – Staying High-Level

Focusing on the big picture without getting lost in details.

13:12 – Industry Terminology Matters

Each project is a stepping stone; knowing sector-specific terms is key.

15:48 – The Significance of Healthcare Projects

Critical, mission-driven work with lasting impact.

16:30 – Healthcare Project Types

A look at the projects shaping the industry.

19:25 – Shifting to Community & Government Projects

Exploring public sector work and its effect on daily life.

21:00 – A Universal PM Language

PMs share common processes and challenges across industries.

22:40 – Emotional Intelligence in PM

A crucial skill for managing teams and stakeholders.

25:00 – Strategic Thinking & Seeing Through Chaos

Lessons from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

27:00 – Understanding People in Projects

Navigating stakeholders, leadership, and team dynamics.

27:30 – PM Appreciation Every Day

Recognizing project managers' contributions.

28:56 – Group Projects & Collaboration

Why teamwork is central to success.

31:00 – PMI Mile Hi Chapter

Discussing PMI’s role in the PM community.

LINKS:

PMI-Mile Hi Chapter: https://www.pmi.org/membership/chapters/north-america/united-states/colorado/mile-hi-chapter

PMI.org Chapter Listings: https://www.pmi.org/membership/chapters

Project Insight Website: projectinsight.com

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Our guest today is James Phillips, an Informatics Analyst at Altamed and a dynamic leader with a rich and diverse background spanning communications, public relations, marketing, project management, medical coding, and healthcare informatics.

James has been intentional about his professional development throughout his career. At every step, his sharp self-assessment has inspired him to acquire new skills, pursue additional degrees, and earn valuable certifications.

Over time, he has built an impressive "super suit" of project management skills and expertise—a journey reminiscent of Tony Stark crafting his Ironman suit!

What makes James truly remarkable, however, is his generosity in sharing his knowledge with aspiring project managers. He’s passionate about helping others identify their own paths and empowering them to navigate their personal PM journeys.

Today, James will share his insights on how to determine if project management is the right career for you and how to chart a successful path forward in this dynamic field.

Show Notes:

:30 – Meet James Phillips

Learn about James Phillips, an informatics analyst and dynamic leader with expertise spanning healthcare informatics, PR, marketing, project management, and medical coding. Discover how to know if you’re cut out to be a PMP (Project Management Professional) and how to connect with resources for certification.

2:31 – Started Out in Hawaii

James shares his roots in Hawaii and how they shaped his early journey.

3:00 – The 9th Island of Hawaii

Discover why UNLV (University of Nevada, Las Vegas) is considered the 9th island of Hawaii and how it became part of James’s story.

4:00 – Beginnings in PR & Marketing

James reflects on his early career in public relations and marketing, where glitz and glamour weren’t always what they seemed.

7:00 – Transition to Medical Coding

How James shifted to medical coding and discovered his passion for healthcare informatics.

8:30 – What Is Medical Health Systems Coding?

James explains the role of medical health systems coding and its importance in the healthcare industry.

9:54 – What Is Project Management?

What does a project manager do, and how can you start your career in this field? James shares his insights.

11:00 – Choosing Your Industry

Tips on how to choose the right industry for your skills and interests, based on James’s experience.

17:30 – Lean Six Sigma Certification

James discusses his Lean Six Sigma certification and its value for project managers.

19:00 – What Certifications Should You Get as a PM?

Explore the certifications that James recommends for project managers to excel in their careers.

20:00 – Work-Life Balance and Skills Balance

James shares his approach to balancing work, life, and skills development.

21:00 – Color Blocking: Scheduling for Balance

Learn how James uses color blocking and time management techniques to maintain work-life balance.

22:00 – Time Blocking in Your Calendar

Tips on effectively managing your time and prioritizing tasks with time blocking.

24:00 – Getting Involved in Your PMI Chapter

The benefits of engaging with your local Project Management Institute (PMI) chapter

In this episode, we talk with Mehul Shah, the Senior Director for the PMO and Operations at Universal Destinations and Experiences (Universal Studios).

He started out in electrical engineering and found his way thru data analytics into project management. He’s worked at PMOs in many different industries at companies like GE, Siemens, Scholastic, and now Universal and is going to share about his superpower of "techno-functional leadership" in building great teams that deliver the best project success. He'll also dive deep into intersection of project management, data analytics, AI and machine learning.

And you’ll hear a bit about what its like to work next door to roller coasters!

Follow Mehul Sha

Follow Trina Schaetz

Follow Steve West

Show Notes

2:00 - Intro to Mehul: Electrical Engineering background, PM leadership journey, and technical roles at GE and Accenture

3:00 - Modernizing legacy infrastructure and tech stacks

3:20 - Keys to team success: Collaboration and collective knowledge

4:17 - Transition from technologist to techno-functional leader

5:43 - Leveraging data insights for successful projects

6:00 - Modernization efforts: Driving business-critical initiatives

7:00 - Leadership programs at GE and early career growth

7:16 - Era of AI and NLP: Why data and AI are not optional

8:00 - Your data should do something for you: Making data actionable

9:00 - The three most important data points for any business

14:00 - The intersection of project management, data, and technology

15:00 - How project management has evolved over the past 20 years

19:00 - Reverting to spreadsheets when systems are disparate

20:00 - Change management and adapting to new tools

Working as a project manager in the non-profit world is rewarding. The projects you work on help fulfill a mission driven vision that you can "get behind". But it also comes with great responsibility when -for instance- you manage multi-million dollar grants which hinge on successful project outcomes.

Our guest on this episode is Michelle Dickstein, a PMP from the nonprofit sector - who has many PMP superpowers, including flexible communication, the ability to manage broad expectations, and functioning as a liaison between product teams.

She has her masters in public health and also brings expertise in setting up enterprise PMOs, which she amusingly refers to as "Mary Poppins syndrome"—but you'll have to listen to find out why.

*Introducing Michele.

*PM geek moments.

*Michelle’s PMP journey.

*Universal PM challenges across industries.

*Being a PMP in the nonprofit sector.

*Mission-driven projects.

*Supporting medical teams with PMP skills.

*Pregnant with twins during a project.

*Other unexpected health challenges.

*Navigating government-funded grants.

*Flexible communication strategies.

*Ensuring realistic timelines.

*Michele's Blog

Project Insight Website: projectinsight.com

Watch Video Podcast https://youtu.be/HqX50u6krSU?si=JHlHkBtZ7k52uVuM

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This episode features "Time Ninja," Lindiwe Stenberg, PMP of PayPal. She's a master of setting realistic project timelines to make time for work-life balance. (Something often elusive in a project manager's world).

Listen now, to hear about the "Gantt chart in her head" and how to stack projects to make work efficient as possible.

*Productivity Balanced with Work-Life Balance: Lindiwe shares strategies for balancing high productivity with personal life.

*Setting Realistic Timelines: The superpower of establishing achievable project deadlines.

*Seeking Efficiencies: Techniques to execute tasks without wasting time.

*Work-Life Balance for Project Managers: Tips on maintaining harmony between work and personal life.

*Time Management Skills: Gathering abilities to effectively manage timelines.

*Nursing and Time Management: Applying nursing time management skills to project management.

*The Art and Intuition of PM Skills: Exploring the skill, art, and intuition involved in project management.

*Mental Gantt Charts: How to visualize project timelines internally.

*Stacking Projects: Learning to manage multiple projects simultaneously.

*Efficient Execution: Executing tasks efficiently without unnecessary delays.

*Setting Work Boundaries: The importance of stopping work at a specific time.

*Project Communications: Understanding how others' work impacts yours, especially in cross-functional teams.

*Automating Messages and Emails: Utilizing automation in project collaboration.

*Event Project Management Powers: Special skills required for managing events.

*Balancing Multiple Roles: Managing a full-time job, master's studies, volunteer work, and serving as a chapter secretary.