Soft skills are rarely discussed in the process focused world of digital project management. But when you spend time understanding the team and the client as humans, an amazing thing can happen. People start to care. They open up and share ideas. They talk about what matters to them. Concerns they may have. Even previous experiences that could impact the way work gets done. With that openness, everything gets better. Even the bottom line. But across cultures, there is a tendency to get a little mechanical. So how can we put people back at the heart of how we approach project management? Peta Kennett-Wilson has some thoughts.

In the early days of web design, there was more work than any one shop could handle. Everyone was super selective on the clients they took, and project focused. There was no need for a business development person as much as a need for filtering through the mass of inbound leads. If you treated people fairly, did decent work and kept your commitments you would succeed. As they say, those were the days. And they are gone. So now what? What are we hanging on to from the past that's hurting our future. It's time to figure it out, because there is a new wave of agencies coming in without the baggage. And if the established shops want to succeed, some changes are in order.

Fact: Digital agencies struggle with Agile. It feels like a private club with a secret handshake. But if you get in it will open up a world of faster and better project management. The problem is it never quite fits with how a shop works. One solution is to lowercase the "A", or "a" if you will. What does that even mean? Listen in as Dave Prior, PMP, PMI-ACP, CSM, CSPO, CSP and CST shares his insights from over 20 years of helping teams and individuals manage their work in the most effective way possible.

When you start a business you pour your heart and soul into it. If you’re willing to make the commitment and sacrifices, your business makes it. If you’re really lucky it thrives. But eventually, almost all businesses fail. And when they do it is a horrible, painful and severely depressing experience. Today, Jess Singer shares her story of founding and closing Mamabargains, one of the first and most successful deal sites ever. It had crazy growth, major corporate partnerships, and a huge fan base. So what went wrong? And more importantly, how does a founder recover from failure in the face of success?

Meghan McInerny, the Chief Operating Officer of Clockwork, shares with us the positive impact of puppies to your personal health, the leadership role that is digital pm management, choosing courage over comfort and what it takes to go from good to great as a Digital PM.

Over the past few years, improv has become more and more accepted in the business world. Not only is it seen as a way for teams to connect on a deeper level but also as a way for everyone in an organization to improve how they work together. On today's show, Gary Ware shares his story of finding improv and embracing it's powerful and positive impact on collaboration and culture.

Silos. We've been taught they are bad. They hurt productivity, culture, and quality. But what if we're wrong? Amanda Costello shares her insights on embracing silos as the natural order of the human condition. Her experiences in higher ed builds a strong case that silos can actually improve not only the work we do but the relationships with our teams.

It's funny. Businesses are great at protecting things like money and secrets. But when it comes to their most valuable asset, their people's time, they give it away. Heck most of us agree to meetings, calls, and conversations that aren't nearly as valuable as the uninterrupted blocks of time we need to create something of importance. What's amazing is many of us have other people that can access our calendars and add meetings to it without our permission. In this episode, Jason Fried shares the importance of taking control of our time and more importantly, how to use it effectively.

If you run a business, you've probably faced it. The fear of looking at the bank account when you know it's not going to be pretty. You blame yourself. You don't see any way out. But you know you'll make it. You have to. There is simply no other option. JD Graffam has been there. With a mere $67 in the company coffers, he fought back. Listen to his story and advice in this Bureau Briefing. Spoiler Alert! You're going to have to get innovative.

When you run a content-focused digital agency, Agile (yes, with a capital A) can be a little hard to figure out. Most of us started with no real concept of how things would get done. But we understood the design process part of digital products. Then as we got traction, we realized we'd need other people to build the projects. Waterfall works really well with these types of hand-offs. But forecasting difficulties arise making it tough to know when you can take on more work. Well, you're welcome. Here is a conversation all about making the move to Agile when you're focused on the marketing side of digital development. Oh, and there's a whole lot of honesty too, courtesy of Andi Graham.