On this episode of This Project Life, we interview Jeff, a moderator from the 86K-member subreddit r/projectmanagement. He shares insights from the community's FAQs, explains why you shouldn't pursue the CAPM, shares his own experiences in project management, and *gasp* is challenged by automation.
This is an interesting one. We're speaking with one of the moderators of the r/projectmanagement subreddit, Jeff. We're only stating his first name as not to reveal his identity - part of what makes Reddit great is its anonymity.
Jeff moderates, and is an active contributor, to one of the largest communities of project managers in the world. With over 86,600 members, r/projectmanagement is full of folks looking for advice from peers. That covers everything from career seekers to people looking for tool tips, to specific asks based on one's industry.
The discussion moves into Jeff’s background in project management, and his working method. Jeff shares advice to new project managers, and encourages communicating news quickly and early, especially if there are setbacks, and why honesty is the best policy. Jeff shares his trial-by-fire first time as a project manager, on his first project in a different country. Key Takeaways:
Jeff “TheWolf1970” became involved in the project management subreddit about nine years ago. It has grown from 40K to 86K members in the past year. The two moderators grow it using Flair topics.
“Don’t get the CAPM.”
Jeff shares templates that he has spent years building and collecting, to help users get started in project management.
His most difficult subreddit question is when people say they want to give up on project management. Jeff encourages people to look at their project baseline to evaluate the status. He also recommends a specific PM book.
There is a risk of crashing a project. Fast-tracking a project involves scaling back the delivery. Jeff discusses experience versus knowledge. He describes his project management method. Jeff measures a project’s success by holding a retrospective with his client on what went well, and what could be done better.
Jeff reveals how automation works for him, including a “Boss Rule” for email, a stopwatch script for timekeeping, and a tool for overnight report generation. He talks about his Scrum Master Certification, and what Agile is good for. He talks about the differences between PMBOK 6 and PMBOK 7 — Now with more Agile!
