CARDSMITH BREAKS FRIENDS HOW TO
CARDSMITH BREAKS FRIENDS PROFESSIONAL

CARDSMITH BREAKS FRIENDS HOW TO

I really knew nothing about project management early in my career and I had to learn to manage projects when clients would say things to me like, “You are going to present us with an implementation plan, right?” “Right,” I would say, and then I’d figure out how to do that later that evening. What’s the one thing you wish you had known about project management when you started in your career?

I had already learned most of what was covered from doing it for so long, but it was great to finally be exposed to the framework of project management as a whole. Going through the education to get my PMP was a valuable experience.

CARDSMITH BREAKS FRIENDS PROFESSIONAL

It was only about two and a half years ago that I finally decided to get certified as a Project Management Professional ( PMP). I had been doing quite a bit of business process improvement work and I started to see projects as just another business process that could be enhanced in a continuous improvement fashion. I learned a lot from my clients and from a couple of mentors, and eventually I decided to dive into learning more. I became really interested in getting better at project management once I had an awareness that there was a better way to do it than just by the seat of your pants. How did you learn more about project management? Secondly, and by necessity, I’m a project manager.

I think of myself as an Accidental Project Manager because I was not trained (initially) in project management, but I had to do it for my clients and for my own company. Then, as the owner of a small services company, I found myself having to manage projects all the time. The market was booming and I was getting more work than I could handle so I hired former colleagues to help meet the demand. In the early 90s, I became an accidental “CEO” when I began doing independent consulting to help manufacturing companies implement ERP software. Not many project managers make the leap to CEO. Today it’s the turn of Monica Borrell, PMP and CEO and co-founder of Cardsmith, a visual planning, communication, and project management tool patterned after one of her lifelong passions: sticky notes. This year I’m interviewing 10 inspiring women in project management, to celebrate blogging for 10 years.

Cardsmith breaks friends