August 6, 2024 • 21 mins
In This Episode:
How do you turn an unexpected career setback into a launchpad for success? This week on PM Mastery, I am excited to welcome back Skye Dodd, who shares her inspiring journey from social work to project management. After a bold move from Florida to Atlanta, Skye faced a sudden layoff but was able to turn the challenge into a golden opportunity, securing two job offers within two weeks. Listen as she recounts how she filled her technical skills gap, took her career to new heights, and even grew her side business helping others break into project management.
But that's not all—this episode also discusses some of the new skills Skye is learning from the world of SaaS and fleet management. Discover the dual responsibilities of managing projects and building scalable processes in a firm that is looking to dramatically increase in size in a short period. We dig into the evolving roles in project management, the critical balance between administrative tasks and strategic thinking, and the potential role of AI in easing the workload. Skye also shares her ongoing coaching efforts, plans for professional development, and exciting future initiatives aimed at supporting the project management community. Whether you're a seasoned PM or just starting out, this episode is filled with actionable tips and inspiring stories you won't want to miss!
Links:
- Connect with Skye on LinkedIn
- Check out Skye's recent article for the Institute of Project Management
- Skye's First Interview
- Skye on PM Consulting and Coaching LinkedIn Live
PMI Talent Triangle: Technical /Ways of Working (Learn More)
PM-Mastery Links:
- For a full podcast episode list, visit here: PM-Mastery Podcast Episodes.
- For a full list of blog posts, go here: PM-Mastery Blog Posts
- Become a PURE PM: https://pm-mastery.com/pure
- Check out Instructing.com for all your PM course needs: https://www.instructing.com/?ref=bd5e5c
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Intro/Outro (00:12):
Welcome to the PM Mastery Podcast.
This podcast is all abouthelping you master your project
management skills by sharingtips, tricks, tools and training
to get you to the next level,while sharing the stories of
other project managers on theirjourney in project management.
And now here's your host, waltSparling.
Walt Sparling (00:36):
Welcome everyone to the current edition of PM
Mastery, and today I have backwith me Skye Dodd.
Welcome back, skye.
Skye Dodd (00:44):
Hey, thanks for having me back.
Walt Sparling (00:46):
So we have, I'd say, worked together three times
on different things.
We interviewed you in Octoberof 23, where you transitioned
right after that to a new job.
Then we worked on a LinkedInLive somewhere in six to eight
months ago I couldn't find thedate real quick but we talked
about PMs that have donefreelance work or are doing
(01:10):
freelance and coaching or resumereviews or, like you know,
kayla, full-time PMing.
That was a really good one.
On LinkedIn Live, I'll put somelinks to the previous episode
and to that one in the shownotes when we're done.
So this is something that webasically do a follow-up at some
point and I know you've beensuper busy, so we're jumped
(01:33):
ahead a little bit.
Normally this would be inOctober of this year, but we're
getting ahead and just kind ofchecking in with you and see
what's going on in your world.
Skye Dodd (01:42):
I know you've been busy so tell us a little bit
about what you've been up to.
Yeah, and you shoot.
Maybe we'll have to do anotherone in October of this year too,
with with all this stuff I'vegot brewing, um.
But yeah, when you interviewedme last um, independently, so
prior to that that uh groupsession that we did on LinkedIn
(02:03):
Live I had just been offered aposition as a project manager.
So that was me transitioningfully from social work to
education into projectmanagement.
At that point I sold my house,moved from Florida to Atlanta
(02:24):
for that job it was fully inperson and about six months
later I was laid off.
The company did a restructureand so you know that was a
little disheartening.
But two weeks after my layoff I, you know, right after the
layoff I posted on LinkedIn thatI was open to work and my
(02:44):
network really came through andliterally two weeks later I was
offered two competing positions,both for project manager roles,
and I accepted one, and I'vebeen at that company for almost
three months now.
So it's been a whirlwind, butreally, really great, awesome.
Walt Sparling (03:00):
It sounds like that move initial move was an
opportunity to get you into theright spot for the next one.
Yeah, it sounds like that moveinitial move was an opportunity
to get you into the right spotfor the next one.
Skye Dodd (03:08):
Yeah, and that's exactly how my husband and I
were looking at it.
Right, I was offered thisposition and it's funny because
he actually was deathly ill withCOVID when I had this offer and
I had to tell them in like 48hours.
So I remember going to him andbeing like so I know you have
102 fever, but you know we mighthave to sell our house and move
.
Is you know, can I make thisdecision?
(03:28):
He's like I don't care, youknow.
So I made the decision and youknow we packed up and moved here
and one of the reasons why Itook this opportunity was it was
a huge move but some of theskills I had conducted sort of
my own skills gap analysis andyou know I didn't have a ton of
technical skills but I wanted tobe in a technical PM role and
(03:49):
this company knew that and theytook a risk with me.
They brought me in, trained meup and it was filling in every
gap that I needed to fill toreally propel my career, evident
by my other two opportunitiesthat I was offered.
So it was exactly what I neededwhen I needed it.
Walt Sparling (04:07):
Perfect Love to hear that Now, even though you
transitioned to the one, Iremember you were getting pretty
busy socially with offering tohelp people with their resume
and some other projectmanagement related stuff.
In fact, when we did I'm justgetting over COVID when you did
(04:31):
the LinkedIn live, you hadtalked a little bit about some
of the things that you weredoing on the side and it was a
very interesting conversationtalking about compensation and
the different you know skillsets and all that.
So do you still do that kind ofside work?
Skye Dodd (04:49):
I do, yeah, so I don't have myself an LLC.
I do have a small business thatI have, or at least a website
that kind of promotes mybusiness.
But yeah, I'm doing.
I think at that point it wasvery broad.
I was offering a lot ofservices.
(05:09):
Right, I transitioned careersand a couple of things I was
focusing on were transitioningteachers, social workers, really
just people coming fromindustries that if you see that
job title and you are a hiringmanager for a project manager,
you probably wouldn't look twiceat that person's resume.
So that was really my sort ofmy target audience and I'm still
(05:33):
doing that.
But I've toned back the amountof services that I'm offering to
really specialize in thingslike resume writing, networking
and interviewing, because thosethree topics are skills and
(05:54):
those three things are thingsthat I've mastered, so
continuing to upskill myself inthose areas and really help
other people in theirtransitions as well.
Walt Sparling (06:02):
Cool and the new role that you're doing.
You are working with atechnical firm and you're doing
project management.
Are you just managing projects?
Are you part of a larger team?
Tell us a little bit about whatthat job is like.
Skye Dodd (06:21):
Yeah, that's a good question.
So my title is implementationproject manager.
My role itself is, well, thecompany itself.
It's a SaaS companyspecifically within the fleet
industry, so our software isdependent on hardware.
So whenever we get, a contractis dependent on hardware.
(06:48):
So whenever we get a contract,that contract is distributed
amongst the implementation PMteam to manage the
implementation of the hardwareand the software.
So that's what I'm doing.
I'm managing those contracts asthey're handed to me from my
leadership.
But what really attracted me?
Let me start here.
When I was about to get laidoff, I kind of had an idea they
(07:08):
were restructuring the companyand so I kind of did some like
let me look inside and figureout really what I want and what
my vision of my next role isgoing to be.
I never would have thought in amillion years let me work for
the fleet industry.
But I did know that I wanted towork on sort of like a startup
mindset company.
We are kind of in chaos but wereally want to grow.
(07:32):
And then I also knew I wantedto be part of something that was
meaningful and impactful as faras the projects, and so the
company itself has been aroundfor 20 years but they're really
looking to grow double the sizeby the end of this year and
again double the size of that in2025.
So lots of opportunity.
And one thing that they'rereally passionate about is
(07:56):
safety culture getting thesedrivers of these fleet trucks
back home safely to theirfamilies, and reducing idle time
and reducing, like you know,oil and gas that that burn in
the fleets and that sort ofthing.
So, overall, that mission andvision really resonated with me.
So I mentioned all of that,because one of your question is
you know, are you part of like abigger?
(08:17):
You know something bigger?
One thing that I'm doing,because the company is growing
so rapidly, is working on reallybuilding project infrastructure
, so scalable processes that canreally scale with the company.
So, yes, managing projects andalso working on lots, lots of
other things to help theorganization grow as well.
Walt Sparling (08:35):
Cool, all right, yeah, and are they keeping you
busy with that?
Skye Dodd (08:41):
You think, with all the talking I just did, yeah,
yeah, I mean I'm managing somereally big projects that are
really, really awesome, butthey're very complicated, right.
So lots of like engagementefforts with different level
stakeholders and really makingsure we're utilizing the right
resources.
And I think because the companyhas sort of started off being a
(09:06):
little startup-esque in that itdoesn't have very clearly
defined processes and veryclearly defined project
infrastructure.
A lot of it is trial and errorand so you know we're trying out
some things and then we'reiterating and I don't know.
The whole company culture isreally awesome.
Everyone's really into thegrowth mindset, so busy, but
(09:27):
yeah.
Walt Sparling (09:28):
If you don't have a lot of those tools
well-defined, you've got to getthem defined, and when you're
talking about a double orquadruple in size, that is it's
going to be fun.
I mean, the big thing is youcan look back and go, wow, this
is part of something really big.
Skye Dodd (09:44):
Yeah, exactly yeah.
The other company that had mademe an offer had been around for
120 years and they, you know,while that stability sounded
great, it's they have 300,000employees and it would have been
a lot harder to come in andmake a big impact.
So I'm really excited by thisopportunity.
I'd love to hear I don't know,have you had the opportunity to
build project infrastructure?
(10:05):
If you have any tips for me.
Walt Sparling (10:08):
Well, I'm kind of a process guy, so I'm not what
you would call a I don't know acreator.
I'm creative, but I tend to goin and look at stuff that's
there and then figure out how tooptimize it or make it better.
I don't typically start fromscratch, but that is exciting.
(10:29):
The thing with it is you haveto have somewhat of a baseline
of what you need to accomplish,to know what tools and what
processes to put in place.
And the longer you've doneproject management, and
especially in whatever industryyou're in, you'll know that and
you need to kind of brainstormout what those are and I go okay
, how can we, how can we do what?
(10:49):
Are we going to use software?
Are we going to use Excel?
Are we going to use MicrosoftProject or working with the team
?
But I think from earlierconversation you said that even
the rest of the team was prettyyoung.
Unless some of those maybe notbeen with the firm long but had
some good experience.
It would be hard also to reachout to them and go what are the
struggles you've had?
Let's try to figure those outso we can build a solid
(11:13):
infrastructure.
I think you've got quite thechallenge there.
Skye Dodd (11:18):
Yeah, I mean challenge or opportunity,
however you want to phrase it.
Walt Sparling (11:21):
Yes, I think it's both in your case because of
what the company wants to do andyour basically newness to the
company, and they're obviouslyputting a lot of trust and faith
in you, so that's a positive.
Yeah, I'll think about that.
If I can think of anythingspecific, I'll reach out to you,
but, yeah, I can think of allkinds of different things that
(11:42):
you need to kind of look at.
So this is exciting and this isa lot of work.
But I did notice recentlyyou're not as active on LinkedIn
, but you have been, and I sawyou just shared something
recently which was an articlethat you had recently published,
and I was hoping you could tellus a little bit about that as
(12:03):
well, and I'll share the linkthat's in the show notes.
Skye Dodd (12:06):
Yeah, yeah, definitely share that link.
I had a blast writing it.
So yeah, as far as sort of mycontent creation on LinkedIn, I
think that's died down a littlebit just due to the nature of
the work that I'm doing, and Ithink you had said this phrase
earlier.
But we all have those seasonswhere you know that content
creation just can't be thenumber one priority.
(12:27):
But I was afforded theopportunity to write an article
for the Institute of ProjectManagement.
So it's not PMI, but it's asort of a version of PMI in out
of Dublin, ireland.
So the topic of the article wasproject managers are we really
(12:48):
just administrative assistants?
And it kind of talks about youknow what is this issue?
What are we doing that?
What job duties do we have thatare administrative, how much?
And then kind of evolves intowhy is this a problem?
You know why are problem, whyis it a problem that we're
spending 40% of our week 50%,60% on administrative duties?
(13:11):
And the reason really is those,while administrative duties are
important, they're really novalue add and we should be
utilizing our time to engagewith customers and really drive
meaningful project activities.
So yeah, check out the article.
It talks a lot about if you arefeeling like admin assistant or
(13:33):
a glorified admin.
It gives a lot of tips andtools on how to start training
your team and how to startevolving some of your practices
around AI and automation.
Walt Sparling (13:47):
Yep, ai is good and sometimes you need to not
only like your team would belike maybe training your
managers a little bit.
A lot of places where I've seenwhere you end up being very
administrative is there is likean expectation from management
or leadership and they thinkeither the PM should do
(14:10):
everything or the PM is notdoing enough and they need to do
more.
What I've noticed is firms thatget it.
They have a team of it's notjust you out on an island.
You might have an assistant.
You have a larger project, youhave a project coordinator.
Project coordinators, anassistant, you have a larger
project, you have a projectcoordinator.
Project coordinators are verydiverse in how they're used.
Where I came from last, projectcoordinators did like final
(14:34):
checks and balances and they putin the budget that we gave them
and they would issue the finalPO after we did all the other
work to get it.
In the new one, one where I work, I get a proposal, give it to
the PC and I'm done.
They take it from there, whichis awesome because that is an
administrative stuff.
The hard work's done, did thescoping found, the firms got the
(14:57):
competitive pricing.
Here's who we're going with.
I don't need to be tied up forhours dealing with getting a PO
signed and all that.
I get the administrative stuffand that can be so time
consuming.
And AI I just did a aninterview with Ozias and um.
We talked a lot about AI andhow it can be used to help your
(15:22):
job, make your job easier, andI'm actually working with him
and a couple other individualson an upcoming live where we're
going to talk about AI andproject management and how you
can utilize it more, so I'mlooking forward to that
(16:07):
no-transcript educating fromthere to make any sort of change
.
Skye Dodd (16:15):
So I'll have a listen to that podcast that you did
with Ozio last week too, becauseI want to hear a little more
about that.
Walt Sparling (16:25):
Yeah, and I think having too many administrative
tasks on a PM is you're wastinga valuable resource.
You know their skill sets gobeyond being able to type and
enter information in aspreadsheet or a web page.
It's like the critical thinkingand communication and scoping
and troubleshooting riskdevelopment.
(16:47):
That's where they earn theirmoney.
They shouldn't be doingadministrative tasks.
That's why you get other peopleto do those.
Skye Dodd (16:53):
Exactly.
Yeah, I think a lot of.
I don't know I'm making areally vast assumption.
A lot of companies right noware doing reductions in
workforce and you know variousother things, so sometimes it's
not necessarily feasible tobring in one or two project
coordinators or what have you,but I'm lucky that I'm in this
(17:14):
position at this company thathas this goal to double and
quadruple in size over the nextyear and a half.
So looking forward to seeing,with this idea that I have in
mind and really building someproject infrastructure, what we
can do with adding on, possiblyadding on different positions.
Walt Sparling (17:32):
Do you have in the current?
I know it's new, but do youhave project coordinators or a
project coordinator?
Skye Dodd (17:39):
We do not now.
Walt Sparling (17:40):
I'll recommend.
Skye Dodd (17:40):
Yeah, so we get it.
Walt Sparling (17:43):
What'd you say?
I'll definitely recommend thatas an ad.
Skye Dodd (17:46):
Oh yeah, for sure, for sure, yeah same.
We have a sales team and aproject is directly handed to us
from the sales team to do allof the scoping and planning and
monitoring and controlling andall of that jazz.
Walt Sparling (17:58):
I love the sales guys, the sales guys.
Skye Dodd (18:00):
They're a fun team.
Walt Sparling (18:08):
All I love the sales guys.
The sales guys they're a funteam, all right.
So you're still doing your sidestuff with helping out people
with their resumes.
You're coaching a little bit.
You're writing articles, or atleast one, maybe more.
It sounds like you reallyenjoyed writing that and you're
working really hard at this newjob.
Anything else?
Skye Dodd (18:22):
I mean, isn't that enough?
Walt?
Walt Sparling (18:24):
I think it is.
I just wanted to make sure youweren't hiding something else
back there that you were doing.
Skye Dodd (18:30):
No, I'm kidding, yes, more articles to come.
I have thought about I'lldefinitely make some posts on
this A real gap that I see.
There's two things that I'mworking on outside of my job
that I'm putting a lot ofthought into.
One is evolving my coachingright.
So I have a lot of clients I'llcall them but a lot of people
(18:54):
that I support in theirtransition.
And then what happens when theytransition?
How do we develop them?
What's their professionaldevelopment plan?
So I am thinking about one thingI'm doing at my current company
is creating a professionaldevelopment plan and then
working on training, anevolution of training for people
not just transitioning butreally to get them to that
(19:28):
senior and more director andexec levels.
So that's thing number one.
And thing number two is thatkind of twists in a little bit
here and I'll have to be alittle bit mysterious because we
don't have a lot of details butI am working with Julia Odie on
sort of a community aroundproject support.
(19:52):
So anyone that wants to talkabout anything.
It'll be a really great hub forresources, lots of diversity in
people and topics and supportavailability.
So more to come on that, butwe're looking at probably
launching that, so you guys willstart seeing a little bit of
(20:15):
information on that, but we'relooking to launch probably
January of 25.
Walt Sparling (20:21):
Cool, Looking forward to it.
Yeah, I appreciate you comingback on and it's good to hear
about all the exciting newthings you're doing, and I think
we'll probably do like yousuggested earlier.
Maybe usually we do a year outfrom your initial interview, but
we're still a few months outfrom that.
Maybe we'll check back in inOctober of this year and see
(20:43):
what your full year transitionhas been like, because it sounds
like you've already made somedramatic shifts just in the time
frame that we have already yeah, that sounds great.
Skye Dodd (20:53):
I would be glad to hop on whenever you want me back
.
Walt Sparling (20:56):
All right.
Thank you everyone and we'llsee you on the next episode of
PM Mastery.
Intro/Outro (21:01):
Thanks for listening to the PM Mastery
podcast at wwwpm-masterycom.
Be sure to subscribe in yourpodcast player.
Until next time, keep workingon your craft.
Welcome to the PM Mastery Podcast.
This podcast is all abouthelping you master your project
management skills by sharingtips, tricks, tools and training
to get you to the next level,while sharing the stories of
other project managers on theirjourney in project management.
And now here's your host, waltSparling.
Walt Sparling (00:36):
Welcome everyone to the current edition of PM
Mastery, and today I have backwith me Skye Dodd.
Welcome back, skye.
Skye Dodd (00:44):
Hey, thanks for having me back.
Walt Sparling (00:46):
So we have, I'd say, worked together three times
on different things.
We interviewed you in Octoberof 23, where you transitioned
right after that to a new job.
Then we worked on a LinkedInLive somewhere in six to eight
months ago I couldn't find thedate real quick but we talked
about PMs that have donefreelance work or are doing
(01:10):
freelance and coaching or resumereviews or, like you know,
kayla, full-time PMing.
That was a really good one.
On LinkedIn Live, I'll put somelinks to the previous episode
and to that one in the shownotes when we're done.
So this is something that webasically do a follow-up at some
point and I know you've beensuper busy, so we're jumped
(01:33):
ahead a little bit.
Normally this would be inOctober of this year, but we're
getting ahead and just kind ofchecking in with you and see
what's going on in your world.
Skye Dodd (01:42):
I know you've been busy so tell us a little bit
about what you've been up to.
Yeah, and you shoot.
Maybe we'll have to do anotherone in October of this year too,
with with all this stuff I'vegot brewing, um.
But yeah, when you interviewedme last um, independently, so
prior to that that uh groupsession that we did on LinkedIn
(02:03):
Live I had just been offered aposition as a project manager.
So that was me transitioningfully from social work to
education into projectmanagement.
At that point I sold my house,moved from Florida to Atlanta
(02:24):
for that job it was fully inperson and about six months
later I was laid off.
The company did a restructureand so you know that was a
little disheartening.
But two weeks after my layoff I, you know, right after the
layoff I posted on LinkedIn thatI was open to work and my
(02:44):
network really came through andliterally two weeks later I was
offered two competing positions,both for project manager roles,
and I accepted one, and I'vebeen at that company for almost
three months now.
So it's been a whirlwind, butreally, really great, awesome.
Walt Sparling (03:00):
It sounds like that move initial move was an
opportunity to get you into theright spot for the next one.
Yeah, it sounds like that moveinitial move was an opportunity
to get you into the right spotfor the next one.
Skye Dodd (03:08):
Yeah, and that's exactly how my husband and I
were looking at it.
Right, I was offered thisposition and it's funny because
he actually was deathly ill withCOVID when I had this offer and
I had to tell them in like 48hours.
So I remember going to him andbeing like so I know you have
102 fever, but you know we mighthave to sell our house and move
.
Is you know, can I make thisdecision?
(03:28):
He's like I don't care, youknow.
So I made the decision and youknow we packed up and moved here
and one of the reasons why Itook this opportunity was it was
a huge move but some of theskills I had conducted sort of
my own skills gap analysis andyou know I didn't have a ton of
technical skills but I wanted tobe in a technical PM role and
(03:49):
this company knew that and theytook a risk with me.
They brought me in, trained meup and it was filling in every
gap that I needed to fill toreally propel my career, evident
by my other two opportunitiesthat I was offered.
So it was exactly what I neededwhen I needed it.
Walt Sparling (04:07):
Perfect Love to hear that Now, even though you
transitioned to the one, Iremember you were getting pretty
busy socially with offering tohelp people with their resume
and some other projectmanagement related stuff.
In fact, when we did I'm justgetting over COVID when you did
(04:31):
the LinkedIn live, you hadtalked a little bit about some
of the things that you weredoing on the side and it was a
very interesting conversationtalking about compensation and
the different you know skillsets and all that.
So do you still do that kind ofside work?
Skye Dodd (04:49):
I do, yeah, so I don't have myself an LLC.
I do have a small business thatI have, or at least a website
that kind of promotes mybusiness.
But yeah, I'm doing.
I think at that point it wasvery broad.
I was offering a lot ofservices.
(05:09):
Right, I transitioned careersand a couple of things I was
focusing on were transitioningteachers, social workers, really
just people coming fromindustries that if you see that
job title and you are a hiringmanager for a project manager,
you probably wouldn't look twiceat that person's resume.
So that was really my sort ofmy target audience and I'm still
(05:33):
doing that.
But I've toned back the amountof services that I'm offering to
really specialize in thingslike resume writing, networking
and interviewing, because thosethree topics are skills and
(05:54):
those three things are thingsthat I've mastered, so
continuing to upskill myself inthose areas and really help
other people in theirtransitions as well.
Walt Sparling (06:02):
Cool and the new role that you're doing.
You are working with atechnical firm and you're doing
project management.
Are you just managing projects?
Are you part of a larger team?
Tell us a little bit about whatthat job is like.
Skye Dodd (06:21):
Yeah, that's a good question.
So my title is implementationproject manager.
My role itself is, well, thecompany itself.
It's a SaaS companyspecifically within the fleet
industry, so our software isdependent on hardware.
So whenever we get, a contractis dependent on hardware.
(06:48):
So whenever we get a contract,that contract is distributed
amongst the implementation PMteam to manage the
implementation of the hardwareand the software.
So that's what I'm doing.
I'm managing those contracts asthey're handed to me from my
leadership.
But what really attracted me?
Let me start here.
When I was about to get laidoff, I kind of had an idea they
(07:08):
were restructuring the companyand so I kind of did some like
let me look inside and figureout really what I want and what
my vision of my next role isgoing to be.
I never would have thought in amillion years let me work for
the fleet industry.
But I did know that I wanted towork on sort of like a startup
mindset company.
We are kind of in chaos but wereally want to grow.
(07:32):
And then I also knew I wantedto be part of something that was
meaningful and impactful as faras the projects, and so the
company itself has been aroundfor 20 years but they're really
looking to grow double the sizeby the end of this year and
again double the size of that in2025.
So lots of opportunity.
And one thing that they'rereally passionate about is
(07:56):
safety culture getting thesedrivers of these fleet trucks
back home safely to theirfamilies, and reducing idle time
and reducing, like you know,oil and gas that that burn in
the fleets and that sort ofthing.
So, overall, that mission andvision really resonated with me.
So I mentioned all of that,because one of your question is
you know, are you part of like abigger?
(08:17):
You know something bigger?
One thing that I'm doing,because the company is growing
so rapidly, is working on reallybuilding project infrastructure
, so scalable processes that canreally scale with the company.
So, yes, managing projects andalso working on lots, lots of
other things to help theorganization grow as well.
Walt Sparling (08:35):
Cool, all right, yeah, and are they keeping you
busy with that?
Skye Dodd (08:41):
You think, with all the talking I just did, yeah,
yeah, I mean I'm managing somereally big projects that are
really, really awesome, butthey're very complicated, right.
So lots of like engagementefforts with different level
stakeholders and really makingsure we're utilizing the right
resources.
And I think because the companyhas sort of started off being a
(09:06):
little startup-esque in that itdoesn't have very clearly
defined processes and veryclearly defined project
infrastructure.
A lot of it is trial and errorand so you know we're trying out
some things and then we'reiterating and I don't know.
The whole company culture isreally awesome.
Everyone's really into thegrowth mindset, so busy, but
(09:27):
yeah.
Walt Sparling (09:28):
If you don't have a lot of those tools
well-defined, you've got to getthem defined, and when you're
talking about a double orquadruple in size, that is it's
going to be fun.
I mean, the big thing is youcan look back and go, wow, this
is part of something really big.
Skye Dodd (09:44):
Yeah, exactly yeah.
The other company that had mademe an offer had been around for
120 years and they, you know,while that stability sounded
great, it's they have 300,000employees and it would have been
a lot harder to come in andmake a big impact.
So I'm really excited by thisopportunity.
I'd love to hear I don't know,have you had the opportunity to
build project infrastructure?
(10:05):
If you have any tips for me.
Walt Sparling (10:08):
Well, I'm kind of a process guy, so I'm not what
you would call a I don't know acreator.
I'm creative, but I tend to goin and look at stuff that's
there and then figure out how tooptimize it or make it better.
I don't typically start fromscratch, but that is exciting.
(10:29):
The thing with it is you haveto have somewhat of a baseline
of what you need to accomplish,to know what tools and what
processes to put in place.
And the longer you've doneproject management, and
especially in whatever industryyou're in, you'll know that and
you need to kind of brainstormout what those are and I go okay
, how can we, how can we do what?
(10:49):
Are we going to use software?
Are we going to use Excel?
Are we going to use MicrosoftProject or working with the team
?
But I think from earlierconversation you said that even
the rest of the team was prettyyoung.
Unless some of those maybe notbeen with the firm long but had
some good experience.
It would be hard also to reachout to them and go what are the
struggles you've had?
Let's try to figure those outso we can build a solid
(11:13):
infrastructure.
I think you've got quite thechallenge there.
Skye Dodd (11:18):
Yeah, I mean challenge or opportunity,
however you want to phrase it.
Walt Sparling (11:21):
Yes, I think it's both in your case because of
what the company wants to do andyour basically newness to the
company, and they're obviouslyputting a lot of trust and faith
in you, so that's a positive.
Yeah, I'll think about that.
If I can think of anythingspecific, I'll reach out to you,
but, yeah, I can think of allkinds of different things that
(11:42):
you need to kind of look at.
So this is exciting and this isa lot of work.
But I did notice recentlyyou're not as active on LinkedIn
, but you have been, and I sawyou just shared something
recently which was an articlethat you had recently published,
and I was hoping you could tellus a little bit about that as
(12:03):
well, and I'll share the linkthat's in the show notes.
Skye Dodd (12:06):
Yeah, yeah, definitely share that link.
I had a blast writing it.
So yeah, as far as sort of mycontent creation on LinkedIn, I
think that's died down a littlebit just due to the nature of
the work that I'm doing, and Ithink you had said this phrase
earlier.
But we all have those seasonswhere you know that content
creation just can't be thenumber one priority.
(12:27):
But I was afforded theopportunity to write an article
for the Institute of ProjectManagement.
So it's not PMI, but it's asort of a version of PMI in out
of Dublin, ireland.
So the topic of the article wasproject managers are we really
(12:48):
just administrative assistants?
And it kind of talks about youknow what is this issue?
What are we doing that?
What job duties do we have thatare administrative, how much?
And then kind of evolves intowhy is this a problem?
You know why are problem, whyis it a problem that we're
spending 40% of our week 50%,60% on administrative duties?
(13:11):
And the reason really is those,while administrative duties are
important, they're really novalue add and we should be
utilizing our time to engagewith customers and really drive
meaningful project activities.
So yeah, check out the article.
It talks a lot about if you arefeeling like admin assistant or
(13:33):
a glorified admin.
It gives a lot of tips andtools on how to start training
your team and how to startevolving some of your practices
around AI and automation.
Walt Sparling (13:47):
Yep, ai is good and sometimes you need to not
only like your team would belike maybe training your
managers a little bit.
A lot of places where I've seenwhere you end up being very
administrative is there is likean expectation from management
or leadership and they thinkeither the PM should do
(14:10):
everything or the PM is notdoing enough and they need to do
more.
What I've noticed is firms thatget it.
They have a team of it's notjust you out on an island.
You might have an assistant.
You have a larger project, youhave a project coordinator.
Project coordinators, anassistant, you have a larger
project, you have a projectcoordinator.
Project coordinators are verydiverse in how they're used.
Where I came from last, projectcoordinators did like final
(14:34):
checks and balances and they putin the budget that we gave them
and they would issue the finalPO after we did all the other
work to get it.
In the new one, one where I work, I get a proposal, give it to
the PC and I'm done.
They take it from there, whichis awesome because that is an
administrative stuff.
The hard work's done, did thescoping found, the firms got the
(14:57):
competitive pricing.
Here's who we're going with.
I don't need to be tied up forhours dealing with getting a PO
signed and all that.
I get the administrative stuffand that can be so time
consuming.
And AI I just did a aninterview with Ozias and um.
We talked a lot about AI andhow it can be used to help your
(15:22):
job, make your job easier, andI'm actually working with him
and a couple other individualson an upcoming live where we're
going to talk about AI andproject management and how you
can utilize it more, so I'mlooking forward to that
(16:07):
no-transcript educating fromthere to make any sort of change
.
Skye Dodd (16:15):
So I'll have a listen to that podcast that you did
with Ozio last week too, becauseI want to hear a little more
about that.
Walt Sparling (16:25):
Yeah, and I think having too many administrative
tasks on a PM is you're wastinga valuable resource.
You know their skill sets gobeyond being able to type and
enter information in aspreadsheet or a web page.
It's like the critical thinkingand communication and scoping
and troubleshooting riskdevelopment.
(16:47):
That's where they earn theirmoney.
They shouldn't be doingadministrative tasks.
That's why you get other peopleto do those.
Skye Dodd (16:53):
Exactly.
Yeah, I think a lot of.
I don't know I'm making areally vast assumption.
A lot of companies right noware doing reductions in
workforce and you know variousother things, so sometimes it's
not necessarily feasible tobring in one or two project
coordinators or what have you,but I'm lucky that I'm in this
(17:14):
position at this company thathas this goal to double and
quadruple in size over the nextyear and a half.
So looking forward to seeing,with this idea that I have in
mind and really building someproject infrastructure, what we
can do with adding on, possiblyadding on different positions.
Walt Sparling (17:32):
Do you have in the current?
I know it's new, but do youhave project coordinators or a
project coordinator?
Skye Dodd (17:39):
We do not now.
Walt Sparling (17:40):
I'll recommend.
Skye Dodd (17:40):
Yeah, so we get it.
Walt Sparling (17:43):
What'd you say?
I'll definitely recommend thatas an ad.
Skye Dodd (17:46):
Oh yeah, for sure, for sure, yeah same.
We have a sales team and aproject is directly handed to us
from the sales team to do allof the scoping and planning and
monitoring and controlling andall of that jazz.
Walt Sparling (17:58):
I love the sales guys, the sales guys.
Skye Dodd (18:00):
They're a fun team.
Walt Sparling (18:08):
All I love the sales guys.
The sales guys they're a funteam, all right.
So you're still doing your sidestuff with helping out people
with their resumes.
You're coaching a little bit.
You're writing articles, or atleast one, maybe more.
It sounds like you reallyenjoyed writing that and you're
working really hard at this newjob.
Anything else?
Skye Dodd (18:22):
I mean, isn't that enough?
Walt?
Walt Sparling (18:24):
I think it is.
I just wanted to make sure youweren't hiding something else
back there that you were doing.
Skye Dodd (18:30):
No, I'm kidding, yes, more articles to come.
I have thought about I'lldefinitely make some posts on
this A real gap that I see.
There's two things that I'mworking on outside of my job
that I'm putting a lot ofthought into.
One is evolving my coachingright.
So I have a lot of clients I'llcall them but a lot of people
(18:54):
that I support in theirtransition.
And then what happens when theytransition?
How do we develop them?
What's their professionaldevelopment plan?
So I am thinking about one thingI'm doing at my current company
is creating a professionaldevelopment plan and then
working on training, anevolution of training for people
not just transitioning butreally to get them to that
(19:28):
senior and more director andexec levels.
So that's thing number one.
And thing number two is thatkind of twists in a little bit
here and I'll have to be alittle bit mysterious because we
don't have a lot of details butI am working with Julia Odie on
sort of a community aroundproject support.
(19:52):
So anyone that wants to talkabout anything.
It'll be a really great hub forresources, lots of diversity in
people and topics and supportavailability.
So more to come on that, butwe're looking at probably
launching that, so you guys willstart seeing a little bit of
(20:15):
information on that, but we'relooking to launch probably
January of 25.
Walt Sparling (20:21):
Cool, Looking forward to it.
Yeah, I appreciate you comingback on and it's good to hear
about all the exciting newthings you're doing, and I think
we'll probably do like yousuggested earlier.
Maybe usually we do a year outfrom your initial interview, but
we're still a few months outfrom that.
Maybe we'll check back in inOctober of this year and see
(20:43):
what your full year transitionhas been like, because it sounds
like you've already made somedramatic shifts just in the time
frame that we have already yeah, that sounds great.
Skye Dodd (20:53):
I would be glad to hop on whenever you want me back
.
Walt Sparling (20:56):
All right.
Thank you everyone and we'llsee you on the next episode of
PM Mastery.
Intro/Outro (21:01):
Thanks for listening to the PM Mastery
podcast at wwwpm-masterycom.
Be sure to subscribe in yourpodcast player.
Until next time, keep workingon your craft.
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