The Unpopular PM

As a proud millennial and child of the ‘90s, I distinctly remember the ubiquitous educational posters adorning the walls of my elementary and middle school imploring us to remember that “what is popular is not always right. What is right is not always popular.” Although I was sensible of the message, I didn’t truly feel its impact as a child. By the time I graduated from a hellish fifth grade year where every member of my friend group had been put into the other class by some cruel twist of fate, I had stopped caring about being popular. After enduring a year of torment simply for being myself, why would I entertain being anyone else, especially if I now had a supportive group of girlfriends around me?

Sometimes, being a project manager can feel like being the unpopular kid in the class, especially when you are dealing with team members that resist change or even try to prevent it from happening. What do you do when project stakeholders resist adopting effective program management practices?

Analyze the Situation

The first step in improving any situation is to document the problem that you see. While it may seem obvious to you, the experienced PM, that there is a problem, others may not realize anything is broken. Stakeholders may be unwittingly trapped in the mindset that this is the way they’ve always done things. They lack an appreciation that things could be better, never mind the wherewithal to make a change. Analyzing the situation clarifies your perspective and helps you assess whether it’s worth the effort to make a change. To perform this analysis:

• Document the issues that you observe

• Explain the impacts that those issues are having on program or product performance

• Use evidence to back up your claims. Ideally, this evidence is quantitative as well as qualitative.

  • For example, if you believe your team is overworked, include metrics that prove how many hours the team is putting in each week. Also, demonstrate the shortfall between work performed and incoming requirements.

Evaluate the Desired Outcome

Once you’ve analyzed the situation, reflect upon how to proceed. First, determine whether the results of your analysis substantiate your hypothesis—i.e., does the issue truly exist? If so, is this something that you can resolve yourself, or does it require approval from someone else?

If it’s something you can resolve independently, then I’m a big fan of making the decision to do so. While you may not have the authority to make a change, you can use your influence to motivate others to address the problem. Communicating your proposed approach and explaining to your team how this approach will benefit them is part of the PM’s job.

In some cases, however, the change you’re attempting to make requires a blessing from someone senior to you. In that case, consider whether raising this issue is worth your boss’s time (and your energy to make the case.) What do you hope to achieve? What would success look like?

Present Your Argument

If you decide you need help from leadership to effect a change, you’ll need to present your case. Clear, concise, compelling communication is essential to express the results of your analysis and gain buy-in. Trying for a verbal pitch is best. Beware of asynchronous communication—although this may be the primary way that people communicate on your busy project, it is bound to introduce confusion. Because of the nature of the beast, leaders’ attention is likely fragmented over several other Slack threads simultaneously, making it harder for them to focus on your argument.

If synchronous communication is not possible or unsuccessful, supplement it with an email that defines the problem, analyzes the situation, and evaluates the desired outcome by outlining a few potential options for resolution. Include doing nothing as an option to highlight the results of your impact analysis. Indicate which option you recommend, and then give a timetable for a response. If you don’t receive a response by a certain date, you’ll move out on the option that you recommended.

Hope for the Best, but Prepare for the Worst

You hope people can be persuaded to think your way. But, sometimes people don’t react positively. Learn not to take it personally. People resist change for a myriad of different reasons that have nothing to do with the logical integrity of your pitch. For example, stakeholders may feel intimidated or threatened by an outside perspective that exposes what they’ve long suspected or feared are deficiencies.

In these situations, your lodestar should be about what’s best for the business. As long as you’ve expressed yourself respectfully and professionally and advocated for a change that benefits program or product health, then you know you’ve done what is right—even if it is not always popular.