The Power of an Agency PMO

Pretty early in my agency career, I was routed into project management.  The brief path went like this: Traffic Coordinator, Interactive Producer, Project Manager, Director of Creative Operations, Director of Operations, CEO.  Because I worked in the hub of all things throughout the years, I gained deep knowledge of many functions, so I also wore many hats and contributed greatly in many different areas like account management, RFP responses, creative development, and lots of business development.  The end result was that in every organization I was in, I cultivated the most comprehensive view of what was working or not working well and why.

In my experience, project managers are not viewed as subject matter experts. They are mostly relied on to keep things moving and ensure that deadlines are met. That function is extremely important in and of itself, but if that is all you, as an agency leader, are getting out of your Project Management Office (PMO), you are missing out.

Many agency leaders have a poor understanding of capacity, throughput, and costs in general, which puts them at a disadvantage in cultivating wisdom in their leadership.  When agency leadership is significantly connected to the PMO, there is a massive amount of organizational intelligence to be extracted from the project management efforts.  

The PMO is not just about hard data. It's about the unique skills and insights that project managers bring to the table. Every time a PM writes a scope of work or creates a schedule, they leverage historical data and consider the capabilities of the team. They can navigate potential pitfalls and inspire A+ work from a B team. This is a skill that should be highly valued and appreciated. If your PMO doesn’t have this skill, it's time to ask why.

Let's think about the hard data first.  The hard data metrics are boring but important.  We can go to the tools like scheduling software things as Asana, Workamjig, or Monday or bigger ERP platforms that are the primary tools of project managers.  These tools inherently create mountains of data, but data extraction is not always easy.  In fact, if the processes and protocols for how these systems are used are not thoughtful and strategic, then the data will be uninformative or inaccessible.  This is a big topic that I won't approach here, but there is a very important top-level conversation to be had about what kind of intelligence these systems need to deliver. At a minimum, they should be set up to output metrics for utilization, burn rate, capacity, and profitability on contracts.  This data should be collected and analyzed, but also reported on and memorialized in an accessible and usable way.  

Because project management is sometimes viewed as a necessary function that is an expense and not a revenue driver, I don’t see a lot of investment in amplifying these skill sets in PMOs. Furthermore, PMs who have these skillsets are often not allowed the time or tasked with the responsibility for producing these results, which is a huge missed opportunity.  When agencies build technical skills in their PMOs, It can result in a notable impact in the areas of profitability, workflow, and, frankly, workforce optimization.  This is true because we can spot trends in the data around productivity, identify chronic systemic blocks, and also tag what projects went wel and whyl.

This last piece, noticing what projects went well and, more importantly, why, requires a different kind of investment in the PMO talent space. Systems and data are only half of the skills for PM excellence. Great project managers need to have notable emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is, in large part, inherent, but it can be cultivated. Building a high EQ team in your PMO will help your team continuously improve by facilitating collaboration and participation in the systems that collect data.

I am a systems enthusiast, but data and systems are only great when they serve the people, teams, and organizations that use them. PMOs have earned a bad rap for prioritizing processes over people, and creative workers are especially sensitive to this.  There is no amount of organizational data that is worth the cost of creating bad work.  A good project manager will be able to tell when the work is not going well.  It is not their job to make the work good, but it should be their job to set the conditions for good work to occur.

Creating those conditions means that they are not working outside the team, but rather, they are a valued and essential part of the team.  PMs need to understand the dynamics of a creative team and how to dance with process and team dynamics.  This means that we have to build PM teams that have at least a modest level of how good creative work happens, what skills the team members have, and what motivates them.  As long as the hiring process is accounting for the interest in these skills and high EQ, the skills can be developed.

I was once at an agency that lost a huge account, which resulted in the agency’s first experience with lay-offs in over forty years.  At the time, I was the Director of Creative Operations, and prior to that, I was a Sr. Project Manager, so I was certain that I would be a part of the lay-off discussion.  I was absolutely floored and deeply disappointed to be left out of that conversation.  At the time, I had a unique and valuable perspective on creative talent.  I knew who was good at broad conceptual work, who was good at production, and which people amplified one another's talent.  Some enormous and irrecoverable mistakes were made, and the creative output suffered, which, in my opinion, is just not an acceptable outcome.

Now, to be clear, creative outcomes are not the PMs' strict responsibility; this is the role of creative leadership.  However, it is a rare Creative Director who has a handle on the fine details of how their team is functioning.  Their attention is generally on the big-picture creative output, which is correct. It just so happens that the small details of how the creative team functions result in big-picture creative output, so these details matter quite a bit.

The bottom line is that agencies could turn their PMOs into game-changing superpowers that can amplify talent, improve processes, protect creative workers, improve creative output, and manage margins on scopes of work. Agency PMOs need to hire for high EQ and train for organizational intelligence and system management. Agency leaders need to invest in PM skills, ask good questions, and expect results.