The ‘Aha’ Moment: PM Influencer Series
Table of Contents
In our series, The Aha Moment, we chat with influencers in the PM & PPM space and get to know them better. We ask a bunch of questions, some biz related and some not so biz related, in order to understand what makes them tick and find their aha moment.
This month’s feature is Mike Tessler, a remarkable program manager. So, keep reading to learn about his impressive journey and experience in the industry.
Q. What is your job title and in which industry are you working in?
A. Program Management Executive
Q. What is something unique that most people do not know about you?
A. I used to work in Washington, DC for the Defense Dept
Professional Stuff….
Q. What is your biggest challenge in your profession? How do you overcome it?
A. The biggest challenge is awareness and acknowledgment of Project / Program Mgmt as a center of excellence. Many people and teams think of project mgmt as something they can do themselves – and for small things this is often true – but the larger and more complex something is, the more you need people who do project mgmt for a living. Unfortunately, overcoming this perception is very difficult, and often it takes the failure of a project to gain awareness of the need to engage the experts.
Q. In your experience, why do projects fail or fail to meet their deadlines?
A. Usually due to a lack of coordination and planning. yes, technical problems arise and scope does expand, but those can be managed and adjusted with good governance.
Q. If you had a magic wand, what’s the one thing you would change about Gantt?
A. Use a data view, not the visual view. Visuals are excellent for a high level snapshot, but not for actual planning.ht into schedule dependencies.
Q. What’s the most annoying thing about project status meetings?
A. Deep dives on topics tend to take status meetings off track. That deep dive can be very necessary, but often not for everyone on the call. This leads to status meetings which are too long and not focused. A good status meeting can be very quick and concise, assigning follow-ups where needed to take place with a more focused group.
Q. What’s the most difficult thing about managing stakeholder expectations?
A. I actually find most stakeholders to be fairly realistic, and “easy” to manage. Provided that you are up front with constraints and progress, people understand there are limitations on all fronts.
Q. What advice would you give to up-and-coming professionals like yourself?
A. Being very diligent in researching the culture of your next career move.
Q. What is your biggest “grrrrrrr” in project management?
A. It’s a toss-up between “project managers are here to schedule meetings and take notes,” and “project management means big, slow bureaucracy.”
Fun Stuff
Q. If you were the host of a late night talk show, who would invite as your first guest?
A. J. Robert Oppenhiemer
Q. If you had an unlimited supply of one thing what would it be?
A. Time 😉
Q. Spring, summer, fall or winter?
A. Spring.
Q. What is your favorite breakfast food?
A. Cookies.
Q. If you could choose to do anything for a day, what would it be?
A. Fighter jet pilot
Q. If you could teleport anywhere in the world right now, where would you go and why?
A. Greek islands
If you want to connect with Mike and gain key insights from his expert career content, look her up on Linkedin. Thank you Mike for hanging out with us and answering our questions!
