When you wash your hands every 30 seconds, they dry out, leaving a hurty mess of chapped skin in their wake. When your company processes a pandemic, it leaves a hurty mess of cancelled projects, haphazard handovers, and friction-filled calls in its wake. Find out where you stand compared to your industry peers. We’re gathering the numbers.
This spring, we’re looking past the white-hot panic of COVID-19 emergence and laying out the foundation for how resilient shops are running projects and adapting to uncertainty as 80% of the world remains shut down after two months of lockdowns.
Why should you care? Because now is the time to adjust your trajectory: shift your processes, tighten your project management, and reconnect with why you are in this business, to begin with. The teams that are focusing on these things now will be miles ahead of the rest as we emerge blinking and awestruck on the other side (whether it’s 6 months or 24 months from now). The pressure cooker we’re in magnifies all the issues and opportunities you had before. Can you see them? They’re crawling into your eyeballs and they need some love.
![Uncovering the patterns of resilient digital firms](https://louderthanten.imgix.net/articles/BlueSMCard-990000079e04513c.png?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&domain=louderthanten.imgix.net&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=881&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=82&w=1568&s=3f88e01369b854f6d4ac1d94c8b65e29 1568w, https://louderthanten.imgix.net/articles/BlueSMCard-990000079e04513c.png?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&domain=louderthanten.imgix.net&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=1763&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=61&w=3136&s=e8a47df58a23a9709f03396d8e09352b 3136w, https://louderthanten.imgix.net/articles/BlueSMCard-990000079e04513c.png?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&domain=louderthanten.imgix.net&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=2644&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=41&w=4704&s=b711b91ce4277bd6f0b6da3e2ee43441 4704w, https://louderthanten.imgix.net/articles/BlueSMCard-990000079e04513c.png?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&domain=louderthanten.imgix.net&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=575&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=82&w=1024&s=eee6eba43c5ee6699f43a97b3bc862f5 1024w, https://louderthanten.imgix.net/articles/BlueSMCard-990000079e04513c.png?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&domain=louderthanten.imgix.net&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=1151&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=61&w=2048&s=9a91284daeaa8a2f6d5046b111d10ba6 2048w, https://louderthanten.imgix.net/articles/BlueSMCard-990000079e04513c.png?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&domain=louderthanten.imgix.net&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=1727&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=41&w=3072&s=560c97c720dee86d78759802a8638e1c 3072w, https://louderthanten.imgix.net/articles/BlueSMCard-990000079e04513c.png?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&domain=louderthanten.imgix.net&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=430&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=60&w=766&s=3066520221c3c2be774a1646264a74ac 766w, https://louderthanten.imgix.net/articles/BlueSMCard-990000079e04513c.png?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&domain=louderthanten.imgix.net&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=861&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=45&w=1532&s=6c52b31e92c99ec0976f3e9b6b8e672d 1532w, https://louderthanten.imgix.net/articles/BlueSMCard-990000079e04513c.png?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&domain=louderthanten.imgix.net&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=1291&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=30&w=2298&s=6713ccae1955f18d697baf07e6aaa6c3 2298w, https://louderthanten.imgix.net/articles/BlueSMCard-990000079e04513c.png?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&domain=louderthanten.imgix.net&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=251&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=60&w=448&s=7a46ad301a43fa426ee88c17e13272b1 448w, https://louderthanten.imgix.net/articles/BlueSMCard-990000079e04513c.png?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&domain=louderthanten.imgix.net&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=503&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=45&w=896&s=7a7bed97154c22529629b4607794aa87 896w, https://louderthanten.imgix.net/articles/BlueSMCard-990000079e04513c.png?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&domain=louderthanten.imgix.net&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=755&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=30&w=1344&s=4c113c201a6eadf03c72e5048a0857af 1344w)
Take the 2020 Pattern Report Survey
Find out where you stand. We’ve teamed up with a sharp team of subject matter experts in disciplines like accounting, legal, operations, research, and the distributed workforce to uncover current insights and better practices for resilient digital shops. From growth strategies, to project management and cash management, to people management, billing strategies, and stress management. We will be tackling the hard stuff:
- How are digital firms doing right now?
- How much cash do they have?
- Are projects getting cancelled? Paused?
- How are owners dealing with change?
- What shape are the shops that thrive?
The questions keeping you up at night will be answered by participants and pulled together in our debut 2020 Pattern Report. We’re making it available, in full, to everyone who participates in the survey.
Participate and get the full report by taking the survey:
This survey closes on June 1st, 2020. We need your help to outline this weird future.
If you’re not an owner, pass this email onto one.
A note on privacy: All responses will be fully anonymous, and your contact information will be kept strictly confidential and used only for research purposes.
I’ve been thinking...
Your account managers (if you have them) need to know how to run projects. Conversely, your project managers need to know how to foster relationships. There isn’t enough time for the tension between these two parties: AMs fighting on behalf of clients and PMs fighting on behalf of the team and neither seeing eye to eye.
Not when every Zoom call drains their human batteries, and every missed communication becomes a missed opportunity to support a more valuable project or client. If you look around and see AMs that aren’t able to scope or PMs that are too bogged down in the weeds to recognize account opportunities, you’re witnessing up to 40% of their effort seep through the cracks. And that effort is too expensive to squander—those are your margins bleeding through the band-aid. That is your team’s magic dissolving into heartache.
We’ve trained nearly 100 apprentices, departments, and agencies all over the world. If you think it’s impossible for these roles to share one hat or these hats to share one body, you haven’t met our graduates. They have sales brains and nimble project management hearts and they mean business.
From the #bookshelf
The best links posted in Slack this week. Straight from our apprentices and their trainers:
How much should a credit union website cost? A creative way to price your clients by thinking about value in the same way they do.
The big challenge in business model development: How to systematically test your business model Which of the 55 different business models does your company run? If yours isn’t working, maybe it’s time to refine. This article by BMI Lab walks you through how to test your business model.
Scrumbook A simple but effective analog planning tool for Scrum by some local Vancouverites. Great for the Agile PMs in your life who just need some time to think and get it down on paper first.
New on Louder Than Ten
![](https://louderthanten.imgix.net/articles/isolated-banner.png?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&domain=louderthanten.imgix.net&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=882&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=82&w=1568&s=a59501f3f0b33a29cd68692d8b0292cc 1568w, https://louderthanten.imgix.net/articles/isolated-banner.png?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&domain=louderthanten.imgix.net&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=1764&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=61&w=3136&s=1cee73c3496d5a0c25bef3aac88f916f 3136w, https://louderthanten.imgix.net/articles/isolated-banner.png?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&domain=louderthanten.imgix.net&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=2646&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=41&w=4704&s=b5c45f7e1729bf854d7d77ae24661cd9 4704w, https://louderthanten.imgix.net/articles/isolated-banner.png?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&domain=louderthanten.imgix.net&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=576&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=82&w=1024&s=4610265b583e731deae7a2a498df04f9 1024w, https://louderthanten.imgix.net/articles/isolated-banner.png?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&domain=louderthanten.imgix.net&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=1152&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=61&w=2048&s=04d9f72bddb70e7c9add4da7987afe9d 2048w, https://louderthanten.imgix.net/articles/isolated-banner.png?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&domain=louderthanten.imgix.net&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=1728&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=41&w=3072&s=a24d276ba7d0f57aa3764ecb2b4b2a8d 3072w, https://louderthanten.imgix.net/articles/isolated-banner.png?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&domain=louderthanten.imgix.net&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=430&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=60&w=766&s=c11519f16101003cb02e0417b133aba2 766w, https://louderthanten.imgix.net/articles/isolated-banner.png?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&domain=louderthanten.imgix.net&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=861&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=45&w=1532&s=8fcadf68df1e0bc7f1c3089b1e2ef7ff 1532w, https://louderthanten.imgix.net/articles/isolated-banner.png?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&domain=louderthanten.imgix.net&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=1292&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=30&w=2298&s=a55cfd107a7cd298d1df11ad12b3b640 2298w, https://louderthanten.imgix.net/articles/isolated-banner.png?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&domain=louderthanten.imgix.net&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=252&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=60&w=448&s=0b1eef8d1ac8d1c388d15337e480cccf 448w, https://louderthanten.imgix.net/articles/isolated-banner.png?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&domain=louderthanten.imgix.net&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=504&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=45&w=896&s=2ed540e263b14bf7443afe44c1a12f5c 896w, https://louderthanten.imgix.net/articles/isolated-banner.png?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&domain=louderthanten.imgix.net&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=756&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=30&w=1344&s=c66f08f3fa7e52c4251e6e0dd1ed00af 1344w)
Isolated together
Nick Wilkinson talks project communication in the arctic—with NASA.
I cut my teeth as a project manager coordinating remote and isolated scientific research teams in the Canadian Arctic, and although that project wasn’t managed during a viral outbreak and near-total economic collapse, I’m seeing some similarities.
Friendly Design Co. Case Study
NEW! How Friendly Design turned their clients into lifelong fans, and how we helped.
The new RACI
How do you know who does what? You live by the RACI.
![Digital Project Management Foundations](https://louderthanten.imgix.net/articles/dpmf-banner.png?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&domain=louderthanten.imgix.net&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=882&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=82&w=1568&s=b4d59efc6a9d15deda7a85267ea2a651 1568w, https://louderthanten.imgix.net/articles/dpmf-banner.png?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&domain=louderthanten.imgix.net&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=1764&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=61&w=3136&s=3e033832c1b90ce022a6da2af1e8246f 3136w, https://louderthanten.imgix.net/articles/dpmf-banner.png?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&domain=louderthanten.imgix.net&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=2646&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=41&w=4704&s=579508f0c4ee87fb0805b54569c5e574 4704w, https://louderthanten.imgix.net/articles/dpmf-banner.png?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&domain=louderthanten.imgix.net&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=576&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=82&w=1024&s=62560fab764de73ac52de55ae3d86261 1024w, https://louderthanten.imgix.net/articles/dpmf-banner.png?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&domain=louderthanten.imgix.net&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=1152&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=61&w=2048&s=4971509c4577dcef6c3e111539bf386e 2048w, https://louderthanten.imgix.net/articles/dpmf-banner.png?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&domain=louderthanten.imgix.net&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=1728&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=41&w=3072&s=719771cb9ee68c9305fe2f5ab9ae7d52 3072w, https://louderthanten.imgix.net/articles/dpmf-banner.png?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&domain=louderthanten.imgix.net&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=430&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=60&w=766&s=19f1afdf6686ae8255c9fe79ffe937b5 766w, https://louderthanten.imgix.net/articles/dpmf-banner.png?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&domain=louderthanten.imgix.net&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=861&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=45&w=1532&s=f427f363cc2bfda8358d84896addcb7b 1532w, https://louderthanten.imgix.net/articles/dpmf-banner.png?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&domain=louderthanten.imgix.net&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=1292&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=30&w=2298&s=191cda3ce9cfcaf16982bb8e4ee85aad 2298w, https://louderthanten.imgix.net/articles/dpmf-banner.png?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&domain=louderthanten.imgix.net&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=252&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=60&w=448&s=3e4d5e3ecb929a7873ead34e7ff330a8 448w, https://louderthanten.imgix.net/articles/dpmf-banner.png?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&domain=louderthanten.imgix.net&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=504&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=45&w=896&s=277a79be4193bbd268ce4c042fdbb894 896w, https://louderthanten.imgix.net/articles/dpmf-banner.png?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&domain=louderthanten.imgix.net&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=756&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=30&w=1344&s=6df39265e11cfb43d5d16c9a11769d4c 1344w)
Remote training for project leads and their teams
Digital Project Management Foundations
Design better processes for your teams and projects with our 3-month remote trainer-led course. There has never been a better time to get your projects right. Class is in session starting June 18th.