Surprising Project Management Statistics: An Infographic From LiquidPlanner

Project management software LiquidPlanner put together a great Infographic on how to become a Project Manager. Some of the statistics are surprising. For example, did you know that only 22% of project managers are female? Or that more than 16 million people regard themselves as project managers? Or that Atlanta, Georgia is one of the most popular cities for project management skills? Check out more of these fascinating statistics below:

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Herding Cats: Seriously?!

As I’m learning more and more about project management every day, I keep seeing the term “herding cats“, which often refers to managing programmers. There is even a popular project management blog called, you guessed it, Herding Cats. I personally think this phrase is absolutely disrespectful, and if you think managing your team is like “herding cats”, you won’t get far.

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Why It’s Important To Say NO To Opportunities

Apple has now become the most valuable tech company in the world, yet they only focus on about 10 core products. Dmitry of Zurb wrote a great post the other day about how Steve Jobs gave the following advice to Nike CEO Mark Parker:

Nike makes some of the best products in the world. Products that you lust after. But you also make a lot of crap. Just get rid of the crappy stuff and focus on the good stuff.

To create truly innovative products, it is just as or even more important to say no as it is to say yes. Do you agree?

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Project Management Software Competition: Best Welcome Email

Ok, so your user signed up for your service and even played around with it a bit. Your job now is to make sure they return to your site and play around some more. That is why most services send a “Welcome Email” to new users, providing them with necessary links and login information and anything else that is helpful. But not all project management software welcome emails are created equal! Check out the emails of the following competitors and make sure to vote at the bottom for the best one.

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Can Apollo Spam It’s Way To Success?

While browsing around the web and reading about different project management tools and reviews, I couldn’t help but notice Apollo‘s presence almost everywhere I looked. And lo and behold, yesterday when I wrote a Basecamp Review, I got a comment from the Apollo team within a few hours. So how does the Apollo team spread the word? Here are a few tricks they use to spam potential users:

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No Meetings Mondays

If done right, Monday can actually be one of your most fulfilling and productive days of the week. I’ve recently implemented an informal policity of “No Meetings Monday”, which is basically me trying to avoid Monday Meetings as much as possible. This has proved really useful, especially since Monday has the potential to set the tone for the whole week.

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Why You Should Skip Project Management Best Practices

Best practices are usually created so you don’t have to “re-invent the wheel” every time. But as Project Manager Saira Karim points out, best practices can soon become outdated, holding your organization back from innovating with the times. Here are a few reasons you shouldn’t use best practices in your organization:

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Why Killing Google Labs Is A Mistake

Google announced today they will be killing Google Labs, a platform where Google users could interact with and give feedback on experimental products created by Google engineers during their on 20 Percent Time (the one day a week they’re allowed to work on a project of their choice). The reason for this is so they can get consumers focused on the big products the company is working on. In the blog post, Google writes the following:

Last week we explained that we’re prioritizing our product efforts. As part of that process, we’ve decided to wind down Google Labs. While we’ve learned a huge amount by launching very early prototypes in Labs, we believe that greater focus is crucial if we’re to make the most of the extraordinary opportunities ahead.

Here is why killing Google Labs is a bad idea!

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Project Management Software Competition: The Best On-Boarding Process

Okay, so you got your new potential customer to sign-up for a free trial, big deal. Now the hard part, getting them engaged enough in your software to stay and most importantly, converting them into a paying customer. This is where the on-boarding process comes in. You need to make them feel welcome to your software and comfortable enough to get started. So how does the on-boarding process work in different project management tools? Here is a look at some of the top players.

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The Two Types Of Project Managers

Watch out, project managers have a split identity and it is your job to figure out which identity you’re catering to. For those who are building a project management tool, it is crucial to understand your audience. And figuring out which of the two project managers you’re building the product for will set you on the correct path, while building a tool for both types will land you nowhere. Luckily for you, it is pretty simple to separate out the two:

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