About HOTPMO –
Who we are and where
we’ve been
HotPMO have always been here to help organizations deliver the right things faster. This is our story.
Our Services
Strategic Alignment
Agility
PMO Coaching
Automation
Outsource Partners
Data Visualization
See how it all Began:
We have a Blog!
HotPMO didn’t start as a company, it started as a blog. Our Founder and CEO was running the Projects and PMO team for Ticketmaster at the time and wanted a space to share thoughts and ideas about PMO. Some of the early posts encouraged people to think differently about their PMOs. They advocated visualizing the PMO as a catalyst for the organization and purging processes to stay nimble and business focussed.
“I wanted it to be different from the other project and PMO sites that focused on process and methodology,” John explains. We called it HotPMO to reflect that change. PMOs don’t have to be stuffy, they can be HOT and pack a real punch!
The Big Idea
The idea of launching a PMO consultancy came in 2019. John had been an active member of the PMO community for a while, sharing his passion for the PMO at PMI Symposiums in the US and at events such as Stand up for PMO at the Comedy Store in Manchester. “I felt like I was at a crossroads in my life”, explains John. “I had a great employer and an inspirational team, but I felt I had a choice to make. Did I want to focus solely on one international projects team, or was it time to do something broader?”. Conversations with peers in the PMO community at events such as The PMO Conference convinced him there was a need for a specialist consultancy who could help organizations organize to deliver the right project portfolios, at the right time, in the right way.
In September 2019, HotPMO launched as a Consultancy with a simple mission: Help organizations deliver the right things, faster
Our first client
We landed our first client the same year. Investors In People were looking for some help structuring their projects portfolio. We worked with them to implement a projects portfolio board to support projects and provide oversight, whilst shortening feedback loops. We collaborated on new ways to communicate projects progress including a weekly campfire session where the team came together to share stories of delivery successes and challenges. On the really good weeks we would embrace the campfire theme and celebrate with marshmallows on sticks! Our first client was swiftly joined by a second – Wiggle.com. We were up and running!
UiPath Partners
Automation has been a passion at HotPMO right from the beginning. We’ve advocated for automation and the use of Robotic Process Automation to release teams from mundane repetitive work, freeing them up to focus on delivering value for the organization. After months of work, we secured a partnership agreement with UiPath in January 2020.
UiPath are the leading enterprise Robotic Process Automation (RPA) software company, and our Silver status membership of their partner program recognizes our expertise in supporting and delivering RPA solutions that drive real transformational outcomes for customers.
#PMOWfh
2020 did not turn out the way anyone expected. As the UK locked down we joined many organizations pivoting to remote working. Scheduled Kanban training was rapidly redesigned from workshop based sessions with sticky notes, to Zoom based sessions with Miro boards. We rose to the challenge, and all 36 people received their training and began to apply lean approaches within their delivery teams. With lockdown came isolation. Social gatherings were canceled and people found it harder to keep in touch with peer networks. We decided to do something about it.
On the 18th March, we joined forces with the team at #PMOFlashmob to organize a weekly meetup for PMO people who suddenly found themselves #WFH. Every week, we worked to share interesting ideas, insights, and to introduce informative guest speakers. It was an amazing adventure, and I will never forget the sense of community that we built together. Together, we celebrated with people when they found new jobs. We supported our peers as they dealt with massive amounts of business change. And we shared our collective experience in breakout rooms. We ran the meetups every week for six months providing a vital Wednesday afternoon connection for the PMO community.
Much of our #PMOWfh content, including guest speaker slots, remains available hosted over at the PMOFlashmob site.
Training site launched
At HotPMO, we pride ourselves on helping organizations deliver the right things, faster. We achieve this in several ways. We provide coaching services to people in the PMO and portfolio management space. We work with organizations to optimize portfolios and to optimize delivery. We provide training in Kanban, the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), and other approaches that can help organizations organize themselves to deliver faster than ever before. But getting everyone in the classroom isn’t always desirable, and sometimes organizations prefer people to have access to self-paced online learning. We listened, and developed our training site – Learn@HotPMO. We have developed courses for internal company teams, and on July 2020, we put our first public course live. This short course takes about 90 minutes to complete and gives a good overview of Scrum and four of the regular Scrum meetings.
First International Client
HotPMO goes global! In June we secured our first international engagement, working with a client in Vancouver, BC. We’ve worked closely with their team on mapping processes and uncovering more efficient ways of working across the business.
Kickstart
The PMO is a great place for organizations to develop new talent. They get to see first-hand how strategy shapes the projects portfolio and they get to understand how information flows through the business. And the need for project and PMO talent is growing. According to PMO, by 2027 employers will need 87.7million individuals working in project management roles. Project Management recruiter Arras people have raised concerns about the aging workforce in project management, noting that “If organizations could identify their potential project managers today they wouldn’t need to worry so much about their talent shortages and gaps of tomorrow. I think the mantra should be: grow your own, starting today.”
We feel the same way, which is why it was great to be accepted into the UK Government Kickstart scheme designed to help young people at risk of long-term employment into work. Our comprehensive program will see our first cohort embark on a learning journey that will see them achieving PMO certifications, and getting hands-on experience of working in a PMO. We are looking forward to the journey as we grow together.
Want to know more?
We love to talk about all things PMO, and how our vision of a sharper, faster, smarter PMO can help your organization deliver the right things faster. Why not give us a call?
Book a 30 min chat with us:
