Project Objective:

To design and deliver a project management mentoring program that would build project management capabilities across the organization, strengthen understanding of the organization’s PMO standards, standardize project management processes and best practices for project initiation, planning, tracking, reporting, and successful completion.

Methodology and Approach:

Due to the “pilot” nature of the mentoring program, Julie had to take a very iterative approach to content development and delivery in planning for each cohort in order to maximize value delivery. Julie began by conducting a needs analysis to understand the existing skill levels, competencies, and exposure to project management of the interested mentees. After conducting the analysis, the data confirmed what she believed: The majority of mentees had very little knowledge, skills, and exposure to project management. Only a select few had some intermediate experience. As a result, Julie applied a blended approach, combining structure and flexibility. This balance of structure and responsiveness made the initiative practical and relevant to everyone involved.

Julie applied the “chunking” method in developing the mentoring program—breaking complex project management concepts into manageable, digestible modules delivered on a weekly basis over the course of 10 weeks (both virtual and in-person, on-site formats). Mentoring sessions introduced topics such as the following:

• Basics in project planning
• Stakeholder management
• Requirements management
• Risk and change (CRAID) logs
• Smartsheet tutorials
• Project artifacts templates (and how and when to best use and apply them)

Smartsheet wasn’t just a system—it became the classroom, the lab, and the living proof of the value of consistent and quality project management.

Constraints:

Capacity: The mentoring program needed to fit into participants’ already-full schedules

Risks:

Engagement Risk: Training might have been seen as an “extra task.” Julie mitigated this by keeping sessions interactive and engaging, tying content directly to participants’ projects, allowing them to see value and immediately apply what they learned to their day-to-day jobs.

Inconsistent Adoption: Without periodic reinforcement and additional training sessions, staff could revert to old ways of working without fully adopting the system. Julie built follow-ups into the mentoring program and provided reusable templates, as well as offered additional “ADHOC” on-site training sessions on a quarterly basis.

Outcome:

Julie’s initiative reshaped how staff viewed project management training. What began as a set of mentoring conversations evolved into a culture where learning was ongoing, flexible, and directly tied to results.

After launching the initial “pilot” mentoring program, and conducting a series of participant surveys, Julie presented the following data and results to the executive leadership team in July 2024:

• Increased Smartsheet adoption: Teams began to use dashboards and templates consistently, leading to more reliable project tracking and reporting.

• Relevancy: Participants not only saw value in program content, but also found it relevant to their day-to-day jobs, mitigating the engagement risk.

• Empowered staff and increased confidence levels: Novices gained confidence in applying project management tactics, and more experienced team members deepened their skills. Overall, participants improved confidence levels by 316%!

• Program enjoyment and satisfaction: A 4.43 out of 5 showed that participants enjoyed the program and were satisfied with it.

One participant summed it up best during a mentoring wrap-up: “I came into this thinking project management was all process and paperwork. Now I see it’s really about clarity and communication—and the tools make it easier, not harder.”

Thanks to Julie’s leadership, the organization didn’t just receive training—it gained a mentoring program that equipped people to work smarter, communicate better, and manage projects with greater confidence. The ripple effect was both immediate and lasting: smoother projects, stronger alignment with PMO standards, and a workforce that viewed project management not as a burden, but as a valued skill set that could drive success.