PM as journalism.
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Project journalism.
PMs cover a beat.
As journalists, PMs interview and research. Their sources are project members and external resources and stakeholders.
PMs verify information, find trends and patterns, dig up urgent and important news.
Reporters use notebooks and tape recorders. Use blogs to organize your notes and sources.
You write status reports, exception reports, issue reports.
You get to the heart of the story, wading through mundane, picking through the information overload.
You communicate clearly. Terse, unbiased, using your voice.
You tailor and route messages to each audience, frugal with their time.
You write headlines with impact, that drive decisions.
You tell stories that create project cohesion, that explain the visions, the plot twists. The truth.
If that’s not journalism…
Yet another reason to lament the limitations of this gig . . . . . I had convinced myself that going from an ASCII newsletter to a weblog would be a slamdunk. I still believe it but is it worth fighting for?