The PM way — where you follow the processes and the textbooks.
And the real way — where you improvise, survive, and get sharper.
Built from fourteen years across four organisations that couldn't have been more different. Not theory. What actually happens — and what to do when it does.
You learn the real way by being in the middle of it. Begging resources from directors who guard their pools like kingdoms. Absorbing blame for decisions you didn't make. Doing the right thing anyway, because someone else's peaceful sleep depends on it.
Nobody teaches you that part. Not PMI. Not your manager. Not the templates you downloaded at 11pm.
This is that part — documented, so you don't have to learn it alone.
Not theory. The real way — documented.
Six questions about your actual situation — not your title, what's actually true. The same process that works in one org becomes a liability in another. This builds your operating model from where you actually are.
Not a list to memorise. Describe what's actually happening — in your own words, however messy — and find which principle is at play. Some are about how systems and projects behave. Some are about how people, including you, behave under pressure. Both kinds keep you alive in this job.
Seven real situations. No clean answers. Write what you'd do if you want — then see what was actually done, and what I'd do differently now. This isn't about scoring you. It's about perspective.
Tap anything that fits your actual situation right now. Each one opens to show the PM Way and the Real Way side by side. Build only what you need — the toolkit that gets used is never the biggest one.
One project. Five stages. At each one, you decide what actually happens next — and the story carries your choices forward. No score at the end. Just the gap between where you went and where experience would take you.