Projectified Folgen

Ahead of International Women’s Day, ProjectifiedTM hosted a roundtable with three women to discuss their experiences leading projects and programs and their hopes for the next generation of women in the profession.   Varsha Advani, PMP, senior technical program manager at Akamai Technologies in Bengaluru, India, talks about the importance of mentorship and how company-structured programs can help build a culture of learning. She also hopes to see more women in management roles moving forward.   Selenne Berthely, PMP, project manager, Banco de México, Mexico City, Mexico, discusses how leaders need both technical and people skills and shares her advice to other women in the profession—remain true to yourself and focus on your team.   Asya Watkins, PMP, manager of pharmaceutical implementations at EnvisionRxOptions and founder of Women Of Project Management in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, discusses how mentorship helped her career and the lessons she learned from being the only woman on some of her teams. She also shares ways men can advocate and support women on project teams.   Anna Tavis, PhD, academic director of human capital management, New York University, New York, New York, USA, shares how organizations can use data-driven metrics and better measurements of collaboration to help gender equity.   Key themes [01:25] Creativity, empathy and freedom make projects challenging and fulfilling [03:33] What leaders need: People skills, relationship building, communication [06:23] Sharing experiences and learning through mentorship [13:58] Advocating for women through partnership on projects, speaking up [17:07] Hopes for the future: More women in management roles [20:49] Measuring performance and impact of an individual on a team

As expectations for financial services change, legacy institutions and startups alike have to innovate. Andreas Madjari, PMP, project management governance specialist at Erste Group in Vienna, Austria, discusses agile’s role in creating the group’s internet banking platform, George. He also shares a look at the future—from stabilization to more online services.   Alicia Levine, the COO of Chipper Cash based in London, England, discusses the growing investment in fintech in Africa. She also talks about mobile money removing barriers for people who don’t use traditional banks and how new methods of transferring money can help people build digital financial histories.   Key themes [03:11] Empowering teams for agile development [06:47] Innovating to meet customers’ needs with reliability [10:15] Fintech’s growth in Africa  [12:20] How mobile money opened the door for new currency transfer options, digital financial identity [16:10] Fintech in Africa going digital—from banking to currencies

From air taxis to bullet trains, what was once thought of as futuristic transportation is now closer to becoming a reality. François-Joseph Van Audenhove, a partner at Arthur D. Little and head of the Future of Mobility Lab in Brussels, Belgium, talks about changing mobility demands—for both people and goods—and the challenges to integrating self-driving cars into the current mobility landscape.     Mike Goodrich, executive director—corporate development and global mergers & acquisitions at General Motors in Detroit, Michigan, USA, led the electric and autonomous vehicle program at GM for several years. He shares how creative problem solving helps project teams working on new tech like autonomous vehicles and the challenges organizations face to gain people’s trust.   Key themes: [05:40] Increasing demand in passenger—and goods—mobility [06:59] Self-driving cars’ effects on mobility systems [11:24] Facing project challenges with collaboration and accountability [12:46] Creative problem solving’s role in first-of-its-kind projects [15:02] Consumer skepticism in the tech—and trust—race