Audio Transcription
Ben Aston:
Hey, thanks so much for tuning in. I’m Ben Aston, and this is the podcast about digital project managers. Brian Kessman joined me today to discuss the article he wrote about building and scaling digital project managers within agencies. Before we talk about Bryan’s article, let’s tell you a little bit about yourself.
Brian Kessman
Yes, that’s right, first of all, thanks for inviting me to write the blog post and for having me on the podcast. So I’m based in Chapel Hill in North Carolina. I was born in Long Island, but I lived in Manhattan for a while. We’ve settled here, and I run Lodestar Digital, a consulting company.
Ben Aston:
Cool, tell us about Lodestar. What does Lodestar do?
Brian Kessman
Sure. Lodestar is a consulting firm. My focus is to help digital agencies and creative agencies build and improve their digital services. That could be what I do. It might include helping agencies with organizational or team structure changes in the name of better digital work. Creating
Sure. Lodestar is a consulting firm. My focus is to help digital agencies and creative agencies create and fix their digital services. What does that mean for me? It could be helping agencies with organizational or team structure changes in the name of delivering better work. Maybe creating new digital disciplines like digital project management, scaling or streamlining workflow. Sometimes it’s more about implementing agile practices, but with a modified version to allow for creativity. These are the services.
Related Read: What is the Scaled Agile Framework(r). This is the explanation for project managers
Ben Aston:
You’re cool, so you’re also consulting in this type of thing. How did you get into digital projects management and helping agencies do the same?
Brian Kessman
I started my career in project management years ago as a tech consultant. I had been in the advertising industry for years, but I took a break to do tech consulting. That’s when I was introduced to project management. After that, I was able use those skills again when I returned to the agency space. I have worked with agencies of a digital variety and roles with traditional agencies for the past 17 or 18 years.
That’s my experience. The last ten years have been the most challenging. I was able to help agencies with their digital needs.
Ben Aston:
So what kind of things are you talking? You’re helping traditional agencies scale and become digital. What are the typical problems you face with this? What are the… what are the most common problems people face? It’s probably because it resonates with some of our listeners.
