Wear Your Cape to Work™
Wear Your Cape to Work is a podcast hosted by Project Insight. We believe that project and program managers truly are the superheroes of every organization.
Our guests have poured their lives and talents into driving successful project outcomes for industries across the world. They wear their capes to work every day, and we want to celebrate them. We want you to hear their stories and be inspired to wear your own cape to work.
You won't want to miss any of our exciting conversations with PMPs from companies like fairlife, Universal Studios, Activision Blizzard King, PayPal and more.
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Wear Your Cape to Work™
Aligning People with Strategy
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Katharine Manchanda is a strategy and execution leader with experience across IT, banking, retail, automotive finance, loyalty programs, data and analytics, and the winery industry. Throughout her career, she has led projects and programs, helped grow PMOs, updated governance structures, and mentored project managers. We're excited to have her on the show because she is as passionate about people as she is about business strategy, and when you bring those two parts together, that’s when businesses really can move forward in what they want to accomplish.
Show Notes
1:16-2:47 | A career across industries
Katharine shares her background in project and program leadership across several industries, along with her experience growing PMOs and governance structures.
2:49-3:42 | Grocery and loyalty
Katharine reflects on her work in major grocery retail launching a loyalty program.
3:46-5:15 | How market and regulatory shifts impact project work
Katharine discusses how changing consumer behavior and new regulations can quickly reshape priorities, timelines, and project plans.
5:31-7:27 | Strategy on the go
Katharine and Trina talk about what happens when strategy changes interrupt long-range plans.
7:47-9:00 | From delivery to strategic thinking
She reflects on how depending on role, perspective needs to evolve from task-focused delivery to broader business relevance.
9:20-11:11 | What executives need to see
Katharine shares her thoughts on the information leaders need in order to make good decisions.
11:11-13:01 | Successful vs. relevant
Katharine explores the difference between delivering a project successfully and delivering benefits that still align with the original business strategy.
13:01-15:03 | Governance and decision speed
Katharine discusses how governance and access to executive sponsors can affect momentum.
15:03-17:38 | Risks and issues
The conversation turns to why leaders need visibility into risks and issues, not just status.
18:01-19:01 | Strategy work behind the scenes
Katharine reflects on the difference between frontline delivery and more strategic PMO roles.
19:04-20:05 | Aligning strengths to the work
This part of the episode looks at how leaders can match people’s strengths to organizational needs.
20:05-21:08 | Katharine’s superpower
Katharine shares why the people side of leadership matters most to her.
21:39-23:20 | Building a PMO
Katharine offers advice for organizations setting up a PMO.
23:20-24:29 | Capacity in real life
Katharine and Trina discuss workload, competing priorities, and the realities of capacity.
24:29-end | Aligning people to strategy
The episode closes with a look at how people, capacity, and strategy come together.
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