Project Portfolio Management Techniques

What criteria should guide the selection of pilot projects for AI integration? (Tip 34/2025) (and What metrics should be considered to measure the success of these pilots)   Criteria for Selecting AI Pilot Projects 1 Alignment with Strategic Goals Rationale: Projects should directly support business objectives (e.g., cost reduction, CX, innovation). Example: A chatbot pilot to improve customer service efficiency aligns with a goal of enhancing user satisfaction.   2 Feasibility and Resource Availability Technical Expertise: Availability of skilled personnel (data scientists, engineers). Infrastructure: Existing tools (cloud platforms, data pipelines) and budget.   3 Data Readiness Quality/Quantity: Sufficient, clean, and relevant data for training models. Accessibility: Data must be legally obtainable and structured for AI use.   4 Scalability Potential Scope: Pilot success should translate to broader applications (e.g., regional → global).   5 Stakeholder Buy-In Leadership Support: Ensures funding and organizational priority. End-User Engagement: Early feedback to drive adoption.   6 Risk Management Technical/Operational Risks: Predictable challenges (e.g., integration complexity). Ethical/Legal Risks: Compliance with regulations (GDPR, bias audits).   7 User Impact Tangible Benefits: Clear improvements in productivity, decision-making, or experience.   8 Cross-Functional Collaboration Team Diversity: Involvement of IT, business units, and domain experts.   Top Metrics to Measure Success 1 Business Impact ROI: Cost savings vs. implementation costs. Revenue Growth: New opportunities generated (e.g., upsell rates).   2 Performance Metrics Model Accuracy: Precision, recall, F1-score, or task-specific KPIs.   3 User Adoption & Satisfaction Usage Rates: Active users and interaction frequency. Feedback Scores: Surveys/NPS to gauge satisfaction.   4 Operational Efficiency Time/Resource Savings: Reduced processing time or manual effort.   5 Scalability Readiness Technical Flexibility: Ease of integration with existing systems. Cost of Expansion: Marginal costs for scaling.   6 Risk Mitigation Error Reduction: Decline in process failures or compliance breaches.   7 Data Quality Improvements Post-Pilot Enhancements: Data cleanliness and availability.   8 Innovation Impact New Use Cases: Additional applications inspired by the pilot.   9 Time-to-Value Speed of Deployment: Duration from launch to measurable results.   10. Ethical Compliance Bias: Audit results for algorithmic fairness.   11. Environmental Impact Sustainability: Reduced energy consumption or carbon footprint.   Note for Leadership Selection Criteria ensure pilots are viable, aligned, and low-risk.  Success Metrics quantify ROI, performance, user impact, and scalability. Prioritize projects with clear strategic value and measurable outcomes to build momentum for broader AI adoption. Image Source: Accenture Transform Partner – Your Digital Transformation Consultancy

Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) in #GRC— As organizations increasingly rely on vendors, contractors, and service providers, third-party risk management (TPRM) has become a critical part of GRC programs. Poor vendor management can expose companies to data breaches, regulatory penalties, and operational disruptions. 1. TPRM • Regulatory Compliance: Frameworks like PCI DSS, GDPR, and ISO 27001 require organizations to assess and monitor third-party risks. • Vendors often manage critical business functions, so disruptions in their processes directly impact your operations. • A vendor breach could tarnish your brand and lead to legal or financial penalties. 2. TPRM Lifecycle • Assess vendor security practices before engagement (e.g., security questionnaires, contract reviews). • Identify risks specific to the vendor (e.g., data handling practices, access to systems). • Continuously monitor vendor performance and compliance through audits, reporting, and SLAs. • Ensure proper data disposal and de-provisioning of access after vendor offboarding. 3. Frameworks / best practices • NIST SP 800-161 focuses on supply chain risk management for federal systems. • ISO 27001/27036 provides guidance on third-party security requirements. • Shared Assessments Program offers standardized tools like SIG (Standardized Information Gathering) for vendor assessments. 4. Key Tools • Vendor management platforms like OneTrust, BitSight, or Prevalent help automate risk assessments and ongoing monitoring. • Use third-party security ratings to assess vendor vulnerabilities in real time. 5. Building strong TPRM programs • Establish clear policies and procedures for vendor risk management. • Conduct periodic risk assessments and ensure vendors comply with applicable regulations. • Collaborate with stakeholders across procurement, legal, IT, and compliance teams. TPRM integrates seamlessly into GRC.

Travel has made me a better investor. Living in other countries helped me challenge my cultural assumptions and biases - especially around investing. For one, it’s helped me overcome my “home country bias” 🏠 Researchers have called it “one of the major puzzles in international finance”. Portfolio theory tells us that we should invest across domestic and foreign markets to get higher returns and lower volatility. Yet, contrary to this common wisdom, decades of numerous studies conducted around the world have shown that we just don’t do it as much as we know we should - including professional asset managers! Spending time living in foreign markets has helped me to identify opportunities people back home simply don’t know about. A lot of Americans I know are worried about keeping their money in a foreign currency. What safer, surer currency to hold than the Amercian greenback, right? But many are shocked to learn that over 20 years, the USD has actually depreciated nearly 30% against the Singapore dollar! 📉 If you had simply converted $100k of greenbacks into Singapore dollars and stashed it in a (very large) piggy bank in 2003, it would be worth an extra $28.5k today. Who'd have imagined a piggy bank of foreign notes could deliver a 1.26% annual interest? 🐖 On the flip side, I’ve seen how other cultures have deeply held beliefs on which asset classes are a “safe” investment. For example, in the “Asian tiger” economies like China or Singapore, real estate is commonly considered a “safe” investing vehicle, while stocks or index funds are considered "risky". I’ve debated many Singaporean friends about whether to buy a house with their partners - or to rent and invest the rest into an index fund like the S&P500. Leaving the actual numbers aside, most of them have never even thought to question the financial viability of buying versus renting. Their parents made money in the early decades of Singapore’s real estate boom. The government encourages it through subsidized public housing for married couples. And thus it has become enshrined in the cultural consciousness of Singaporean investors. When I was working in India, I saw how much they preferred gold over other asset classes like equities - making India the world's single largest consumer of gold. It accounts for nearly a third of the world's gold market: four times the demand in all of North America. Yet over the last 100 years, the Dow Jones Industrial Average returned over six 6 times the appreciation in gold prices! Recognizing and questioning these cultural biases and idiosyncrasies around us can be challenging. But the key is determining what cultural investing ideas are still positively serving you, and which of them you may need to let go - so you can seize opportunities where others are leaving money on the table. How much are we really giving up by not questioning our cultural assumptions? What other cultural biases have you seen in personal finance and investing?

🚨 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐍𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐋𝐞𝐭 𝐚 𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐫 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 🚨 When an organization contracts with a vendor to deliver a solution, it may seem convenient to let them lead the project. After all, they know their product or service best, right? Wrong. While vendors bring expertise in their own solutions, they do not have the same level of investment in your organization's success as your internal PMO.   Here’s why it’s critical to have your own project leadership at the helm while working in partnership with vendors: 🔹 Your PMO Knows the Organization Best: Internal PMs understand company culture, processes, dependencies, and key stakeholders far better than any external vendor. They ensure the solution is aligned with internal goals—not just the vendor’s deliverables. 🔹 Vendors Focus on Their Scope—Not Your Bigger Picture: A vendor’s primary objective is to meet the terms of their contract, but that doesn’t always equate to what’s best for the org holistically. Your PMO ensures the project integrates with broader business objectives, avoids silos, and mitigates risks beyond the vendor’s scope. 🔹 Conflict of Interest – A vendor-led project can create a dangerous imbalance where the vendor is both delivering and managing accountability. When the same entity defines success, issues can be overlooked or deprioritized in ways that benefit them, not you. Your internal PMO acts as the advocate, ensuring the project stays on track for your organization’s success—not just vendor convenience. 🔹 Governance & Risk Management – Internal project leadership ensures the right checks and balances are in place. They track vendor performance, enforce SLAs, and proactively manage risks that could impact operations, compliance, or future scalability. 🔹 Smoother Change Management – A vendor doesn’t have to live with the long-term impact of project outcomes—you do. Your internal PMO ensures seamless adoption, user engagement, and operational readiness to avoid post-implementation chaos. 🔹 Stronger Stakeholder Engagement – Internal PMs are accountable to executives, frontline employees, and end-users. They ensure decisions aren’t just made for project timelines but for long-term business sustainability and success. In my experience, no major project has done well where PMO leadership was refused. I have seen multi-billion dollar impacts and top execs fired over project failures.   👉 Bottom Line: Vendors play a critical role, but they should be partners—not leaders—of your projects. Keep your PMO in the driver’s seat to safeguard strategic alignment, accountability, and long-term success. What are your experiences with vendor-led projects? Please share in the comments! _________________ 🔔 Ring the bell to follow me on LinkedIn for topics on #ProjectManagement, #ProgramManagement, #PMO, #BusinessTransformation, #CareerTips, and #Leadership. #VendorManagement #EnterprisePMO #PMOLeadership #ConflictOfInterest

Sustainability Value Creation Framework for Investors 🌍 The PRI’s new framework offers a clear structure to help investors in private markets translate sustainability into financial outcomes. Developed with Bain and NYU Stern, the Sustainability Value Creation framework reflects input from over 400 investors across regions and asset classes. Rather than treating ESG as a reporting exercise, the framework positions sustainability as a driver of operational efficiency, risk reduction and growth. It shows how sustainability can unlock financial value through improved customer trust, stronger employee engagement and increased resilience. The framework addresses both investment firm level actions and portfolio company strategies, recognizing that value creation happens across the lifecycle. At the firm level, the focus is on aligning sustainability with business objectives and embedding it in every stage of investment decision making. At the portfolio level, it is about identifying material ESG topics, prioritizing initiatives with financial relevance and tracking performance over time. Organisational enablers such as leadership buy in, quality data and aligned incentives are central to delivering results. The framework is part of a multi phase effort. Phase Two focuses on methodologies to quantify the financial impact of sustainability. Phase Three will assess how ESG contributes to real liquidity events. Evidence suggests that the financial relevance of sustainability will increase and that firms equipped with credible ESG strategies will be better positioned for the future. This is especially relevant for private markets where access to data and long term engagement allow for deeper integration and clearer accountability. The framework is an invitation to build stronger investment strategies using sustainability as a lever for performance rather than compliance. #sustainability #sustainable #business #esg

As Product Managers it’s so easy to loose trust if features on the roadmap are not prioritised correctly. Here are 5 prioritization frameworks and when to actually use them: 1. RICE (Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort) ✅ Use when: You have multiple ideas/features and want to prioritize based on expected impact. 📌 Best for: Growth experiments, new features, MVP ideas 💡Tip: Confidence % is often biased calibrate with data! 2. MoSCoW (Must have, Should have, Could have, Won’t have) ✅ Use when: You’re working with tight deadlines and multiple stakeholders. 📌 Best for: Sprint planning, product launches 💡Tip: Don’t let every stakeholder label everything as “Must have.” 3. Kano Model ✅ Use when: You want to balance delight with functionality. 📌 Best for: Customer-facing products 💡Tip: A feature that delights today might be expected tomorrow. 4. ICE (Impact, Confidence, Ease) ✅ Use when: You want a quicker version of RICE for fast decision-making. 📌 Best for: Rapid prototyping, early-stage prioritization 💡Tip: Use ICE when you don’t have a ton of data but still need to move. 5. Value vs. Effort Matrix ✅ Use when: You want to visualize trade-offs with stakeholders. 📌 Best for: Roadmap discussions, stakeholder alignment 💡Tip: Plot features on a 2×2: * Quick Wins (High value, low effort) * Strategic Bets (High value, high effort) * Time Wasters (Low value, high effort) * Fillers (Low value, low effort) So which one should you pick? Use RICE when you’re in a data-driven company. Use MoSCoW when time is tight and alignment is tough. Use ICE when you need speed > accuracy. Use Kano when delight matters. Use the Value/Effort Matrix when people keep asking, “Why this first?” 📌 Save this for your next prioritization war. 💬 Tried any of these at work? Drop your go-to framework in comments! #productmanager #job #PMjobs #learning #frameworks

Most third-party risk teams I speak with face the same challenge: Small staff, large vendor portfolios. 💼 The data backs this up: - The average portfolio is ~286 vendors; most TPRM teams have fewer than 10 staff. - 94% of teams say they cannot assess all vendors due to a lack of time or resources. - Nearly 50% of companies admit they don’t even reassess all vendors periodically. - Assessment cycles average 37+ hours per week, with vendor responses dragging 12+ days and 84% needing follow-ups. So, how do you cover more risk without more people? Here are some simple recommendations: ✅ Tier ruthlessly – Auto-tier vendors into 4 levels; reserve full assessments + monitoring for Tier 1. ✅ Use what exists – Accept SOC 2, ISO, or SIG Lite when fresh instead of sending new questionnaires. ✅ Streamline questionnaires – Keep only two: Core and Lite, with “proof selector” options to reduce doc sprawl. ✅ Event-based reassessments – Trigger quick checks after major incidents or CVEs instead of annual reviews for all. ✅ Automate workflows – SLA boards, templates, and parallel legal/security reviews speed decisions. ✅ Blend capacity – In-house for critical vendors, managed services, or external reviewers for overflow. Six metrics to prove efficiency to your board: 1) Coverage – % of Tier 1–2 assessed & monitored 2) Cycle Time – intake → decision 3) Risk Impact – remediation in 30/60/90 days 4) Accepted Risk Backlog – trend line 5) Reviewer Hours – per completed assessment 6) Cost – per Tier 1 decision Bottom line: You don’t need to assess every vendor equally. Focus depth where it matters, streamline the rest, and measure results. #ThirdPartyRiskManagement #TPRM #VendorRisk #OperationalResilience #RiskManagement #CyberRisk #Governance #Compliance #Procurement #SupplyChainRisk

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀𝗻'𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴. 𝗜𝘁'𝘀 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲. Nestlé. Mars (private). Unilever. They're core holdings in your equity portfolio. Can you quantify the risk to their margins if ecosystems collapse? They all depend on Nature: 🌊 Healthy oceans for fish 🌾 Fertile soil for crops 🐝 Pollinators for yields 💧 Freshwater to produce at scale Did you know the global pet food market is 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗵 $𝟭𝟯𝟬𝗯𝗻, growing at 𝟱.𝟱% 𝗮𝗻𝗻𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆? Mars Petcare is one of the largest players on Earth, with nearly 50 brands, several of them having billion-dollar franchises. Mars earns $𝟮𝟬𝗯𝗻 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗽𝗲𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲. One of those brands is Sheba, which depends on fish from coral reef ecosystems. 𝗡𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗳, 𝗻𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝘀𝗵. 𝗡𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝘀𝗵, 𝗻𝗼 𝗦𝗵𝗲𝗯𝗮. According to WWF, over half of tropical coral reefs are already lost ecosystems that support a quarter of all marine species. So Sheba Cat Food (Mars) is restoring reefs off Indonesia not as marketing but as supply chain protection. This is Nature as resilience: protecting cash flow and margin. This is where the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) comes in: → 𝗗𝗲𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗲𝘀: What ecosystems does the business rely on? → 𝗥𝗶𝘀𝗸𝘀: How does Nature loss affect supply, price, brand, and regulation? → 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: Where is Nature loss financially significant to enterprise value? → 𝗢𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀: Where can ecosystem protection drive long-term financial sustainability? As an asset owner, ask your consultants and fund managers: ✅ Have you mapped Nature dependencies across our portfolio? (e.g. Norges, Scottish Widows) ✅ Have you commissioned a Nature risk assessment across our equities? → Deep-dive your top 10 holdings in FMCG, agriculture, and food; which are most exposed to ecosystem collapse? ✅ How are you integrating TNFD into stewardship, risk oversight, and engagement? 📌 The EU CSRD and UK SDR are raising the bar on Nature disclosures for companies and asset owners. This should be as standard as your TCFD report. We've built dashboards for carbon. Where's the equivalent for Nature? 🎥 Watch 𝗥𝗲𝗲𝗳 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 on Prime Video & Amazon MGM Studios.  Set in Indonesia, it follows a team of coastal communities and marine biologists who brought a dying reef back to life, proving that Nature recovery is possible and essential to business survival. 🪸 This is why Sheba Cat Food (Mars) invests in coral reef restoration. https://lnkd.in/eMuj2YV2 #FromRiskToResilience #NaturePositive #NatureRisk #ReefBuilders #ShebaHopeGrows #TNFD

Do you also feel your roadmap planning is a counterproductive waste of time? Change that to a productive exercise that will set your success 12 months ahead with the following 10 pieces of advice: 1) Start early, even in October The earlier you start, the more time you have to align with stakeholders and refine priorities. October might feel early, but having a draft ready before the year ends allows for feedback and stressless adjustments. 2) Clarify goals and strategy A roadmap without a clear purpose is just a wish list. Tie it to business goals, customer needs, and your overarching strategy. This gives your roadmap direction and credibility. 3) Allow everyone to chip in Your roadmap will be stronger if it includes diverse perspectives. Devs will ask for essential technical investments, sales understand customer pain points, and support hears complaints daily. Use their input to ensure your roadmap addresses real needs. 4) Double-check with legal Don't overlook this! Legal compliance can make or break your plans, especially in industries like fintech, healthcare, or data-heavy products. A quick legal review now can save you from costly setbacks later. 5) Organize a brainstorming workshop Bring stakeholders together for a focused brainstorming session. Use sticky notes, whiteboards, or virtual tools to encourage creativity. Workshops help uncover ideas you might not have considered and build alignment early. 6) Put an effort estimate on the most promising items Prioritization isn't just about impact, effort matters too. Collaborate with your devs to estimate the time and resources needed for each initiative. This helps balance quick wins with high-impact projects and helps choose the actual roadmap items during prioritization. 7) Ask your designer to put some quick visuals for the selected initiatives A picture is worth a thousand words. Having simple visuals for key roadmap items can help stakeholders grasp the vision faster and ensure everyone’s aligned on what success looks like. 8) Organize work by quarters, not months, and especially not sprints Quarterly planning gives enough flexibility to adapt while still maintaining structure. Monthly plans can feel too rigid, and sprint-level roadmaps are operational, not strategic. Keep your roadmap focused on the big picture. 9) Leave room to breathe Don't overload the roadmap. Unexpected challenges will arise, and new opportunities will pop up. Leaving 20-30% of capacity unplanned ensures you can adapt without derailing the entire roadmap. 10) Be careful with your comms Communicate clearly that the roadmap is a direction, not a commitment. You’re agile, not waterfall. Keep flexibility baked into your messaging to avoid frustration later. So, is your roadmap planning productive? Sound off in the comments! #productmanagement #productmanager #roadmap P.S. To become a Product Manager who can create roadmaps that actually work, check out my courses at www. drbartpm. com :)

Do you have a DOOMSDAY version of your forecast? 😱 If not, you may be caught off-guard if things don’t go according to plan Scenario planning is not a nice to have when forecasting… it’s a MUST have. The future is filled with uncertainties, and your job is to keep track of what your business can look like under each scenario so that you can plan accordingly. But how do you prepare different versions of your forecast? Here are the 4 most common ways that I see 1️⃣ CREATING DIFFERENT WORKBOOKS This is how I see most people do scenario planning. They have one forecast…and then another for a rainy-day scenario. Or maybe they have one version that they use for planning (conservative), and one that they use for fundraising (aggressive). This method works for 1 reason - it’s simple to set up. Just take your workbook, make a copy of it, and change all of your inputs. There’s just one problem…this becomes a nightmare to manage, as you now have multiple versions to update. That’s why I’m a much bigger fan of option 2… 2️⃣ DYNAMIC DROPDOWNS What if you had 1 workbook with a simple way to toggle on different scenarios? Now you have only 1 source of truth, but that 1 source of truth can be transformed for different scenarios as you select your dropdown. I love this approach because it’s not too much work to set up once you have a proper lookup formula in place *(note: you are forbidden from using VLOOKUP here, or anywhere else).* 3️⃣ SCENARIO MANAGER This is a cool feature in Excel that few are aware of. Rather than editing just one cell, you can edit however many cells you want with a predefined set of inputs. Simply hit Data > What-If Analysis, and select Scenario Manager 4️⃣ DATA TABLES Want to take your scenario planning to a new level? With Data Tables, you can view the outcome of all scenarios in 1 VIEW 🤩 I love this approach because it gives me strong visibility in all scenarios, rather than forcing me to toggle ot each scenario. The only limitation is that it can slow down your workbook, so select “partial” or “automatic except data tables” in your calculation options === So which version is best to use for scenario planning? To me, it doesn’t matter which you use…what matters is that you keep track of all scenarios and review your performance as close to real time as possible - the quicker you get insights, the quicker you can take action! How do you do scenario planning? Let us know in the comments below 👇