E25 Danielle Crop from AMEX and Dana Brownlee from Professionalism Matters
In this episode of Project Management Office Hours Joe Pusz, PMO Joe, and his guests Danielle Crop from American Express and Dana Brownlee from Professionalism Matters take a deep dive into Agile Transformations discussing the AMEX Portico project, Managing Up from Dana’s new book and also the new Women in Product group in Phoenix.
Danielle shares her unique story working her way through various industries and careers prior to landing at American Express. She details the history of the Portico project to complete an Agile Transformation at American Express. Danielle shares many insights and lessons from the 4 year journey including the origination of the Portico name. We also hear of the new Women in Product group Danielle helped found here in Phoenix.
Dana shares the story which led her write her recent book, “The Unwritten Rules of Managing Up: Project Management Techniques from the Trenches” We learn the different types of bosses and techniques to deploy when working with these different types of bosses. Dana also shares the importance of building a “Culture of Candor” and how a collaborative work environment, as with Agile teams, is beneficial and necessary.
During this episode we also shared a great offer from IIL, the International Institute of Learning to Veterans providing free access to the 2019 Leadership and Innovation Online Conference. The conference runs from March 7 – June 9 and Veterans get free access using code VETMENT. Register athttps://www.iil.com/leadership-and-innovation-conference/
Tune in for upcoming shows with Project Management leaders and also Subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcast, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Stitcher, Spreaker or your favorite podcast platform! Our next show will be March 21 with Ruth Pearce and Michael Donnelly.
The American Express Company, also known as Amex, is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Three World Financial Center in New York City. The company was founded in 1850 and is one of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Danielle Crop leads the team responsible for creating world class digital products and scaleable platforms through best in class Agile product management, analytics and testing to drive value to our customers and shareholders. Since 2001, Danielle has held a series of multi-market roles of increasing responsibility within the areas of acquisitions, underwriting and data management. Over the past 4 years in EDA, and before assuming her current global role recently, she and her team have played a significant role in accelerating application complete rates and billed business acquired.
Danielle lives in Phoenix with her husband Chris and their daughter Anna. She enjoys gardening, reading, hiking and cooking. Ask Danielle about healthy eating, Wes Anderson films or her favorite TED talk!
Connect with Danielle on LinkedIn.
Professionalism Matters provides innovative speaking and training services around the U.S. and beyond. For more than 15 years the company has delivered workshops that are dynamic, interactive, and packed with practical tips that participants can begin using immediately! Training topics include various areas of professional development including Managing Up, Leading Difficult Meetings, Building Effective Teams, Project Management, and more.
After years of working as a business strategy consultant with top IT firms, in 2003 Dana Brownlee founded Professionalism Matters, an Atlanta based corporate training company. An energetic and innovative speaker and trainer, Dana has thrilled audiences with speaking events across the U.S. and globally.
Rated as the #1 Leadership Influencer on projectmanagement.com, she has been interviewed by (or published in) CNN, The Wall Street Journal, 
The Huffington Post, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Redbook, Working Mother, Forbes.com, and other notable publications. Dana’s first book “The Unwritten Rules of Managing Up: Project Management Techniques from the Trenches” was published by Berrett- Koehler in February 2019.
A nationally recognized speaker, Dana speaks to groups large and small on a variety of topics including tips for rescuing your meetings, dealing with the difficult boss, secrets of the “Thoroughbred Leader”, and discovering the keys to true work life balance. She holds a BS, BIE, MBA, and PMP.
Connect with Dana on LinkedIn and Instagram.
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Project Management Office Hours is intended to provide Project Management professionals a place to drop in and discuss Success Stories, Best Practices, and Lessons Learned. Project Management Consultant Joy Gumz has shared with us, “Operations keep the lights on, strategy provides the light at the end of the tunnel, but project management is the train engine that moves the organization forward.”
Each of us has a unique story to tell, but collectively we share a message that organizations who embrace Project Management Best Practices perform better than those which don’t. Organizations which align Projects to Strategy perform better. Organizations with Engage Executive Sponsors deliver better results. Organizations which measure Project Management performance outperform those which don’t.
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ABOUT YOUR HOST
Joe Pusz started THE PMO SQUAD to bring real world PMO Leadership experience to the consulting space and to advocate for Project Management through his blog PMOJOE.com. The old saying is “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” Following this mindset Joe left Corporate America in 2013 to start THE PMO SQUAD and work with fellow Natural Born Project Managers to advance Project Management Best Practices.
THE PMO SQUAD focuses exclusively on PMO and Project Management consulting. Corporate America is full of Accidental Project Managers running projects who haven’t been trained to be PMs. To help solve this problem THE PMO SQUAD is on the Leading Edge with PMO As a Service. PMO As a Service allows our clients to focus on their respective core competencies while THE PMO SQUAD delivers Project Management expertise. Contact Joe at 678-591-7868. Follow The PMO Squad on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
