The Digital PM: Specialization Within the Profession?

Michael R. Wood is a Business Process Improvement & IT Strategist Independent Consultant. He is creator of the business process-improvement methodology called HELIX and founder of The Natural Intelligence Group, a strategy, process improvement and technology consulting company. He is also a CPA, has served as an Adjunct Professor in Pepperdine's Management MBA program, an Associate Professor at California Lutheran University, and on the boards of numerous professional organizations. Mr. Wood is a sought after presenter of HELIX workshops and seminars in both the U.S. and Europe.

  Career Development   Innovation  

Since around 2013, the term “digital project management” and “digital project manager” have gained in popularity. Now in 2016, I thought it might be a good time to visit the topic in hopes of getting a better understanding of the space and the skill sets that digital project managers (DPM) bring to the table that are not part of traditional IT project managers.

My journey began by looking for a succinct definition for a DPM. Sadly, this effort yielded little more than a DPM is a PM who manages digital projects. And as far as I could determine, “digital projects” have no real definition other than projects that are focused on developing and managing digital content, which would include social media, any website and digital media (books, forms, etc.). All in all, the wealth of data out there is sparse at best.

Not being deterred, I turned to job postings seeking DPMs. This bore more fruit. Here is a sample of what I learned related to the job functions and duties of a DPM (other than a typical PM might have):

• “Ability to manage simultaneous creative, digital and strategic communications projects, the DPM will also assist in the daily needs of the Digital Team in building and updating multimedia content, websites, social media presences …

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