Wai Mun KooPMO Director| Intergraph PP&MSingapore, Singapore
I woke up this morning with a little surprise waiting for me in my inbox - 'gantthead.com is now projectmanagement.com'. All of a sudden, I found myself going through the five stages of grief (okay, I am a little bit drama here). I scrambled through the site in an attempt to find any sign of familiarity that was left from the previous site that I had been visiting for the past few years. Unfortunately, there wasn't any. What welcomed me instead was a fresh blue, totally new, look. Wow... I must say the look-and-feel of this new site is much more professional and refreshing (okay, I am not saying I am tired of the old look, just that this new look is cool). After spending 15 minutes navigating around, my initial feel is that the new site is more socially-enabled and some common tools are placed conveniently so that they are more accessible.
What do you think? Please share your comments on this new site. Saving Changes...
Don KimPROJECT-TO-PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT EXPERT| Seeking opportunitiesSacramento, CA, United States
I really like the new site and especially that it loads a much faster! In addition the color scheme, new URL and navigation is great! Saving Changes...
Wai Mun KooPMO Director| Intergraph PP&MSingapore, Singapore
Don, agree with you that I do find the new site loads faster (perhaps less cluttered). I also find the the profile photo looks a tad too big. Saving Changes...
Senior Advisor to the CEO| PMISterling, Va, United States
Thanks so much for the feedback guys. We really appreciate it. The feedback so far has been almost universally positive, but I'm sure there are things we could improve on. So as you explore the site further, please keep us up to date on what you like and don't. Saving Changes...
Your new format is a great improvement... I must say I struggled with the old format (especially the e-newsletter) and only persevered when I had lots of energy as it was such hard work ;-) Well done. I am looking forward to engaging with the new projectmanagement.com Saving Changes...
I like the overall look of the new site. I'm assuming the little welcome message at the topmost of all pages annoucing the rebranding will eventually disappear, as it kinda takes up unnecessary space - a good idea would be to add a little "close" button so people can remove it themselves once they've read it once.
The new colour scheme is certainly easier on the eyes than the former, albeit utilitarian, black and white.
I have mixed feelings about the new logo. On one hand, I think the design is great. On the other hand, I ponder the implications of what it represents: a chat bubble and a clock - are we saying project management is about chatting around the water cooler while looking at the clock until it's time to go home? :) Saving Changes...
Wai Mun KooPMO Director| Intergraph PP&MSingapore, Singapore
Julien,
Your comment on the logo is funny. However, I think that it is referring to the two key areas in project managment - time management and communication. I believe this is what it is trying to remind us. Saving Changes...
Managing Editor| ProjectManagement.comArlington, Va, United States
Thanks for all the kind words on the redesign! We're excited about it, and hope it ushers our members into a new era with us. And Wai Mun hit it on the head...we wanted to continue to emphasize the community aspect that gantthead was known for, and emphasize some of the important elements that PMs deal with on a daily basis. So the communication and time elements became vital to our new logo, which I quite like :) Saving Changes...
Russell GeakeProject Management Consultant| Deciduous Partners LtdLostwithiel, Cornwall, United Kingdom
I had a really good post to put here - but for some reason just as I was about to submit it logged me out.
I haven't got time to repost right now, but will do when I have another spare moment.
Sorry
p.s. generally it's a "like" from me... but nostalgia is still there
Saving Changes...
Don KimPROJECT-TO-PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT EXPERT| Seeking opportunitiesSacramento, CA, United States
One of the more interesting revelations of this new site is on PM.com's about page:
"You might remember us as gantthead, which launched in 2000. At that time, every project worth managing was run using a gantt chart. However, times changed and many project leaders were more focused on their KanBan Boards than on a linear schedule. Although some of the tools and approaches changed, our commitment to you and your work has not."
I couldn't agree more and though Kanban boards are the new "Gantt" chart, this site wisely avoided re-naming itselt "Kanbanhead.com" and took the most general and widely encompassing name of projectmanagement.com.
I would argue that most organization have and will continue to becoming more project oriented then operations oriented. Everybody has to churn out more stuff quickly while simultaneously maintaining high quality. This trend is not going to reverse itself anytime soon and will need better PM practices.
So one thing I would recommend is that I still see references to this site being the premier "IT project management" site and I would drop the "IT" since it now really exemplifies general PM.
To take my own anecdotal experiences for example, I teach a PMP prep class for PMI-LA since 2007 and back then about 90% of the participants were in the IT industry. For the classes I've been teaching lately, I'd say this has dropped to 20% or less, with people from all different sectors such as marketing, publishing and one I even had in my most recent class who was a serial entrepreneur looking to better his deployment of start ups.
Furthermore, I also meet at local Agile groups in the Los Angeles, CA area and I've been seeing people outside the software industry participate in this more and more.
The world has changed and this site has done a great job of transforming itself!
P.S. - A few minor things where I think we could see some improvements:
1.) While the core navigation is great, it's not as intuitive to find this discussion site as before. This just could be because I'm used to the old navigation, but something that displays "community" that is easily accessible may help.
2.) I do find the author pictures on the articles and blog site a bit big. Also, for my own picture, it is not current to the one I have on my profile. May be better to sync this.
Anyway, again, great job! :) Saving Changes...
Elizabeth HarrinDirector| RebelsGuideToPM.comLondon, England, United Kingdom
I like it, although it took a while to find the discussions - I expect we'll all get used to the new navigations in time. I like how the favion has been automatically updated in my web favourites too. I'll have to go and amend my links on other sites to point to the right place now, although the redirects work fine.
I agree that in time it would be good to get rid of the welcome message at the top as it does take up a lot of space.
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