How to Run Projects Like a Founder (Live Q&A)
Hybrid skills = leadership skills: Being multi-skilled isn’t a trap—it’s training for bigger responsibilities.
Transparency matters: The healthiest cultures show their numbers, even when it’s tough.
Business literacy is the new PM superpower: Understanding margins, utilization, and pipeline health makes you indispensable.
Bench time ≠ wasted time: Use it to win work or improve systems.
Your utilization target is a clue: It reveals what kind of company you’re working in—and how much breathing room you’ll have.
We had a grand time during our recent event, How Project Leaders Can Run Projects Like Founders. The conversation sparked a lively discussion about how project managers can think bigger, act more strategically, and ultimately grow into business leaders.
But—as is always the case with our live events—we ran out of time for all the excellent questions from the audience. Thankfully, our panelists Mark Orttung and Pam Butkowski stuck around for an extra 30 minutes to dig deeper.
Here’s a recap of that bonus Q&A—packed with unfiltered insights you can apply right away.
Unlock for Free
Create a free account to finish this piece and join a community of forward-thinking leaders unlocking tools, playbooks, and insights for thriving in the age of AI.
Have an account? Log In
When PMs are hybrid and “wearing many hats,” how do we avoid falling into generalist traps while still adding value?
Pam Butkowski:
I don’t think it’s a bad thing to be a Swiss Army knife. I think that’s okay. The important part is understanding which part of the knife needs to be pulled out at any given time. Nobody is effective if your entire knife is splayed out. It’s not about saying, ‘I’ll do everything,’ it’s about saying, ‘Here’s what I’ll do, here’s what I’m good at, and here’s how we can cover the rest.
Mark Orttung:
I totally agree. I spent a lot of time in product management and it’s the same—you have all the responsibility and none of the control. You’re trying to influence across every perspective. And it helps you become a better business person because you’re forced to learn every angle. It’s hard, it’ll break your brain, but it’s also what prepares you to rise in the organization.
How do you keep thinking ‘what about us’ when you feel leadership isn’t showing that same mindset back to employees?
Mark Orttung:
When I first became CEO, we failed on a big project and 50 people rolled off in one week. It was brutal. Everyone wanted to do layoffs, but I decided we couldn’t or we’d never hire again in that market. So instead we went transparent. We showed the pipeline, we showed the problem, and we said: we need help. If you can sell, help us sell. If you can support, support. That transparency turned it from ‘me’ to ‘us.’ It took six quarters to climb out, but it forged us into a really strong company.
Pam Butkowski:
The trust disappears immediately if leadership is saying rah-rah-rah and then suddenly announces layoffs. But if you’ve seen the numbers for months, you understand why. In project management, you don’t always realize how fast those calculations happen. If 50 people are on the bench, the margin for the year is recalculated in 30 minutes. It’s easy to panic, but good leadership pauses and asks: what does this mean for people, and what does this mean long-term? Transparency is the difference between people trusting those decisions or not.
Do PMs need to know all these business metrics now? Do we basically need MBAs?
Mark Orttung:
You don’t need an MBA, but you do need to understand how the business works. That’s why I hold monthly business reviews and invite as many people as possible. At first, the questions are basic—‘what’s gross margin?’—and that’s great. By month five, people are connecting dots and offering ideas. That’s how you give people their honorary MBA: let them in the room, let them ask, let them see how it all fits together.
Pam Butkowski:
At Horizontal, all our project managers and client partners attend pre-forma every week. We review project variances, revenue, margin trends, our EBITDA outlook—everything. They’re accountable for making sure their numbers are right before we go into leadership review. The first time you realize your decision just moved $200,000 from one month to another, it’s jarring. But it’s not about slapping hands. It’s about having context and collaborating so the whole team knows why things are happening.
If I’m unbillable, how can I still show value?
Mark Orttung:
Get involved in selling. There are always proposals, RFPs, pipeline opportunities. One of the best things we did was encourage unsolicited proposals. If you know a client well, go to them and say, ‘Hey, we noticed this problem. Here’s how we think you could solve it.’ Even if you’re wrong, they’ll appreciate the initiative and often invite you into the conversation. That makes you valuable.
Pam Butkowski:
We’re terrible at following our own advice. We tell clients to document, template, refine processes—but we don’t do it ourselves. If you’re on the bench for a week, there’s always documentation that needs cleaning up, templates that need improving, processes that could be refined. If someone came to me today and said, ‘I’ve got an afternoon free, what can I do?’ I’d hand them a list of templates we need. That’s not busywork—it’s making the whole practice stronger. The caveat is: short bench time, great for this. Four months on the bench, just making templates—that’s a problem.
What are utilization targets for senior PMs? And how does it change as you move up?
Pam Butkowski:
For senior PMs, our target is 85%. For program or portfolio leaders, it drops to 50–75%. That’s intentional. That 15–50% is breathing room—vacations, transitions, non-billable strategic work. It’s not about slacking. It’s so you don’t have to close a project on Friday and start a kickoff Monday with no break.
Mark Orttung:
Your utilization target tells you what kind of company you’re in. When I came back into services, our companywide utilization was 92–95%. That’s a staffing model—you’re just selling hours. A consulting firm that adds higher value can be healthy at 70–85%. That’s sustainable, because you can charge more for expertise and create space for people to do the strategic work. If you try to keep both—95% utilization and premium consulting rates—you’ll burn people out. It doesn’t work.
Final Thought
Running projects like a founder isn’t about adding more hours to your week—it’s about shifting your perspective. The more you zoom out from “what about me” to “what about us,” the more you’ll find yourself shaping not just projects, but the future of your organization.
And don't forget to check out the recording from the full session, available for free!
