The Story Of DPM Membership
In this article
- Where We Began
- Who We Are
- Our Values
- How We’re Growing
- Where We’re Going
- DPM Membership Is Your Space
Where We Began
This is the story of how The Digital Project Manager Membership grew to 750+ project managers in our first year, what we stand for, and where we’re headed.
DPM Membership launched in earnest in July of 2019 as a little bit of an experiment.
We felt that a lot of the general PM advice on the interwebs applied to IT or software development but fell short for the rogue, fast-and-loose digital projects of today.
The standardized, process-heavy methodologies didn’t fit the everyday workings of digital projects—a world in constant flux, where rules are broken as fast as they’re made.
We wanted to know:
Do digital project managers need a supportive space to navigate these challenges together?
Do digital project managers want to collaborate, troubleshoot, and share best practice with other people who also manage digital projects?
The answer was a resounding yes.
In its first year, DPM Membership grew to 750+ Members (and now we’re 1,000+ strong and growing).
Who We Are
We’re a diverse group of digital project managers, agency leads or owners, Scrum masters, technical project managers, digital executive producers, project directors, business operations directors, and many non-traditional and hybrid job titles.
We found that the exact job title doesn’t matter as much as our shared focus: we all want to help our teams manage and deliver better projects.
Our Values
There are 3 main values that define DPM Members and our collaborative space:
- We pay it forward.
We’re givers and we don’t believe anyone “owns” an idea—we all get further when we proactively lift others up and share generously. - We speak from experience—not theory.
We know that sharing our own, lived stories and opinions is more useful than offering vague, general advice that we haven’t actually tested for ourselves. - We keep our eyes trained on continuous improvement.
We don’t believe in “perfect”—we’re curious, adaptive, and intensely interested in the process of experimentation and learning. What works today might not work tomorrow, and we know that’s okay. We share what’s working for now, and when it changes, we adapt.
How We’re Growing
In 2020, as the group gained momentum, Membership expanded beyond the Slack channel, live Workshops, and Template library.
We rolled out more events and avenues for Members to get involved: Live Mentorship sessions where expert DPMs compare notes and solve complex challenges together, as well as Ask-Me-Anything sessions with digital industry specialists and our grass-roots cross-mentoring Mastermind program.
And The Digital Project Manager team grew along with it—we happily brought on a full-time community manager and grew our inner circle of experienced digital project managers who wanted to lead sessions in the community and help mentor other project managers.
Where We’re Going
Today, we’re a group of playbook-makers and experimenters leading change in digital project management.
We’re always evolving and coming up with new ways to deliver better projects and grow our careers.
We make projects happen, one learning at a time, and we’re helping each other when we get stuck.
We don’t always nail it, but we’re always here for each other—there’s a lot of “figuring out” in this digital project business. That’s what we’re here for.
DPM Membership Is Your Space
On the DPM team, our primary goal is to empower Members with the platform and resources so that you can proactively give shape to this community.
This is your space. This is your opportunity to build a meaningful community, your chance to create something awesome.
Tell us what you want to make, and we’ll help you make it happen.
Not a Member Yet? If you’d like to be part of the community that’s giving shape to the world of digital project management, we’d love to have you along for the ride!
