What to say when things get messy
If you’ve worked through the Accidental PM Starter Kit, you already have the structure. You understand the common paths projects take, you recognize how alignment fuels momentum, and you’ve seen how a handful of well-placed conversations can prevent quiet drift from turning into visible failure.
The challenge is that projects don’t test your understanding in calm, reflective moments. They test it in real time.
They test it when a meeting tightens and the energy shifts. When you inherit a half-built project, and everyone turns to you for direction. When a stakeholder asks for “just one more change,” and the team goes silent because they know what that really means.
In those moments, frameworks fade into the background. What you reach for is language.
This is a practical field guide for those situations. Read it alongside the playbook. Keep it close when things start to wobble.
On February 25th at 1 p.m. Eastern, we’re hosting a live PM Squad panel focused entirely on accidental project management.
We’ll be moderating a conversation with Dave Prior, Kelly Vega, and Aaliyah Good—three leaders with very different backgrounds and career paths. We’ll talk openly about what it actually means to become a PM by circumstance, how to lead without formal authority, and what changes as you grow into the role.
This is not a presentation. It’s a working conversation. Bring your questions. Bring your scenarios. We’ll be recording the session on Riverside, and you’ll receive the official invitation and link via Riverside ahead of the event.
