Most people use “accidental project manager” to describe how they got into the role.
That version is real. I should know, I've experienced it: the work shows up, someone needs to hold things together, and before long you’re doing PM work without ever having planned to.
But there’s another kind of accidental project management that doesn’t get talked about as much. It’s what happens when an experienced PM is dropped into a project midstream. Another PM leaves unexpectedly. The work is already in motion. Decisions exist without much context. The budget is tight, the timeline is optimistic, and the client is uneasy before you’ve even said hello.
I’ve spent a lot of my career in that second category.
One moment stands out clearly: A PM on my team left the company with no notice, and I was asked to step into a project that was already over budget, running late, and surrounded by confusion. There was no handoff; just a lot of history, a frustrated client, and a team doing their best under the circumstances.
It was not fun.
That situation, and many others like it, taught me something important. When you step into a project like this, the instinct is to move fast, fix things, and restore confidence. But urgency can push you into action before you understand the situation you’re actually dealing with.
Over time, I’ve learned that a few priorities consistently make these moments easier to navigate—and harder to make worse. They’re about how you show up to work before you start changing it.
Here are the first three things I’d focus on.
