Portfolio Management: Resource & Prioritization Methodology
From 2022-2024 I was the Director of Integrated Marketing Solutions for Corporate Initiatives for Gartner. This operational leadership role supported lines of business that included Legal, Compliance, Branding, Product, Gartner Research Board, Digital Marketing, and Global Client Marketing. My role was formed after a corporate reorganization that transitioned marketing services to a matrixed reporting structure. I oversaw a remote cross-functional team of 15 with the team’s Project Management reporting directly to me.
resource allocation
portfolio management
Change management
The Business Challenge
The internal clients that the Corporate Marketing Solutions team supported spanned such a wide array of business centers, that the projects being submitted were competing against one another for priority without a systematic determination or operational structure for planning. In essence, the team was drinking from the proverbial water hose.
The Solution
I established a prioritization method and criteria for evaluating project requests and a measurement system for calculating resource throughput so that project size could also be estimated. I implemented a quarterly business review to review the operational results of the previous quarter and communicate upcoming quarterly project priorities to level set expectations and improve performance.
Actions Taken:
- Conducted a time study to estimate task completion times.
- Established standardized communication checkpoints for the team, including stand-ups, SME huddles, sprint reviews, and client touch bases to ensure alignment.
- Created prioritization criteria consisting of budget, estimated ROI, business-critical impact, and in-market sensitivity. Then, distributed using the Eisenhower Matrix.
- Organized project execution using a hybrid Agile methodology.
Results Delivered:
- Quarterly planning reviews with reporting that included resource utilization by SME group, project distribution by client/business group, marketing performance/impact by funnel stages
- Streamlined communication for both production teams and executives
- Sprint Retrospectives for iterative operational performance improvement
- A scalable Agile framework
- Corporate awards for the highest-performing project management team
- Creative excellence awards for the release of original content series two years in a row.
- Five consecutive on-budget quarterly portfolio deliveries