Building an enablement function from zero
A Big Four technology practice delivering programs for US clients was onboarding project managers with no structured training program behind it. New joiners learned about the firm and about our specific practice by trial and error, which generated a great deal of friction with the client, with the firm and with leadership.
The problem
There was no learning curriculum, no clear understanding of what new joiners actually had to learn, and none of what internal clients needed them to know by their first week.
And that first week already demanded performance at a very high bar, without knowing the jargon, the internal systems, or even the full org chart.
What I did
I structured the program around what a PM actually has to do in their first ninety days rather than around what was easy to teach. I scaled cohorts from 5 to 15 participants without diluting it, and acted as a dedicated buddy and mentor to each new hire — which is also how I found out what the program was missing.
In parallel I was delivering technology rollouts across multiple US client sites, owning scope, timeline, approvals and QA, and holding the line on information-security requirements for data storage when convenience pushed the other way.
Outcome
The program tripled in size and became the standard path in.
Recognised as Top Performer in 2022 and 2023.
Why it matters
Small companies hire fractionally for exactly this: something has to exist that does not exist yet, and nobody has time to build it.