“Congratulations! You’re our first Project Manager.” Or perhaps the only Project Manager. In a small to medium-sized enterprise (SME), this often means you aren’t just running projects; you are the entire PMO (Project Management Office).
There is no “company way” of doing things. No governance handbook, no pre-built templates, and no experienced senior PM to tell you which tools to use.
For the naturally organised and systematic thinkers, this is a dream, a blank canvas. But for many, it can be quite overwhelming. How do you satisfy demanding customers while developing a repeatable delivery system for the business?
The Reality
In an SME, you are likely navigating three major challenges simultaneously:
- The Vacuum: There is no existing structure. If you don’t create a status report or a risk register, it simply won’t exist.
- The “Hero” Culture: The business is used to getting things done through sheer force of will rather than process.
- The Dual Role: You have to manage your current projects perfectly while simultaneously developing how the process works.
Why This Is Harder Than It Looks
If you’re feeling the weight of being the “only one,” here are a few tips on how you can turn that isolation into an advantage:
- Build the Plane While Flying It: Don’t wait for a “quiet period” to build your processes. Standardise one thing per project. Maybe this month it’s a consistent kick-off deck; next month, it’s a formal change-request process.
- Balance Flexibility with Control: In a small business, “too much process” won’t work and will stifle creativity and progress. Your goal isn’t to create bureaucracy; it’s to create guardrails. Use just enough governance to deliver the project without slowing the team down.
- The “Repeatability” Mindset: Ask yourself: “If I won the lottery tomorrow, could someone else step in and see exactly where this project stands, what we’re delivering, and what the biggest risks are?” If the answer is no, you’re holding too much in your head.
Building Something That Outlasts You
When a project ends, the business tends to sprint to the next one, forgetting the hard-won lessons of the last six months.
To be a “PMO of one,” you must be the gatekeeper of best practices. Document the “Why” as much as the “What.” When you find a shortcut that works or an approach that fails, bake that into your personal (and the company’s) toolkit, ready for next time.
The Bottom Line
Being the solo PM is a unique discipline. It requires the technical skills of a project lead and the vision of an architect. You aren’t just delivering a product to a customer; you are delivering a capability to your company. And while products might only generate revenue once, capability generates revenue repeatedly.
Own the “PMO” title. Even if it’s just you in the office, the structure you build today will become the backbone of how the company delivers for years to come.
