
In this lecture you get four signals that show the real status of a project you cannot watch.
This course is built from five disciplines: project management, remote work, internal communications, Agile delivery and time management.
The map of the course
A simple dictionary for reading lectures from other fields as work on your own distributed project
Three questions to ask after every lecture
A short self-diagnostic that shows which sections to watch first
Download the Remote Status Signals worksheet, plus the spreadsheet that fills itself in, and write one line after each lecture.
Tools in this lecture
Files to download (1)
What actually counts as a project, and what is just work
The four stages a project moves through
The role of the project manager and the main difficulties of the job
An overview of the PMBOK 7 principles and performance domains
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (3)
Models and methods explained (3)
Collecting the ideas and turning them into a proposal
Building the business case and the project charter
Cost-benefit analysis and the documentation that goes with it
Choosing which project to actually run
Stewardship, ethics and stakeholder interests as selection criteria
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (6)
Models and methods explained (3)
Who your stakeholders are, including the ones nobody named
Compiling and prioritising the list
Assessing influence and interest
Ways of engaging, and the Stakeholders performance domain
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (5)
Models and methods explained (3)
Establishing that the project is needed at all
Defining where the project starts and where it ends
Setting the boundaries and documenting assumptions
The development approach and life cycle domain
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (2)
Models and methods explained (6)
Breaking the project into parts and labelling them
Describing the plan as a diagram
Identifying risks at the planning stage
Time planning and the network diagram
Planning and measurement domains, with adaptability built in
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (6)
Models and methods explained (3)
Time planning methods and determining activity durations
Displaying the schedule, including the Gantt chart
Identifying participants and using a human resources matrix
Applying the Team performance domain
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (5)
Services and apps shown in this lecture (8)
Models and methods explained (3)
Project cost and the different types of it
The three stages of a project budget
Identifying risk factors and assessing them
Risk management, and the Uncertainty domain
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (8)
Models and methods explained (2)
Building the structure for the project
Working in a matrix environment, where nobody reports to you
Defining roles and responsibilities, and allocating tasks
Kicking off and then running the team
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (4)
Models and methods explained (8)
What project control actually means
The progress reporting system and monitoring spend
Handling deviations before they become the status update
Communicating progress, running meetings, the communications plan
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (10)
Models and methods explained (4)
Planning closure rather than letting a project fade out
Handling the administrative matters
Surveying the results with the people who received them
Bringing the PMBOK 7 principles together at the end
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (4)
Models and methods explained (8)
Three environments that shape how it feels to work somewhere
The key differences from office work
What changes in every process once the team is distributed
The checklist for moving, and the security part nobody plans for
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (3)
Models and methods explained (1)
The rules of the job when there is no office to define them
Sleep, nutrition, and why they belong in a management course
Organising the workplace, and rules with family and pets
Communication tools and the rules for using them
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (3)
How to organise supervision of a distributed team
The control tools available, and what each actually tells you
Organising work so people control their own output
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (9)
Models and methods explained (1)
Tools for communication and for organising work
The types of meetings a distributed team needs
Tools for document storage
Deciding what belongs in a meeting and what does not
Tools in this lecture
Services and apps shown in this lecture (16)
Why motivation behaves differently without a shared room
Working with engagement deliberately
Socialisation, and what happens when it is left to chance
Team building for people who have never met
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (5)
Models and methods explained (1)
The benefits that are actually used
Security for remote employees
Support for mental health
Physical health care at a distance
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (2)
Models and methods explained (2)
Time management and independence as job requirements
Working in isolation without losing output
Technical confidence and written communication
Automation as a personal skill
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (6)
Services and apps shown in this lecture (3)
Which candidates work well remotely and which do not
Where to look for them
Adapting the hiring process for distance
Onboarding someone who will never visit an office
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (5)
Working with retention before someone is already leaving
The real reasons people leave distributed teams
Handling low performance you cannot observe directly
Dismissing a remote employee
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (6)
Models and methods explained (1)
Describing the culture explicitly, since it is no longer absorbed
Supporting it in daily practice
Business security with a distributed team
Dealing with force majeure
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (8)
Models and methods explained (1)
Why an announcement nobody read was not communication
How communication helps delivery when it is designed
Running a communications audit
Surveying people about how they actually receive information
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (5)
Models and methods explained (2)
Aiming communication at a problem rather than at coverage
Helping decision-makers decide
Influencing behaviour instead of informing
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (3)
Models and methods explained (3)
Whether you actually know who your stakeholders are
Segmenting them and building personas
Where the data for that comes from
Building the message, and a template for an effective one
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (7)
Models and methods explained (2)
This course contains the use of artificial intelligence.
A project plan that worked in an office quietly stops working when the team is spread across four time zones. Nothing dramatic happens; things just take longer and nobody knows why. Here are 303 tools to make the plan travel: 171 ready-to-use procedures, templates, checklists and question lists, 87 models and methods, 44 services shown on screen and a remote status signals card.
Open a lecture, take the checklist, and apply it to your current remote project.
Why remote projects slow down
Decisions that took a corridor conversation now take a day of messages. People work at different hours, status is unclear, meetings multiply, and new team members never quite join. The plan is the same, but the project around it has changed.
What changes after this course
Your project has a clear foundation, remote working rules, tools and meetings that fit the distance, and a communication system people rely on. You hire and onboard remotely, deliver with Agile and protect your own productivity.
What is inside: 303 tools, counted lecture by lecture
You do not have to take this number on trust. Open any lecture and read its description: every tool inside is listed there by name.
Where the tools are
Project foundations (4 sections, 98 tools). PMBOK 7, the business case, scope, plan, schedule, budget, risk, the team and closing.
Going remote (4 sections, 71 tools). The checklist, rules, tools, meetings, hiring, onboarding, retention and culture.
Team communication (2 sections, 46 tools). Audit, goals, channels and difficult news.
Agile delivery (2 sections, 62 tools). Product owner, vision, MVP, releases and ceremonies.
Personal productivity (2 sections, 64 tools). Goals, priorities, planning, procrastination and stress.
Who is teaching
I am Mike, the #1 HR instructor on Udemy, with 1,800,000+ course enrollments from 170,000 students, and the author of about 200 books on Amazon. I built the people system at Preply as it became a unicorn and worked at Wargaming, iDeals and Alfa-Bank across 20 years in HR. I hold PHRi, SHRM-CP and HCI sHRBP certifications and represent HRCI in Eastern Europe.
At Preply we hired people to work in Berlin and invited them to Kyiv for a week or two to work with us, meet the team and absorb the culture. When COVID sent everyone home, one of my first recommendations to companies was a simple weekly pulse survey, even in Google Forms: people felt cared for, and the company could react quickly when someone was struggling.
How to use the course
Start with the project foundations and the going remote sections, then use the communication and Agile sections with your team. Section and lecture titles show how many tools are inside, and each lecture description lists them by name.
What is included
Where to start
List what a new remote team member would not know after their first week on your project, then open the going remote lecture. Enrol now and start your first lesson today.