Corporate term: “Pathfinder Project Manager”

Technical project managers understand the details of the subject matter intimately, they know all the nooks, crannies and potential issues, they are subject matter experts for the deliverable in their own right, be that technical or business.

 

Standard PM’s do not have this and rely on being good at organisation to cover this. They are they often classed as leaders and can take on broad roles. They don’t need to know the subject matter and are reliant on other people for the subject matter expertise.

 

Pathfinder PM’s however hold more information than standard PM’s but are not subject matter experts and more importantly they know their weaknesses. A Pathfinder PM might not know the detailed implications of a business problem, but they know enough to identify the shape of something when it’s wrong. They are often very detail orientated in the structure and the organisation of the project. Their Sprint’s are often exceptionally well organised and the end deliverable is planned to the last detail, and this detail orientation enables them to see the shape of things that are wrong or do not make sense.

 

They are exceptionally good generalist PM’s and unless you have a technical PM, they are the only way of really dealing with a difficult project where a general PM does not cut the mustard. They can see the path ahead of them and they can see the shape of the problems. Even if they do not know the contents of the problem.

 

An easier way to think of this is in terms of treasure hunting. You do not need to know that there are gold and jewels inside the treasure chest. But if you can follow the map, you know what a treasure chest looks like, and you can identify when people have gone off course rather than just following the map blindly, then you can still get the treasure.