Project management
for digital programmes that really have to deliver.

External PM makes economic sense when the internal team is fully loaded with day-to-day, the project coordinates several external participants, and schedule or budget risk would exceed the fee difference to the in-house solution.

Concrete constellations where it pays off:

• Complex programmes with 3+ vendors — replatforming, ERP migration, internationalisation, multi-site roll-out. Coordination load is high enough that an experienced PM hand outweighs the schedule slip of fragmented steering
• In-house senior bottleneck — when internal senior PMs are either absent or operationally bound in day-to-day and people management
• External perspective deliberately wanted — e.g. after a failed internal attempt or amid significant internal political tension around vendor choice
• Project rescue — ongoing project with schedule slip and confidence loss; here external PM almost always pays off because the alternative is often a full stop

When it is not sensible: small projects under 3 months runtime with only one vendor, programmes where leadership wants to steer operationally itself, or setups where an experienced internal PM already has capacity.

Default is hybrid: 1–2 days per month on-site at the client, everything else remote via video, Slack/Teams and a shared PM tool.

What makes sense on-site:

• Kick-off and stakeholder workshops — full project set-up, vendor-selection workshops, large requirements workshops
• Steering-committee meetings with leadership and board
• Escalation conversations with vendors when the mood becomes critical
• Go-live choreography and hypercare start

What is efficient remote:

• Weekly sprint reviews and status sessions
• Day-to-day vendor steering
• Defect triage and re-test cycles
• Stakeholder updates and preparation of steering material

Tools: we work with your existing setup (Jira, Linear, Asana, Monday, Notion) — if nothing is in place, we propose Linear or Jira and set it up. Slack/Teams for day-to-day operational communication, written status reports go out weekly or fortnightly.

Travel effort is included in the accompanying retainer, larger travel needs (e.g. roll-out accompaniment across 5 sites) we clarify upfront as an effort position.

We are not dogmatic — the method adapts to the project, not the other way round. In practice we mostly work hybrid.

When we work agile (Scrum/Kanban):

• Software or platform build with unclear detail scope — 2-week sprints, sprint planning, daily, review, retro
• MVP and prototype work — fast test-build-test cycle
• Ongoing product evolution — continuous backlog, rolling prioritisation

When we work classic (waterfall with phase plan):

• ERP and platform migrations with a clear deadline (e.g. financial-year switch)
• Compliance projects with a fixed regulatory cut-off
• Multi-site roll-outs with synchronisation needs between sites

Hybrid (most common case): classic phase logic for set-up, migration and go-live choreography, agile sprint logic within the build phase. Schedule certainty where stakeholders need it — flexibility where development reality demands it.

We bring method knowledge but no method religion. If your setup already has an established methodology, we work within it and only adjust where it operationally really sticks.

Three engagement formats, each with a clear fixed price or monthly retainer:

• Discovery or status audit — 1–3 weeks, fixed price after initial conversation. Output: written assessment, realistic plan, recommendation on the way forward
• Accompanying retainer for ongoing steering — from € 1,700/month net. Clearly defined monthly scope model, written status report weekly or fortnightly, 24-h response on business days as default. Scales from light accompaniment to full PM engagement
• Full PM for replatforming, ERP migration or roll-out — fixed-price phases or full retainer with defined monthly scope across project runtime

What is included in the retainer: operational steering, stakeholder communication, vendor negotiation, defect and risk management, written status reports, 1–2 days on-site per month, tool setup if needed.

What runs separately: larger travel needs (multi-site roll-out), workshop days outside defined scope, technical implementation work (development, integration, hosting) — those run through our web, Shopify or WooCommerce teams and are calculated separately as fixed price or own retainer.

After the initial conversation you receive a binding offer with clear engagement scope — no surprise invoices, no hidden surcharges.

Yes — we regularly come on board only for a specific phase or sub-area.

Typical partial engagements:

• Vendor negotiation — we steer commercial conversations with the implementation partner, hosting or ERP vendor. You keep the ongoing project lead in-house
• Status audit as second opinion — leadership wants alongside the internal status report an external honest assessment whether the plan holds. 2–3 weeks audit, written finding
• Go-live choreography — we steer cutover, rollback plan and hypercare across 4–8 weeks, then the internal team takes back over
• Roll-out accompaniment for individual sites — we do pilot site and training concept, the internal team then rolls out itself
• Escalation accompaniment — we come into the project for 4–8 weeks when a vendor conflict or schedule risk has become active, and hand back over afterwards

The engagement format is defined after the initial conversation — we honestly recommend whether a partial engagement suffices or whether a full PM engagement has the better risk profile.

No — project management is a standalone discipline with us, not narrowed to e-commerce.

E-commerce replatformings are a frequent trigger because our operator practice (own shops, own brands, own warehouse for over 15 years) acts there most directly. But we equally steer:

• ERP and CRM introductions in sales mid-market, retail and manufacturing
• Software roll-outs in service and sales organisations
• System integrations between shop, ERP, warehouse software, marketing stack and tracking
• Internationalisation programmes (AT → DE/CH or DACH → EU)
• Process digitalisation in sales, marketing, service and warehouse operations
• AI pilot programmes and MVP accompaniment across multiple sprints and stakeholder constellations

What we don’t do: classic construction project management (building and civil engineering), pure machine and plant introductions without digital component, or research and development projects in pharma and biotech. Specialised PM firms exist for those, which we transparently recommend on request.

Yes — if a project is structurally no longer rescuable, we recommend an orderly stop and restart, even when it runs against our short-term engagement interest.

Typical constellations in which this arises:

• Wrong platform decision — the chosen software is fundamentally unsuited for the use case, the customising volume would multiple-times exceed the TCO advantage of another vendor
• Vendor capability gap — the implementation partner overestimated themselves in the pitch and cannot technically deliver central requirements
• Unrealistic business case — the underlying assumptions (volume, conversion, margin effect) do not survive the operational reality check

In such cases we deliver a written finding document to leadership and advisory: what does not work, why not, what would be the alternative, what does an orderly stop cost, what a restart with better vendor or platform choice.

Consulting only becomes useful when it removes a risk you’d otherwise overlook. A PM engagement that artificially keeps a recognisably lost project alive we would not accept — it would be neither in the client’s interest nor in our reputation interest.

Standard response to every request: within 24 hours on business days — even with no faster SLA contractually agreed.

What is possible beyond that:

• Active sprint or escalation phases — daily stand-ups or async updates via Slack/Teams, response usually significantly faster than 24 h
• Retainer with faster SLAs as a contract add-on — e.g. 4 h response in CET business hours or on-call standby with under 30 minutes via SMS for critical production or escalation issues
• Go-live and hypercare phases — agreed extended availability over 4–8 weeks with weekend standby

What we don’t promise: immediate response outside agreed SLAs or 24/7 availability without real backup structures. Clear response-time contracts are more professional than suggested always-on promises that don’t hold up in practice.

Backup model: the fixed senior lead has a second senior team member as backup for holiday and illness cases. Stakeholders get to know the backup member at onboarding so that no familiarisation phase is needed in an escalation case.

Clear delineation — we are operational project steering, not investment management, not legal advice and not people management.

What we don’t do:

• People management of internal staff — we steer project contributions of internal teams operationally but take no disciplinary responsibility. People management stays with the internal line organisation
• Legally binding assessment — GDPR/FADP evaluation, terms drafting, final vendor-contract review, competition-law review. Belongs with lawyers — we recommend DACH firms from our network
• Investment or M&A advice — we take on tech due diligence in the context of an acquisition but assess neither valuation multiples nor term sheets
• Classic construction project steering — building and civil engineering, machine and plant construction without digital component. Specialised PM firms exist for that
• Pure technical implementation as standalone work — if no PM component is needed, you get our web, Shopify or WooCommerce teams directly, not via the PM engagement

What we actively hand off: if a project request clearly belongs in another discipline (strategy instead of operations, law instead of tech, classic strategy consulting instead of operational steering), we refer transparently. No invented engagements, no selling of disciplines we are not strong in.