Host Alex Tuck welcomes IT program and project manager Claudia Wright to Project Zero season two. Wright shares her 25+ year path from data entry and administrative work at the EPA to database management, then coding (COBOL/DB2) at BellSouth, where frustration with “work thrown over the cubicle wall” pushed her toward business analysis and requirements. She became a project manager at a global grocery retailer, where her “Project Zero” involved enterprise work supporting store planograms and related systems, learning end-to-end delivery (resource planning, production turnovers, failback plans, signoffs) under a mentor, Cindy, who helped standardize templates and lessons learned. Wright’s key PM skill is “know your place,” adapting to organizational perceptions and leadership priorities, and she views AI as helpful for efficiency (e.g., note-taking) but not a “magic pill,” requiring planning and verification.

00:00 Season Two Kickoff

00:34 Claudia Career Origins

04:01 Finding Project Management

05:42 Sewing Meets Structure

07:02 From Coding to Leading

12:07 Technical Edge and Estimates

15:08 Project Zero Story

18:59 Mentorship and Lessons

20:50 Know Your Place

26:19 AI Is Not Magic

29:37 Wrap Up and Connect

Connect with Claudia Wright

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claudiawright-mba-pmp-cisa/

Connect with Alex Tuck

• Personal LinkedIn: Alex Tuck
• Website: www.tuckconsultinggroup.com
• Company LinkedIn: Tuck Consulting Group

Email: alex@tuckconsultinggroup.com

On this episode of Project Zero, host Alex Tuck welcomes Zack Tembi, CEO of Single Fin, a startup that supports the cybersecurity and infrastructure needs of Fortune 500/1000 companies. Tembi recounts his path from Roanoke College to early roles at Netuitive and as an early Splunk employee through its growth and Cisco acquisition, then founding Single Fin to prioritize customer outcomes and cut through AI “noise.” His “Project Zero” occurred during COVID while launching a major video game, during which a PM succeeded by calming stakeholders, code-switching between executive and engineering audiences, aligning technical work to strict uptime/capacity metrics, and unifying goals. Tembi describes Single Fin’s internal use of named AI agents with role-based access to scale operations, urging PMs to build skills by testing tools and exercising agency to implement practical AI use cases.

00:00 Season Two Kickoff

00:29 Meet Zack Tembi

03:06 Startup Roots and College

04:28 Early Career Lessons

06:01 Splunk Growth Story

07:08 Founding Single Fin

08:35 AI Hype and Reality

10:54 Project Zero Story

12:18 Great PM Traits

18:28 AI Agents for Work

23:31 Cool AI Use Cases

28:22 Where to Connect

29:46 Closing Thanks

Connect with Zack Tembi

• Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/single-fin-enterprises/
• Weekly Newsletter Signup: https://ciosurge.beehiiv.com/subscribe
• Newsletter Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ciosurge/

Connect with Alex Tuck

• Personal LinkedIn: Alex Tuck
• Website: www.tuckconsultinggroup.com
• Company LinkedIn: Tuck Consulting Group

Email: alex@tuckconsultinggroup.com

Host Alex Tuck interviews Shawn Harris, CEO and co-founder of Co-Worked/Creative Harmony. Harris recounts his early career in technology at IBM while still an undergrad, later formalizing project management at TJX amid tight retail delivery windows and PMI-style rigor. His “Project Zero” centers on leading TJX’s migration of credit transaction processing from an outsourced provider to an in-house data center, emphasizing extensive cross-functional planning and cutover execution; he also contrasts enterprise delivery with consulting, where project control ties directly to profitability. Harris argues PMs benefit from entrepreneurial methods to build credibility and authority. He introduces Harmony, an agentic AI project manager that embeds into Microsoft 365, coordinates work across existing tools, follows up on tasks/risks, and generates status outputs so PMs can lead from “the balcony.”

00:00 Season Two Kickoff

00:40 Meet Shawn Harris

01:54 Early Career at IBM

03:18 Retail PM Rigor at TJX

06:21 Tech Upbringing and Gadgets

09:10 What Project Zero Means

09:40 Project Zero at TJX Cutover

16:20 Consulting vs Enterprise PM

20:57 Top Skill Entrepreneur Mindset

25:08 Harmony Agentic PM Overview

31:31 Why Tools Aren’t the Work

Connect with Shawn Harris

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnharris/
• Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/coworkedai/
• Company Website: https://coworked.ai/

Connect with Alex Tuck

• Personal LinkedIn: Alex Tuck
• Website: www.tuckconsultinggroup.com
• Company LinkedIn: Tuck Consulting Group

Email: alex@tuckconsultinggroup.com

Host Alex Tuck welcomes healthcare project management consultant Nigisty Lulu to discuss her career at the intersection of public health, healthcare operations, and health technology, and the season’s increased focus on AI. Nigisty shares how she was “thrown into” project management after college at Emory University’s neurology department, supporting healthcare initiatives and a telehealth launch that helped scale what became the Marcus Stroke Network. Her Project Zero centered on heavy stakeholder coordination, aligning differing expectations, and overcoming adoption resistance by improving change management through training, on-site support, office hours, and 24/7 access. She emphasizes that top PM skills include creating structure in ambiguous environments and understanding the “why” behind tasks. Both discuss AI automating logistics while elevating human judgment, prioritization, negotiation, and real-time strategy; Nigisty highlights using AI to build roadmaps and timelines.

00:00 Season Two Kickoff

00:37 Meet Nigisty Lulu

02:22 How She Became a PM

03:51 From Pre Med to Public Health

05:45 Born Organizer Mindset

07:18 Defining Project Zero

07:53 Scaling Emory Telehealth

11:35 Mentors and Learning Fast

13:17 Change Management Resistance

16:58 PM Skills and AI Future

23:34 AI Roadmaps and Prompts

26:47 Career Advice and Wrap Up

Connect with Nigisty Lulu

• LinkedIn: Nigisty Lulu
• Email: nikki@tuckconsultinggroup.com

Connect with Alex Tuck

• Personal LinkedIn: Alex Tuck
• Website: www.tuckconsultinggroup.com
• Company LinkedIn: Tuck Consulting Group

Email: alex@tuckconsultinggroup.com

Megan Newman on Building Humanitru, High-Stakes Healthcare Projects, and AI-Driven Customer Support Insights Host Alex Tuck opens season two of Project Zero with Megan Newman, co-founder and COO of Humanitru, to discuss her career shift from healthcare to nonprofit SaaS, the importance of systems and organization, and the evolving impact of AI. Megan explains how fragmented data systems in both EMRs and nonprofit fundraising tools inspired Humanitru’s integrated CRM and shares two “Project Zero” moments: coordinating complex care for a newly quadriplegic patient and building a startup from scratch, including demos, onboarding, implementation, and scaling operations after rapid hiring. She highlights critical thinking as the key skill for product managers, translating customer needs into technical specs, and describes an AI initiative using Google Gemini to improve support, surface ticket-driven product insights, and strengthen customer interest.

00:00 Season Two Kickoff

00:32 Meet Megan Newman

01:20 From Healthcare to Nonprofit Tech

03:23 Born Organized Systems

06:36 Corporate to Startup Shift

09:46 Defining Project Zero

10:26 Care Management High Stakes

14:17 Building Humanitru Playbooks

18:44 Product Managers Critical Thinking

21:44 Fundraising Data Prioritization

24:24 AI Support and Customer Insights

30:17 Wrap Up and Contact

Connect with Megan Newman

• LinkedIn: Megan Newman

Connect with Alex Tuck

• Personal LinkedIn: Alex Tuck
• Website: www.tuckconsultinggroup.com
• Company LinkedIn: Tuck Consulting Group

Email: alex@tuckconsultinggroup.com

In this episode of Season 2 Project Zero, host Alex Tuck welcomes Dave Reinhold, founder of Venture CPO, a product management consultancy that helps clients build digital products from zero to one. They discuss why product and project management are often conflated and how the functions complement each other, with Dave framing project management as building things right and product management as building the right things. Dave shares his path from studying MIS and working as a technology auditor at Deloitte to discovering product management and moving into startups, where product managers often must also handle project work. He describes a formative early-2000s reporting/BI implementation at the International Securities Exchange and highlights the importance of relationships, communication, and attention to detail. They explore how AI is accelerating product work—especially requirements and “vibe coding” prototyping—while stressing the need for human judgment, and Dave cites healthcare AI as a particularly exciting use case. Dave closes with advice to his younger self to take more career risks, to learn to be comfortable in the unknown,

00:00 Season Two Kickoff

00:30 Meet Dave Reinhold

01:10 Product vs Project

02:18 Origins in Tech

03:30 Discovering Product

04:51 Why Roles Blur

06:31 Defining Both Jobs

07:32 Project Zero Story

08:30 Reporting Build Lessons

10:34 Relationships Matter

13:03 Skills That Win

14:32 AI in Product Work

15:35 Vibe Coding Prototypes

22:09 AI Beyond Business

26:07 Career Advice and Wrap

Connect with Dave Reinhold

• LinkedIn: Dave Reinhold
• Email: dave@venturecpo.com
• Website: venturecpo.com

Connect with Alex Tuck

• Personal LinkedIn: Alex Tuck
• Website: www.tuckconsultinggroup.com
• Company LinkedIn: Tuck Consulting Group

Email: alex@tuckconsultinggroup.com

Host Alex Tuck kicks off season two of Project Zero with Stan Ponder, Director of Product Management at Safety National, to explore project leader journeys and AI’s impact on the industry. Stan shares his path from fifth-grade teacher and elementary principal into learning and development, where he unknowingly practiced project management before moving into product management and building a product organization. He recounts two “Project Zero” lessons: overcommitting a team with no buffer (“building a boat with a hole in it”) and taking on work outside the team’s expertise, underscoring the value of instincts and early course correction. Stan highlights communication and transparent status reporting as the top skill, and discusses using AI agents to automate admin work like analysis and status reports so leaders can focus on relationships and removing roadblocks.

00:00 Season Two Kickoff

00:31 Meet Stan Ponder

01:50 From Teacher to PM

04:04 Born Organized

05:45 Project Zero Setup

06:20 Capacity Planning Wakeup

09:26 Trust Your Instincts

11:34 Big Wins in Finance

16:21 Top Skill Communication

20:12 AI for PM Workflows

24:38 Cool AI in the Wild

27:53 Advice to Younger Stan

29:45 Connect and Wrap Up

Connect with Stan Ponder

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stanponder/
• Email: stanponderpm@gmail.com

Connect with Alex Tuck

• Personal LinkedIn: Alex Tuck
• Website: www.tuckconsultinggroup.com
• Company LinkedIn: Tuck Consulting Group

Email: alex@tuckconsultinggroup.com

From Care Coordination to Health Tech: Jordyn Seri on Project Zero, Process Automation, and AI in Healthcare PM In this episode of Project Zero. Jordyn Seri, PMP is a healthcare Project Manager who turns operational friction into streamlined systems. With a background in public health and a process optimization mindset, Jordyn specializes in bridging the gap between technical developers and frontline clinicians. Known for her successes in improving operational efficiencies and database development, she is a firm believer in servant leadership and the power of asking "why." In this episode, Jordyn shares her path from studying psychology and public health at Brandeis to working across multiple levels of healthcare, including nonprofit Medicaid programs, health plan network management, and contracting with a health tech startup serving stakeholders like pharma companies, clinical researchers, and clinicians.

00:00 Welcome to Project Zero Season Two

00:27 Jordyn Seri: Background in Healthcare and Product/Project Management

02:40 How Jordyn Transitioned Into an Official Project Manager Role

04:35 Early Career in Care Coordination and Building Excel Dashboards to Track Medicaid Deadlines

07:10 College Experience: Public Health Fellowship Project and Event Planning

09:20 Personal Organization Style and “Spreadsheet Friend” Habits

10:45 Project Zero (Success): Automating Medicaid Claims Documentation to Eliminate 3,500 Manual Claims Annually

13:10 Driving Adoption: End-User Collaboration Group, Communication Plan, and Training Rollout

15:20 Project Zero (Challenge): Attempted Integration into Existing Software That Couldn’t Meet Program Complexities

18:05 Key Lesson: Be Wary of Easy “Yes” Answers and Validate Technical Feasibility; Escalation and Project Pause

20:25 Core PM Skills: Embrace Non-Expert Status, Ask Relentless Questions, and Stay Curious

22:05 Career Advice: Don’t Wait for Permission to Fix Broken Processes; Earn a Seat at the Table

23:25 AI in Jordyn’s Work: Staying Current via Superhuman Zane Newsletter and AI Daily Brief Podcast; Building a Prompt Library

25:10 Favorite AI Prompts: Finding Blind Spots and Risks, Translating Technical Documents into Plain English

26:40 AI Use Case in Medicaid: Consolidating Fragmented State Reporting Data into Dashboards for Operational Decision-Making

29:00 Advice for Early-Career PMs: Talk to Experienced PMs and Map Transferable Skills

30:35 Contact: How to Connect with Jordyn!

AI Resources Mentioned:

• Superhuman Zain Newsletter: https://www.superhuman.ai/subscribe
• Jeff Su’s Website: https://www.jeffsu.org/ai/
• AI Daily Brief Podcast Website: https://aidailybrief.ai/

Connect with Jordyn Seri, PMP

• LinkedIn: Jordyn Seri
• Email: hello@jordynseri.com

Connect with Alex Tuck

• Personal LinkedIn: Alex Tuck
• Website: www.tuckconsultinggroup.com
• Company LinkedIn: Tuck Consulting Group

Email: alex@tuckconsultinggroup.com