You were handed the project. Here are the 100 moves nobody taught you.
In my first year as a project manager, I was mostly guessing. I just nodded in meetings and hoped nobody could tell I had no idea what I was doing. Over the years, I wrote down every small move that worked: the ten-minute actions that cut through the ambiguity instead of waiting for it to clear on its own. There are 100 of them in the book.
Sign up for five free microskills now, The Next Move each month, and a heads up when the book is out.
The skills nobody ever wrote down for you.
All one hundred of them.
Someone handed you a project, a deadline, and the expectation that you'd keep it all on track, before anyone showed you the moves that make that possible. You're learning them as you go, while the work piles up.
100 Microskills for Project Managers gives you those moves. One hundred specific, practical actions for the situations you're in every week:
- Turn a vague request into a target you can hit,
- Run a meeting that ends in a decision instead of another meeting,
- Catch the task that's slipping before it becomes the question you can't answer in a steering committee meeting.
Each microskill takes ten minutes or less and comes with the three steps to do it, a real project example, and the mistakes to skip. Written for project managers in their first few years in the role, the ones expected to deliver before anyone's shown them how.
You don't need a framework.
You need the next move.
This book is one hundred of them.
100 practical microskills for real project work
When to use each move, and how to do it in three simple steps
A real-project example showing how each one plays out
The common mistakes to skip, so you act with confidence the first time
Five microskills to start with, free
Five microskills that aren't in the book, for the situations you hit most. Yours when you sign up, so you've got something to use this week.
Each microskill takes ten minutes or less: three steps, a real example, and the mistakes to skip. The same format as all 100 in the book.
Free Microskill 1
The Manage-Up Map: Learn What Your Leader Needs From You
For when you can't tell what your manager actually wants from the project.
Free Microskill 2
The Clean No: Decline Without Sounding Difficult
For when the scope keeps growing and you can't keep saying yes.
Free Microskill 3
The Early Ally: Build Trust Before You Need Help
For when you only talk to stakeholders once something's already on fire.
Free Microskill 4
The Hard Heads-Up: Deliver Bad News Before It Blindsides People
For when you're sitting on a problem, hoping it resolves itself.
Free Microskill 5
The Delivery Block: Protect the Time to Get Your Real Work Done
For when your calendar gets filled up and your own work waits until after hours.
One Microskill in Action
In 2021, I was running a weekly review where the group kept reopening the same decision. Seven options were on the whiteboard, then eight after someone emailed one overnight. The sponsor had stopped asking where we'd landed, which meant they were about to decide without us. Three weeks of this.
That afternoon, I changed how I ran the meeting. We left with a shortlist, an owner for each open question, and a date we'd committed to deciding by. That's microskill 48. The five free microskills work the same way: a real situation, the specific thing to do, and the mistakes to skip.
Fourteen chapters.
One hundred Microskills.
The book organizes one hundred microskills into fourteen chapters that cover the whole project from the vague first request through the pressure of daily delivery.
- Turn vague work into a clear target
- Connect projects to strategy and results
- Align the team early
- Manage stakeholders and build support
- Build a plan the team can deliver
- Facilitate meetings that create momentum
- Drive decisions that stick
- Run governance and approvals with confidence
- Communicate so people act
- Keep execution moving forward
- Handle risks, issues, and change with clarity
- Protect quality and prevent rework
- Recover quickly when delivery slips
- Stay effective under pressure
What Project Managers are Saying
I kept thinking, "Okay, I can actually use this tomorrow." That’s rare for a project management book. It’s practical without making you feel like you need to become a different person to do the job well.
Josh McAlister
Project Manager
The best part is that the advice is small. Not shallow, small. It gives you something to try in the next meeting, the next status update, or the next awkward stakeholder conversation.
Arun Gupta
Project Coordinator
I’ve managed a lot of newer project managers, and this is the kind of book I’d hand them before they learn everything the hard way. It explains the skills that experienced project managers forget they had to learn themselves.
Rhonda Dunn
PMO Director
31 years of projects. 100 microskills.
Hi, I'm Steve Schmitz. I've spent 31 years running projects and PMOs, starting at Blockbuster while it was fighting Netflix for its life, later building the project office behind the largest state Health Insurance Exchange in the country. Those programs aren't why I wrote this book, though. I wrote it for the version of me who didn't know how to manage a project yet.
Early in my career, a senior project manager pulled me aside and taught me a few of these moves, starting with a question I'd skipped: what problem is this project actually solving? Most project managers never get that. So later, as I managed bigger projects and started coaching younger project managers, I wrote the moves down. All one hundred of them.
A lot of my projects are under a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA), so here's what I can say: the microskill that saves an $8M project weeks from go-live is the same one that saves your status meeting on Thursday. It's the same microskill, but with different stakes. This book is those moves, written down for you.
FAQs
When does the book come out?
Sometime in 2026; I'd rather get it right than get it out fast. The best way to know when it's available is to be on the list; I'll email you as soon as there's a date, and again when it's out.
What will I get if I sign up now?
Five microskills that aren't in the book, right away. After that, my monthly newsletter, The Next Move with one practical, ten-minute move each month, the kind this whole book is built on, plus a heads up when the book is close and when it launches.
Is this book for me?
If you're in your first few years as a project manager, handed the work before anyone showed you how, yes. It's written for exactly that spot: the situations you hit every week, with a specific move for each one. If you've been a project manager for more than 5 years, you'll probably find it more reminder than revelation.
What format will it be in?
Print and ebook. If you're on the list, you'll get the links the day each is available.
What's a "microskill," exactly?
A single, specific move you can do in ten minutes or less, not a framework or a methodology. Each one comes with three steps, an example from a real project, and the mistakes to skip. The book has one hundred; the five free ones show you exactly how they work, so you can decide for yourself before it's out.
Will you spam me?
No. You'll get the five bonus microskills, The Next Move about once a month, and the launch announcement when it comes. One-click unsubscribe anytime, though I'm hoping the moves earn their place in your inbox.
You don't need a framework.
You need the next move.
Start with five free microskills, The Next Move each month, and a heads up when the book is out.
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