The Digital Project Manager

What’s Coming Up for The Digital Project Manager and The DPM Podcast

• Galen Low - The Digital Project Manager

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Can playing The Sims help people build career skills? For Kelsey Alpaio, Executive Editor of The Digital Project Manager and new co-host of the DPM Podcast, the answer is yes. In this episode, we introduce Kelsey and discuss how she’s bringing fresh perspectives on industry trends, career navigation, and professional growth to the DPM community.

Host Galen Low gives listeners a sneak peek into the exciting new directions for the podcast and beyond. From career storytelling to industry insights, get ready for a revamped DPM experience with Kelsey on board!

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Galen Low:

Is it possible to help people build career skills just by live streaming yourself playing The Sims? That's just another day of professional education, human storytelling, and community building for The Digital Project Manager's Executive Editor and new co-host of the DPM Podcast, Kelsey Alpaio. Kelsey and I are going to be collaborating on this podcast and other areas within our community to deliver a breadth of perspectives on everything from emerging trends and industry gossip to how people are finding their way through their career journeys when all the usual maps are old and obsolete. Ready to meet Kelsey? Hey folks, thanks for tuning in. My name is Galen Low with The Digital Project Manager. We're a community of digital professionals on a mission to help each other get skilled, get confident, and get connected so that we can amplify the value of project management in a digital world. If you want to hear more about that, head on over to thedpm.com/membership. All right, today I wanted to introduce the new co-host of The Digital Project Management podcast and give you the inside track on some of the spicy plans she's devising for The Digital Project Manager. With me in the studio today is Kelsey Alpaio, Executive Editor of The Digital Project Manager and my soon to be partner in crime for this podcast, in addition to a slew of new DPM programming we have on deck. Kelsey, thanks for being here today.

Kelsey Alpaio:

Thank you for having me.

Galen Low:

I'm super excited. I'm going to get into it a little bit about what you've been doing with The Digital Project Manager, but can I just say, I'm excited to have you be a co-host on the podcast. We'll talk about what's going to happen, but I just think that, it's 2025. We want to get as many different perspectives as we can from the digital project management world. We want to talk about the industry. There's so much going on. There's so many people to talk to and I appreciate the help.

Kelsey Alpaio:

Yeah, absolutely. No, I'm super excited to dive in here.

Galen Low:

I thought maybe I would just start with one hot, spicy question, which is Who the heck are you and what are you passionate about? And why should anyone listen to what you have to say? No pressure.

Kelsey Alpaio:

Oh my gosh. Yeah. Very hot question. You did already a great job of introducing me. So I'll dive right into what I'm passionate about. I think in the context, at least of what we're talking about here, I'm passionate about lots of different things, but when it comes to DPM and the work that we do, I think the thing that probably drives me the most is this idea that I don't think anyone should be miserable at work. Which is not by any means a new idea, like the bar is on the floor pretty much. But I just think that people should enjoy the work that they do. We spend so much of our lives at work, so much of our time thinking about our careers, how we want to build them and grow them. And I've found a lot of joy in making things that help people do that and help them navigate their careers and navigate that really confusing and sometimes like lonely world of work. And yeah, I hope to keep doing that here. And I think the reason why people should listen to me and be there for it is because I've spent most of my career doing just that, finding people telling their stories and helping others navigate that really confusing world of work.

Galen Low:

I love that. And you know what? It sometimes needs to be said because I think it gets taken for granted. It's like having a bad mattress. I think there's like multiple generations of humans who are like, I guess that's just how it is. Meanwhile, you spend so much of your life on it. And you're like, wait, this can be good. I can get a Sealy Posturepedic.

Kelsey Alpaio:

Exactly.

Galen Low:

I can be a different temperature on one side of the bed than the other. This is amazing. And I think we do that with work so much. We're like work, by definition is hard and miserable and like it's a slog, and I love that idea that doesn't have to be. And by the way, even in our like project management community, especially in the DPM community, we see this so much where it's okay, yes, this is just the way it is, like unreasonable timelines and, client requests that we have to say yes to, even if they are absolutely silly and we just accept it, but yeah, I love this idea that, everyone has their story of how they're navigating and that helps other people navigate their careers as well.

Kelsey Alpaio:

Exactly. Yeah. And there's always gonna be parts of work that are hard. Every job has its downsides, but there are also things that like you do have more control of than you think. And yeah, I like finding those things and helping people find those things in their jobs and their careers too.

Galen Low:

I thought maybe we could zoom out a bit after my spicy question, I mentioned it at the top, but you've actually been the senior editor for The Digital Project Manager for almost a year. You write the DPM weekly newsletter, which goes out to, I believe somewhere between 12 I've lost track.

Kelsey Alpaio:

Yeah, I think around 20, 000 now.

Galen Low:

Boom. And you actually are the person who's been setting the editorial strategy for thedpm.com as a publication, working with our subject matter experts and our contributors to create just like meaningful, down to earth, accessible content. But I thought maybe I'd go a little bit further back and ask you what were you doing before your life here at The Digital Project Manager? And how has it played into your perspective on the world of digital project management?

Kelsey Alpaio:

Yeah, so my origin story.

Galen Low:

Your origin story, yes.

Kelsey Alpaio:

I'll go a little bit further back than my last role because I think it does lead into it, but my first job out of college was actually at a media startup. And my role was to cover the innovation teams of Fortune 500 companies. So I essentially spent all day interviewing executives in these large companies about their innovation projects, their innovation teams. the new and interesting projects that they were working on. And in that role, I pretty much spent every day being super jealous of these people. Like, all I wanted in the world was to be one of them and to do the cool and different and weird things that they were doing. So when it came time to leave that job, I really wanted to join an innovation team and get that experience. And so I was lucky enough to be able to join the Innovation Lab at Harvard Business Publishing. And in that role, I spent a lot of time experimenting with different content formats and platforms, all with the goal of creating new audiences for the publication. So we experimented with everything from AR and VR to generative AI. I even streamed on Twitch for six months, which is super weird and was like the funnest I ever had at work. Our goal there was to like figure out if we belonged on the Twitch platform, which We did not, but it was really fun and gave me a lot of good experience about, leading a digital project and exploring a platform and figuring out how you actually, get from point A to point B to make that decision. And with that role, when it came time to move on, I knew that I wanted to continue creating things. that helped people at work. And when I found an organization, BWZ, that has this mission of helping people win at work, and then more specifically, the DPM, like wanting to help people in this really hard and complicated role, like I was immediately drawn to that. And I think that experience as well on that innovation team helped me better understand like what it actually means to lead a digital project. And like in my first six months here, I feel like every day I was like, Oh my gosh, that's the name of the methodology or the strategy that I used on XYZ project. And I just didn't know the name of it. I didn't realize that I had A little bit fallen into that PM role as it happens so often in this niche, but yeah.

Galen Low:

I love the sort of innovation angle. I love that sort of idea that, our brand, The Digital Project Manager, we need to more vocally recognize that there's lots of people managing projects who don't have a project manager title.

Kelsey Alpaio:

Absolutely.

Galen Low:

And, I'm excited to dive into some of those stories as well. The Twitch thing, you and I, we were talking in the green room. Is this the Sims thing?

Kelsey Alpaio:

Yes. Yeah. So I played The Sims on Twitch once a week for about. Two to three hours, and this was, yeah, so Sims 4, if you're not familiar with the Sims 4, it is a simulation game where you play as a person and you interact with other people in the world, and there's like a specific expansion pack for this game where you go to work with your Sim. And so my Sim was a scientist and I went to work with her every day and you could do things like ask your co workers about their salary, you could hire new people, you could fire people, you could have a meeting with your boss, and so basically for these like two to three hours I was live streaming, I was basically following this Sim to work and at the same time talking about the things that she was doing and the lessons that could be learned from that for the people who were tuning in and watching. And this was specifically for early career professionals, so we could be a little bit yeah, talk about those early career challenges that you might face. But yeah, The Sims was the backdrop for that. It was a lot of fun. I also love The Sims in real life, so this was like a dream for me. You do not understand.

Galen Low:

Is there like a project manager job role in this work expansion pack?

Kelsey Alpaio:

I don't think so. I believe you can be like a businessman or something, or a doctor, or a vet. You can also be an entrepreneur, like you could run your own bakery or something like that, but yeah, I chose scientists because The Sims is such a weird universe aliens exist, like, all of these weird elements that they made up exist. It's such an interesting game.

Galen Low:

I love that. Taking it back down to the studs, I love that idea of early career practice, where it's I'm hearing a lot from the younger generations that, Their world of work is different than every previous generation's world of work and like some of the things like, the water cooler talk or the sort of organic, in office networking or finding a mentor, things like that are just not things that either A are the same or B they feel prepared to do, because maybe they spent most of college like, Remote, actually, or, they've never met their colleagues in person. They're working for a distributed company. And just that notion of being able to be like, cool let's talk about some of the conversations you have with people at work. Yeah. And how you can navigate your career and just like etiquette, and also maybe aliens and new elements

Kelsey Alpaio:

yeah, what to do when you encounter an alien at work.

Galen Low:

We might not be that far away from that.

Kelsey Alpaio:

Maybe not. Yeah.

Galen Low:

Oh, actually probably a good segue. So I mentioned it at the top, but in just a few weeks, you'll be stepping in as the co-host of this podcast, the digital project management podcast, so maybe you could just tell us like what kind of guests you'll be talking to, what kind of topics are you going to be covering?

Kelsey Alpaio:

Yes, so I'm super excited about this. And just in case anybody out there is nervous, Galen, you are not going anywhere. You will still be on the podcast. It would not be the same without you. But yeah, I'm excited to be stepping in to take over the conversations that we're having about PM careers. So everything from the job market to layoffs to promotions to freelancing, like you name it, we're going to tackle it. But also things like industry trends, we'll talk about upskilling pretty much All of the things that will hopefully help our listeners continue to win in their PM roles. And so in terms of guests, we're looking at PM experts, practitioners, recruiters, people who will be able to give advice that will help all of you grow in your careers and people who themselves have really great career stories to tell.

Galen Low:

Boom. I love that. I like that you mentioned recruiter. I think that's really clever. Just like seeing the role from the other side as well, I think is really important. And the big thing that I'm picking up that I love is like the storytelling, there's all these stories to be told about, projects, leaders and their journey and also other industry folks and their journey. And how it all stitches together into this ecosystem. That is our industry and where it's headed.

Kelsey Alpaio:

Yes, exactly.

Galen Low:

That's super exciting. I love it. And for folks, yeah, I'm not going anywhere. Sorry. But when can people tune into your episodes just in case they want it to safely avoid mine?

Kelsey Alpaio:

Oh my gosh, they'd be doing themselves a huge disservice. But yeah, we'll be publishing every other week in the main DPM podcast feed, so you'll be able to find us wherever you're finding us right now.

Galen Low:

Boom. And Punchy, long winded like Galen, or?

Kelsey Alpaio:

No, we're going to be going for pretty short episodes. We want to get that advice out there and get you on your way.

Galen Low:

Love it. You're someone who is very community oriented, you're an innovator. If folks have ideas of like topics to cover or people to have on your show, how can they get in touch with you? How can they get these ideas to you?

Kelsey Alpaio:

Yes, please. I would love to hear everybody's ideas. You can reach out to me on LinkedIn. I'm the only Kelsey Alpaio out there. So if you search me, you will find me. And otherwise, if you do subscribe to the DPM newsletter, that comes directly from my personal email address. So if you reply to that, I actually get it directly into my inbox. So also feel free to email me. And yeah, I would just love to hear from anyone, whether you have an idea, whether you want to be on the podcast, yeah, shoot me an email. Send me a message on LinkedIn. I'd love to connect.

Galen Low:

Boom. Love that. I'll link that in the show notes as well. You are the only Kelsey Alpaio.

Kelsey Alpaio:

I am.

Galen Low:

I actually found there's another Galen Low. And I was like, Oh man, I got to connect with with my other on LinkedIn.

Kelsey Alpaio:

You should create a club.

Galen Low:

You did mention the DPM newsletter. I wanted to maybe just close out with a silly question, but even a personal curiosity. You send every week and folks who are familiar with the newsletter will know that you also make a song recommendation every week.

Kelsey Alpaio:

Yes.

Galen Low:

And I wondered, can you just level with us? Do you pick all the tunes? What is your process? And even regardless of all of that, what is your musical genre of choice?

Kelsey Alpaio:

Oh my goodness. Okay. So you're definitely calling me out a little bit here. So I have been sending the newsletter for about six months now, and I will be honest, most of last year when I was sending it out, I was not picking the song because I would get to the end of the newsletter and I'd be like, Oh my gosh, I just wrote this whole newsletter. And now I have to go find a song that I think everyone's going to like. And what if they judge me for my music taste? So most of the time it was our editor, Nula, and our marketing person, Jason, who were picking the songs and they did a great job. They have excellent music taste, but I was feeling bad about about not picking the songs. So I decided as of January 1st this year, I would pick all of the songs. So if you have been getting the newsletter over the last few weeks, or if you subscribe, that song will be one of my choosing. I will say choosing the song is actually one of the most stressful parts of the newsletter. Like I go through three or four. And so what I started to do recently over the last two weeks, like I've only been doing it for four weeks. And then. After two weeks, I was like, this is too much. So for the last couple of weeks, I've just been like putting whatever song is playing while I'm doing that part of the newsletter, that's going in the newsletter. So we're trying to streamline things here, trying to get more done. But yeah, that way too, it's like actually something I'm listening to. And then, it's a personal relation to me. But I will say in terms of genre, most of the time, it's like indie rock. I really like 80s pop music or like sad girl music, like Phoebe Bridgers, that kind of thing. But yeah, it's across the board a little bit. But yeah, what about you, Galen? Do you have a genre that you like?

Galen Low:

Oh, there's a lot of like Canadian punk and screamo that I don't really tell people that I listen to, but yeah, I actually have quite aggressive music taste and darker German bass. So yeah, I was never allowed to do the song pick when I was sending a newsletter.

Kelsey Alpaio:

I was going to offer a guest spot for you, but now I'm questioning it. I might not be able to, if I do, it's going to have your name on it.

Galen Low:

You do get a really good response. So people actually like reply and they're like, you know what? That jam helped me through my week and music is obviously part of your process. I think it's really good. And we did actually, I think last year. We published a Spotify playlist, which was the DPM 2024 playlist, all the recommendations, all, 50 odd recommendations from the newsletter and probably more. And I look forward to this year's Kelsey Alpaio 2025 DPM Spotify playlist. So stay tuned for that.

Kelsey Alpaio:

Stay tuned.

Galen Low:

Anything else exciting outside of the podcast that's on deck for the DPM that you wanted to tease?

Kelsey Alpaio:

Yes. So most of our listeners have probably heard about our Salary Survey for 2025, but the results of that are going to be coming out shortly. So definitely keep an eye out on your inbox and on our website for that. That's going to be a big deal.

Galen Low:

Love that one. And honestly, like it's always a topic of conversation. Ties into what you're talking about with career. The ranges of compensation are very wide and varied for project manager roles. And we had some really good I've seen the participation just really arc. Sue has some really good data. I'm excited about that.

Kelsey Alpaio:

Me too. Yeah. I love all things salary transparency. That's a topic I could talk about forever.

Galen Low:

Boom. Awesome. We'll have you back on my show. I love that. I'm really excited what you're bringing to the table. I'm excited to have some of the conversations that you've got planned coming through this podcast. And I'm excited to have you more involved in the community.

Kelsey Alpaio:

Me too.

Galen Low:

Yeah, I think it's going to be great.

Kelsey Alpaio:

Shared excitement.

Galen Low:

There you go. All right folks, there you have it. As always, if you'd like to join our conversation with over a thousand like-minded project management champions, come join our collective! Head over to thedpm.com/membership to learn more. And if you like what you heard today, please subscribe and stay in touch on thedigitalprojectmanager.com. Until next time, thanks for listening.