Context
A five-figure, multi-workstream engagement: full branding, two marketing websites with development, and the concept, wireframes and UI design of a mobile application.
By the time it reached me, the project had already passed through two project managers. The client had experienced serious personal losses and had been largely unreachable for almost two months. Work was sitting finished but unapproved. Trust in the agency’s stability was, understandably, shaken.
This is the kind of project that quietly dies. My job was to make sure it didn’t.
The stakes
A stalled project burns from both ends. On the client side, every PM transition erodes confidence that anyone truly owns the work. On the agency side, a long-running project slowly loses its team to other priorities, and margin erodes as hours accumulate without progress to show for them.
The project was also structurally blocked: branding needed content the client hadn’t provided, feedback only really happened on calls, and written feedback was too thin to act on.
What I did
Ran a full audit before saying anything to the client. I went through every workstream, every unapproved deliverable and every open question, so that my first conversation as the new PM demonstrated command of the project, not a request for the client to re-explain it.
Rebuilt the rhythm around how the client actually worked. This client made decisions on calls, not in chat. So I stopped fighting that: structured agendas before every call, decisions clarified live, next steps confirmed verbally and then documented in writing afterwards. Every call ended with the project unambiguously unblocked.
Decoupled the workstreams. Branding was blocked on client content; the app design was not. I re-sequenced the work so the team kept producing on whatever could move, which meant that when the client re-engaged, he returned to visible progress instead of a stalled project.
Watched the margin. One workstream was consuming significantly more hours than planned. I introduced tighter hour monitoring, component reuse and structured user flows to keep quality high without letting the timeline overrun turn into a budget overrun.
Outcome
- Momentum re-established after a two-month communication gap
- Milestones reset, agreed and put back on track across all workstreams
- The client returned to a project that had visibly moved forward in his absence
- Margin protected on a long-running engagement that had every reason to lose it
- By the time I handed the project over, the design deliverables were essentially complete and ready for development handoff: branding, both landing pages, and the app design on track to finalization
What I’d do differently
I would formalize a client-absence protocol at kickoff on founder-led projects: what the team is authorized to proceed with, and what waits for approval. Founders disappear for real reasons. The project shouldn’t have to choose between stalling completely and guessing.