Hi friends

It’s December 2024 and time for our annual letter. Time to look at what we achieved, what we didn’t achieve, and where we want to go in the future. I really can’t believe that it’s been a full year since my last letter.

Key Achievements in 2024:

How about we start on a positive. With some key achievements for 2024.

• We reached 750 email subscribers. This is a big one for me. Email growth has been slow but I am hoping we can get more project managers involved in our community in future.

• We launched on Substack. We were already on Medium, but Substack is a new challenge. What I like about it is the Notes feature. It allows me to write short-form insights in a way that feels more authentic than Twitter/X. If you like bite-sized, actionable information, be sure to check that out.

• We are on a fantastic Gumroad streak, releasing one product weekly for six months (25 products total). I’m super excited about that and we've received over 250 downloads of our free products. It’s super cool that project managers around the world are benefiting from these products.

Areas for Improvement:

This one makes me a bit sad. I failed to launch the Remote Project Management Mastery course due to logistical issues and insufficient urgency on my part. To be completely honest I think it has much to do with my own fears. I want to create a truly useful product and I spend way too much time worrying that it’s not perfect enough. I need to just hit that launch button.

To get over my fears we are going to launch two courses in 2025. Then just hold on for the ride. Hopefully you enjoy them and find them useful.

Goals for 2025:

• Grow to 7,000 followers across all social media platforms including our email list.

• Expand our email list to 1,500 engaged subscribers who regularly open, read, and interact with our content.

• Increase direct communication with our audience through face-to-face meetings and email interactions to gather faster feedback. I don’t think the slow feedback loop of social media is working for me.

• Launch two courses:

  1. Remote Project Management Course (Q1 2025)

  2. Mastering the Transition from Engineer to Project Manager Course (H1 2025) [Pre-sales are now open at a special price on Gumroad]

Platform Performance Insights:

• Instagram hasn't performed as well as expected. One day the algorithm just stopped showing our content to people. It really can be a challenge to work with social media.

• Substack has exceeded expectations. I love the Notes feature. Hopefully we can keep delivering value there.

• Medium continues to show strong performance. One article in particular is driving reads. It’s been read 12,500 times! It’s even on the front page of Google. You can read it here.

Key Learnings:

Growth often comes in unexpected bursts. For example, when someone shared our newsletter on Reddit, we gained 50 subscribers in just two days – a significant jump from our usual rate of one subscriber per day. Similarly, our article about Amazon's six-page memo system has gone viral on Medium with over 12,000 views, ranking on Google's first page and driving traffic to both Medium and our Gumroad store.

The second big thing I learnt is that people love a more personal writing style. We started off with very dry, factual, informational article. How to create a PMP. How to do a Risk Matrix etc. We still write those, but what people seem to love the most is personal stories and reflections on life, leadership and how to create success as a project manager. And by success I mean a wide ranging, happy life. So I plan to write more of that in 2025. I hope it helps many.

Looking Ahead:

For 2025, we aim to monetize our content while maintaining our commitment to quality. We are putting in much more money per month than we ever get out. Helping people is amazing but I would like to at least break even.

My enthusiasm hasn't diminished – if anything, it's grown stronger. I'm increasingly convinced that project managers don't need to be office-bound. We can work remotely or in hybrid settings, enjoying more freedom and flexibility in our lives.

I remain passionate about helping engineers transition into project management roles, as I see greater opportunities in this field compared to traditional engineering paths.

Thank you for being part of our journey in 2024, and I look forward to creating more valuable content for you in 2025.