Project management

Offer to run the project. Write down the decisions you will not make.

Independent project managers are hired when a cross-team effort has dates and no owner. The proposal should name the project, the cadence, and the risks you will surface rather than quietly absorb.

The project with dates and no owner

Name the project as the client names it internally. The shop fit-out. The data migration. The event. A proposal titled 'PMO support' will attract every stray task in the company. One named project, one end date, one sponsor.

Say how often you will put a status in front of that sponsor, and what the status is allowed to contain. Risks with owners. Decisions needed that week. Not a fifteen-line percent-complete chart that hides the late dependency.

Decisions you will not make for them

You will not choose the vendor, sign the change, or tell a director their scope no longer fits the date. You will show them that it does not fit, in time for them to choose. Write that, because sponsors often hire a project manager to avoid the choice.

Delivery of the technical work, the creative work, or the move itself is someone else's contract. You are running the plan. If they also want you to do the work, that is a second fee and a conflict you should refuse or price with your eyes open.