Lesson 2 — Projects vs. Processes: Managing the Boundary¶
1. The Core Distinction¶
As a Project Coordinator, you will constantly look at a list of tasks. If you cannot immediately tell the difference between a project and a process, you will mismanage your timeline, over-allocate consultants, and lose control of the budget.
A Process: "Over and over and over again."¶
A process is a repeatable, ongoing loop of work. It has no fixed expiration date.
"Find a new lead. That is not a project. Because you're just constantly going in and finding more leads. When are you done finding more leads? When everybody has enough leads... And then they run out. So you need to go get them more leads."
— David Russell
Other examples of processes: generating a kickoff deck, logging time in PSA, updating Asana with meeting notes. These are established steps you follow the same way every time.
A Project: "What will you accomplish, and when?"¶
A project is a unique, bounded effort. It has two strict guardrails:
- Defined scope — what is included (and what is not)
- Defined timeline — a target completion date
"What will you accomplish, and when do you expect to be done? When you know those two, you are now in a project, and you are now doing a different type of management."
— David Russell
The Intersect
Processes can be parts of a project. Creating buyer personas is a repeatable process — we know how to do it, we have a template, we follow the same steps. But in the context of an engagement, you are doing it for this specific client with a specific deadline. Once you deliver it, that project step is done. The process does not end; it just ends for them, that time.
2. Acting on a Hypothesis¶
In the PE consulting world, our projects are tricky because we are rarely handed a complete set of instructions. Clients hire us because they have an organizational pain — but they usually do not know the true cause.
"We act on a hypothesis. Generally, we don't have enough information when the client knocks on our door and they say, 'Hey, my knee hurts.' Then we say, 'Okay, I'll give you a new bionic knee for $79.95.' Fantastic. We do the bionic knee. They realized, oh actually, the problem is my calf, not my knee. Well, you have a new bionic knee. Congratulations. But you didn't solve my problem."
— David Russell
This happens. A due diligence surfaces a hypothesis — the sales compensation structure is why reps are sandbagging — and we build a project around fixing it. Halfway through, we learn the actual problem is that the product does not serve the ICP. We fixed a thing. We did not fix the pain.
As a Project Coordinator, your job is to track whether the project is still pointed at the real problem. If the engagement team's work is drifting away from what the PE firm actually cares about, that is a risk worth raising early.
The same thing happens mid-hold. The PE firm's initial deal thesis gets updated as they spend time inside the business. Sometimes they discover something nobody caught during diligence:
"You walk in, you do your thing. Now it's a few years later and you've learned — oh by the way, that one thing we thought was fine — well, actually it's full of termites. There's nothing you can do to unsee that. We have to have somebody come in and handle the termites. I didn't know it. The initial assessment didn't do it, but I know damn well I can't sell it with the termites."
— David Russell
This is why Cortado gets called back for work that was never in the original scope. The termites were always there — they just were not found until later. When that happens, a new project spins up around a problem nobody anticipated, with a timeline the PE firm considers urgent because it threatens the exit. The Project Coordinator on that project needs to understand that the urgency is not irrational — it is the sound of a 3-to-5-year timer running.
3. The Risk-Loaded Estimate (The Tree Root Principle)¶
Because we operate on hypotheses and surprises are inevitable, Cortado does not give bare-bones, best-case-scenario timelines. We sell fixed-bid estimates that account for the real world.
Here is the principle David uses:
"You give them an estimate that bakes in the risk... We think bare bones, everything perfect, this will cost $1,000 to do. Reality — it's never perfect. So we agree that if we have to trench out roots, we will do that for one tree. It's in the contract. If we find three trees, we say, 'Hmm, not what I thought. More effort.'"
— David Russell
The Tree Root Principle in practice:
| Scenario | What It Means |
|---|---|
| Perfect world estimate | Bare minimum — no surprises, no complications |
| Risk-loaded estimate | Accounts for one tree's worth of roots. This is what we sell. |
| Three trees discovered | That is outside the scope we agreed to. We document it and bring it to the PM or account lead immediately. |
The Project Coordinator's Role in Scope Management
You are not the one who decides whether extra scope gets absorbed or billed. That is the PM and account lead's call. Your job is to notice when work is happening outside what was contracted and surface it immediately — not after the fact.
4. The "Too Long / Too Costly" Trap¶
One of the most counterintuitive things about Cortado's project work: we consistently underestimate timelines. The account leads who sell the work want to win the deal, so they make projects sound faster and cheaper than they are. The consultants then have to meet a deadline that was never realistic.
The ripple effect: the project scheduled immediately after is now competing for a consultant who should have rolled off the previous engagement. In a virtual organization, people get double-booked without anyone noticing until a consultant is working until midnight on two engagements simultaneously.
This is why keeping projects on schedule is not just a client-satisfaction issue. It protects our consultants.
5. When Over-Delivery Is a Good Thing¶
There are times when our consultants have bandwidth — a project that estimated more time than it actually needed, or a gap between deliverables. In those moments, over-delivering is exactly right.
"We say, we will do five personas. And you know what? What really made sense? We needed a sixth. So we did it. Wow — you have over-delivered."
— David Russell
The framing David uses is "at least":
"There's a key word in there — 'at least.' Like, I will at least not kill the neighbors... It is not a goal. It is the absolute bare minimum. When they say you should have at least three citations, have five."
— David Russell
When the consultants have room to do a sixth persona and it genuinely adds value, do it and make sure the client knows we did it. Over-delivering silently is the same as not over-delivering. More on that in Lesson 3.
Knowledge Check¶
Scenario
Cortado is hired to run a project to align a PortCo's sales territories. Two weeks in, the client asks your consultant if they can "quickly" also look over the sales team's commission structure and draft a new compensation plan — since "you're already looking at the territories anyway."
- Is analyzing a compensation plan a process or a scope change to the project?
- Based on the Tree Root Principle, how should you handle this as a Project Coordinator — rather than just letting the consultant quietly add it to their to-do list?
Discussion guide
1. Process or scope change? It is a scope change — a new, bounded deliverable with its own requirements, timeline, and expertise needs. The fact that it is "related" to territory design does not make it a sub-task of the contracted work. Compensation plan design is a distinct project that could stand alone.
2. How to handle it per the Tree Root Principle: Do not let the consultant quietly absorb it. Document the request in writing the same day — in Asana and a brief email summary. Bring it to the PM/account lead immediately with a clear question: "The client has requested we also analyze and draft a new compensation structure. This appears outside the contracted scope. Should we absorb it, propose a change order, or stay focused on territories?" The decision is not yours to make — but surfacing it within hours is 100% your responsibility. A consultant who quietly starts the extra work is creating a risk the PM cannot see and cannot manage.
Continue to Lesson 3 — Perception and Client Politics