Tuesday Brief: It's easy to plan the messages you send to stakeholders and forget the ones that come back. This week, Dr. Mike Clayton lays out how to plan both, and Erik van Hurck shows what it looks like when an AI agent takes on part of the coordination by handing work to another agent. Wednesday’s live session with Keshav Puttaswamy picks up the question for teams made up of people and agents.
Featured Article: Stakeholder Engagement - Building a Plan for Good Stakeholder Communication
Stakeholders can make or break a project, and how you communicate with them has a lot to do with which way it goes. Dr. Mike Clayton lays out the three parts of a solid communication plan, from deciding what you want from each stakeholder group to preparing for the messages that come back unplanned. He also shares his “eight T’s” for planning any single message. Stakeholders may judge you more on those unscripted moments than on your scheduled updates, which makes this a useful warm-up for tomorrow’s session.
Read Article (8 minutes)
Resource Article: Two Project Manager Agent Features You Might Like
Microsoft MVP Erik van Hurck looks at what happens when one AI agent hands work to another. In his example, the agent taking notes in a meeting passes action items to the agent that builds the plan, and a person stays in the loop to review the results. He also reports where the agent still struggled when he tested it, which is handy to know before you lean on it.
Read Article (5 minutes)
Live Event (October 21): Coordinating Humans and AI Agents - The PM Role in a Hybrid Team
Keshav Puttaswamy, CPO of Empwr and a product leader with 17 years on Microsoft Project, looks at how a PM’s core jobs stretch when the team includes both people and AI agents. The session ends with a live look at how his team coordinates humans and agents day to day, followed by Q&A.
What You’ll Learn:
- Why late-surfacing problems, stalled decisions, and coordination that can’t keep pace get worse when agents join the team
- How staying connected, keeping the plan current, and communicating to drive action change on a hybrid team
- How to design project communication that keeps people and agents informed, with high signal and low noise
- Which routine PM work AI can take on, such as notes, status collection, and early risk flags, so you have more time for judgment
🗓️ Wednesday, October 21
🕛 12:00pm - 1:00pm ET
📍 Live on Zoom
🏅 1 PMI PDU: 0.25 Ways of Working, 0.25 Power Skills, 0.50 Business Acumen
Learn More + Register Here
MPUG members get live access and replays. Not a member yet? Join today.
Upcoming Live Events
MPUG hosts live events with leading experts on Wednesdays from 12:00 - 1:00 PM ET. Members get live access and replays.
10/21: Coordinating Humans and AI Agents: The PM Role in a Hybrid Team | Learn More + Register Here
10/28: Atlassian Team ‘26 Amsterdam Recap: What’s New in the Atlassian Ecosystem | Learn More + Register Here
12/2: Upskilling Project Leadership: Building the Capabilities to Lead What’s Next | Learn More + Register Here
View Our Upcoming Event Schedule
PM Best Practice: Plan for the Messages You Didn’t Send
Decide in advance how incoming messages will be handled. At a minimum, log each call and email, make sure the right person receives it, and record the response. For your most important stakeholders, name a first point of contact and an alternate for when that person is out.
Make your inbound message plan this week!
