Season 2, Episode 8 — The Lessons

Brett Harned
Sprints & Milestones
3 min readAug 25, 2023

Season two comes to a close with a reflective episode that aims to answer, “Do we now have a better understanding of failure?”

Through reflection and a little bit of figjammin’ and synthesizing the stories and lessons, we discuss three perspectives on the topic:

1. Failure, and how we define it, is personal
2. Failure isn’t always apparent in the moment
3. We need to fail in order to evolve

Greg and Brett recollect stories from the season, provide some additional context and detail that’s not included in the episodes, share more stories and anecdotes of their own, and leave us wondering…do we need to learn more? Should we do another season of stories?

Give the final episode a listen, and reach out to us with your thoughts on failure, the podcast, and what you’d like to hear about in Season 3.

Episode highlights
[1:00] Failure is very personal
[3:00] Wait, was that even a failure?
[6:00] Failure isn’t always apparent in the moment
[10:00] We need to fail in order to evolve

About the program hosts —

Brett Harned is one of the founding voices of the growing digital project management community. He launched the Digital PM Summit in 2012, and over the past decade has since hosted and spoken to audiences globally. His first book Project Management for Humans was published in July 2017, and his podcastSprints and Milestones launched in April 2018. His wealth of successful online classes, a YouTube series, and numerous bylines further underscore his experience in digital PM consulting.

He applies his breadth of knowledge and experience to help clients solve complex challenges around people, process, and culture. Brett served as Vice President of Project Management at award-winning web design agency Happy Cog and as a senior PM at global digital agency Razorfish. As a project manager, strategist, and consultant, he’s led capital campaigns, managed enterprise website redesigns, and produced new iOS and Android products for Zappos, MTV, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Pfizer, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Harvard University.

Greg Storey brings a wealth of industry experience and wisdom to his work as a founder and leader gained through 25 years of experience in the industry. His work with agencies, medium-sized companies, and enterprise organizations like IBM, USAA, InVision, Stanford University, Sundance Film Festival, AMC Theatres, and BBVA Compass has given him a unique and valuable perspective on what makes design successful in a variety of conditions. He’s a willing collaborator ready to partner across teams and loves to break down silos and build people and teams. Greg is known for bringing unique perspectives to problems that help get teams unstuck.

Greg is an active leader in the digital community, providing leadership for Dribbble, Creative Mornings, and Amazing People Design List communities. In 2011, he co-founded the Bureau of Digital, a supportive community for studio owners, operators, design and project management leaders. He is the co-host of the podcast Sprints & Milestones and is a co-author of the book Remote Work for Design Teams. To date, Greg’s single best achievement is the direct mentorship and growth of hundreds of designers worldwide.

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Brett Harned
Sprints & Milestones

Strategist, facilitator, coach, and partner at Same Team. Author of Project Management for Humans.