Episode 242 – When Lean Meets “Chunky”: Project Leadership in Big Enterprises

Large, established organizations—termed "Chunky Corporates"—demand a distinct approach to project management compared to lean startups, primarily due to increased oversight, budget scale, and siloed structures. Successful project management in these environments requires shifting focus from top-down bureaucracy to grassroots alignment, ensuring that leadership and technical teams share a common understanding of project constraints. Katie Tamblyn, author of *The Lean Agile Dilemma*, introduces "orienteering" as a hybrid methodology for re-platforming, where fixed milestones replace the fluid goals of agile startups. Central to this process is data integrity; project managers must prioritize cleaning and structuring legacy data before initiating software development to avoid significant delays. By fostering curiosity and maintaining transparency, project managers can navigate complex corporate systems, de-escalate potential conflicts, and deliver tangible business value despite the inherent challenges of large-scale organizational structures.