PMTALES — Born in the Trenches
The Origin Story 

There’s a moment in every project manager’s life — a single, crystalline moment — when you realize the textbooks lied.

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For me, it didn’t happen during a crisis meeting or a missed milestone.
It happened at 7:42 a.m., in a boardroom that still smelled like burnt coffee, while a dozen senior leaders argued about a timeline none of them planned to follow.

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I remember sitting there thinking:

“This can’t be what project management is supposed to feel like.”

Yet it was.
And everyone in the room seemed disturbingly… used to it.

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That morning, as schedules bent like wet cardboard and responsibilities evaporated into the ether, something cracked open in me — not frustration, but clarity:

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Projects don’t fall apart because of processes.
They fall apart because of people.

The chaotic ones.
The brilliant ones.
The absent ones.
The ones who believe deadlines are decorative suggestions.

And suddenly I realized what no certification course had ever said out loud:

Project management isn’t about templates.
It’s about survival.

And it’s also absolutely hilarious… if you don’t cry first.

That was the spark.

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The Moment PMTales Was Born

I started writing small notes to myself — not logs, not minutes, but observations.
Moments. Scenes.
Little stories about the strange, unspoken realities of managing humans through complex work.

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Soon it became a ritual:

• capturing the politics behind a “quick ask,”

• the comedy of a stakeholder who materializes only to derail everything,

• the quiet heroism of PMs who save projects no one knows they saved.

These weren’t just anecdotes.
They were proof that project managers everywhere were living the same secret life.

A life no textbook wanted to acknowledge.

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And I thought:

“If we’re all silently surviving the same chaos…
why aren’t we talking about it?”

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Bridging Two Worlds — Logic and Humanity

For years, the PM world taught us to speak in charts and checklists —
but our real experiences were emotional, messy, dramatic, and deeply human.

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I wanted to build something that finally honored both sides:

• the craft of delivery,
  the rigor,
  the discipline…
  and also

• the absurdity,
  the humanity,
  the stories we whisper after the call ends

Not a blog.
Not another “Top 10 PM Tips” website.
But a narrative universe — a place where PMs could laugh, learn, and feel understood.

So I created PMTales.

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The Mission Behind the Madness

PMTales exists for one reason:

To give project managers a voice — a place where the truth is told, the chaos is acknowledged, and the humor is shared.

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Every story, every creature, every illustration, every template, every course and tool that will come in the future — it all flows from one belief:

Project management isn’t just a job.
It’s an adventure.
A battlefield.
A comedy.
A craft.

And no PM should walk through that alone.

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Where We’re Going

PMTales is evolving into a long-term creative ecosystem:

• narrative stories that reveal the hidden truths of delivery

• illustrated creatures born from real-world PM personalities

• tools + templates designed to make your daily survival easier

• courses that teach real PM skills through storytelling, not theory

• a community that finally says, “Yes — I’ve lived this too.”

This is not just content.
This is a world.

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A world for PMs who are done pretending the textbooks were enough.

A world for those still fighting in the Trench — and those who’ve already earned their scars.

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And If You’re Here…

Then maybe you’re one of us.

Maybe you’ve lived the chaos.
Maybe you’ve carried the project on your back.
Maybe you’ve smiled through the madness.

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If so, welcome.

PMTales is your story too.
And we’re just getting started.

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— D.B. Trench