Fractional project management for small teams who need someone dedicated to the timelines, the status updates, and the tool that is supposed to be tracking it all.
What I take off your plate
Two ways in
Most agencies between five and fifteen people don't need to hire a project manager. They need one project set up right, and then somebody to keep it that way.
One project, properly set up.
Founding rate for the first three clients, then $450 flat. Delivered in 5 business days.
A project manager on your team, part time.
20 hours at $75/hour. Month to month, cancel anytime.
Proof
A seven-person branding and web studio running 8 to 12 projects at once, with status spread across client emails, a Slack channel, and personal notebooks. This sample engagement shows the tracker, the onboarding process, the weekly update, and the risk log a Project Reset produces.
About
For seventeen years I have run work that comes with fixed dates and a lot of people attached to it, first in advertising, then leading K-12 science programs in three countries. I bring that same discipline to small teams now, so the schedule stops living in somebody's head.
Send me the project that is worrying you. I will tell you what I would do with it, whether or not you hire me.
Tell me about your projectWork
Two are sample engagements I built to show the system in full. The third is a real project of my own, documented the way I document client work.
A seven-person branding and web studio where project status lived in email, Slack, and notebooks, and a buried revision request pushed a launch past its promised date.
A community nonprofit run by two part-time staff and about 40 volunteers, coordinated through group texts, a paper sign-up sheet, and one person's memory.
My own international relocation, which lost its diploma, blew past its start date, and had to be rebuilt around a new critical path. Every artifact a project manager is expected to produce.
Sample project
Bloom & Co. Creative, a seven-person branding and web design studio.
Sample project: an illustrative engagement built to show my process, not a client engagement. Bloom & Co. Creative is invented, and so are its clients, projects, and figures.
In this sample, Bloom & Co. Creative is a 7-person branding and web design studio serving small business clients, typically running 8 to 12 concurrent projects at any given time. The engagement brings structure to the studio's day-to-day operations without changing how the creative team actually works.
Project information lived in three different places: client emails, a shared Slack channel, and individual designers' personal notebooks. There was no single source of truth for where any given project actually stood.
Deadlines were tracked informally, and it wasn't always clear who owned the next step on a task, a revision request, a client approval, a final sign-off. The founder fielded status questions from clients and teammates at all hours, and a revision request buried in an email thread once let a website launch slip past its promised date.
| Client | Project | Stage | Owner | Next action | Due | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harborline Realty | Brand Refresh | Concept | Creative Lead | Present initial concepts to client | Sep 24 | At risk |
| Maple & Vine Cafe | Website Redesign | Revisions | Creative Lead | Incorporate round 2 revision notes | Sep 27 | On track |
| Bright Horizon Dental | Logo & Brand Guide | Client Review | Account Lead | Awaiting client sign-off on final logo | Sep 21 | Overdue |
| Union Street Bakery | Social Campaign | Intake | Project Coordinator | Schedule kickoff call | Sep 23 | At risk |
| Fieldstone Law Group | Website Redesign | Final Delivery | Project Coordinator | Send completion checklist | Sep 29 | On track |
| Harborline Realty | Listing Photography Site | Concept | Creative Lead | Internal concept review | Sep 25 | At risk |
| Coastal Kids Dentistry | Brand Refresh | Revisions | Creative Lead | Second revision round due | Sep 20 | Overdue |
| Maple & Vine Cafe | Menu Design | Intake | Project Coordinator | Create tracker entry | Oct 2 | On track |
Every engagement runs through the same five stages, with one named owner at each handoff.
Welcome email with a scope summary and key contacts. Kickoff call within 3 business days of contract signing. Project folder and tracker entry created with client, scope, key dates, and team.
Creative Lead owns concept development, with an internal check-in at day 5 before anything goes to the client. Concept assets logged in the shared drive with version-numbered file names.
Concepts presented on a scheduled call rather than by email alone. Revision requests logged in the tracker within 24 hours. Revision rounds capped per contract, with anything beyond scope flagged to the Account Lead first.
Written client sign-off before final assets go out. Files delivered with a completion checklist. Project folder archived and tracker entry closed within 5 business days of delivery.
A brief client satisfaction check-in and a 15-minute internal retrospective: what worked, and what to adjust next time.
| Role | Responsibility |
|---|---|
| Account Lead | Owns the client relationship, with final approval on scope changes and revision requests beyond contract terms. |
| Creative Lead | Owns concept development and design execution through each round of revisions. |
| Project Coordinator (KerschenWorks) | Owns the tracker, deadline visibility, and handoffs between every stage of the process. |
| ID | Project | Risk | Likelihood | Impact | Owner | Response | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R1 | Bright Horizon Dental | Client sign-off on the final logo is overdue, putting the brand guide delivery date at risk. | High | Medium | Account Lead | Follow-up call scheduled. If no sign-off by Sep 25, reset the delivery date in writing with the client. | Open |
| R2 | Coastal Kids Dentistry | Revision requests are past the contract cap, which erodes margin and delays other work. | High | Medium | Account Lead | Flagged to Account Lead. Decide whether to hold the cap or issue a change request for the extra round. | Open |
| R3 | Maple & Vine Cafe | The client's request for a warmer palette mid-revision could trigger additional rounds. | Medium | Medium | Creative Lead | Confirm the palette direction in writing before round 2 notes are applied. | Mitigating |
| R4 | Harborline Realty | Two projects for one client have concept dates one day apart, both owned by the same designer. | Medium | High | Project Coordinator | Move the listing site internal review to Sep 28, or present both concepts together on Sep 24. | Open |
| R5 | All projects | The Creative Lead owns the next action on 4 of 8 active projects, so one absence would stall half the studio's work. | Medium | High | Account Lead | Name a backup for each project at kickoff and review workload weekly in the status update. | Open |
Overall: Watch. Eight active projects: 3 on track, 3 at risk, 2 overdue. Both overdue items are waiting on a client or a scope decision, not on production work.
Sample project
Willow Creek Family Resource Center, a community nonprofit with two part-time staff.
Sample project: an illustrative engagement built to show my process, not a client engagement. Willow Creek Family Resource Center is invented, and so are its volunteers, programs, grants, and figures.
In this sample, Willow Creek runs a food pantry, a weekend tutoring program, and seasonal volunteer drives, supported by two part-time staff and a rotating roster of roughly 40 volunteers. The engagement brings visibility and consistency to operations without adding complexity a small team cannot sustain.
Volunteer coordination lived almost entirely in the program director's head and a series of group text threads. Shift sign-ups, supply orders, and grant reporting deadlines were tracked across whatever tool happened to be open at the time: a paper sign-up sheet, a shared spreadsheet nobody remembered to update, or a sticky note on the office door.
A grant report deadline was nearly missed when the person responsible for compiling program outcome data assumed someone else was handling it. Volunteer no-shows were common because reminder communication was inconsistent, and new volunteers often received a different onboarding experience depending on who happened to train them.
| Volunteer | Program area | Shift | Onboarded | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maria Alvarez | Food Pantry | Sep 23 | Yes | Confirm now | Regular Saturday volunteer |
| Devon Price | Tutoring | Sep 25 | Yes | Scheduled | |
| Sam Okafor | Food Pantry | Sep 21 | No | Needs onboarding | First shift, onboarding pending |
| Lena Whitfield | Event Support | Sep 30 | Yes | Scheduled | Fall drive setup |
| Devon Price | Tutoring | Oct 2 | Yes | Scheduled | |
| Sam Okafor | Food Pantry | Sep 24 | No | Needs onboarding | Onboarding scheduled before this shift |
| Maria Alvarez | Food Pantry | Sep 30 | Yes | Scheduled |
Every reminder has a trigger, a time, a channel, and one named owner, so a shift or a report never depends on someone remembering it.
Shifts go into the tracker and volunteers are told they can sign up. Owner: Project Coordinator.
If onboarding still shows No, the Volunteer Lead schedules orientation before the shift.
A text asks the volunteer to confirm. No reply by the next morning triggers a call. Owner: Project Coordinator.
Arrival time, location, and who to ask for.
The gap is flagged in the tracker and coverage is adjusted the same day. Owner: Volunteer Lead.
Volunteer hours and program outcomes are logged weekly. On the first business day of the month, the monthly report is drafted from the tracker for the program director to review.
| Report | Funder due | Internal due | Data source | Owner | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Regional Food Bank Network: Q3 distribution report | Oct 15 | Oct 8 | Pantry shifts and outcomes in the tracker | Program Director | In progress |
| Community Foundation: annual impact report | Nov 15 | Nov 8 | Volunteer hours and program outcomes, all programs | Program Director | Upcoming |
| State literacy grant: interim tutoring report | Dec 1 | Nov 24 | Tutoring shifts and learner outcomes in the tracker | Volunteer Lead | Upcoming |
This engagement's risks sit in the operating documents rather than a separate log, because each one is handled by a standing rule:
Real project
An international relocation that lost its diploma, blew past its start date, and had to be rebuilt around a new critical path.
This one is mine. Moving from Cairo to Shenzhen for a new school year meant a visa process with a dozen dependencies, a dog with her own paperwork, and a start date set by someone else. I ran it as a real project and documented it the way I document client work, which makes it the clearest picture of how I handle a plan that breaks.
Visa paperwork started in February 2023 for an August start. The long pole was known from the beginning: a diploma had to travel to Washington, DC for an apostille, estimated at six to eight weeks. Everything else, the background check, the health report, the flights, the dog's health certificate and titer test, had to sequence around it.
Then the plan broke. The diploma was rejected over a state stamp requirement that changed mid-process, which made the start date impossible. The background check had to be redone three times, and the final version turned out to be worthless once I was no longer resident in the country that issued it.
Visa documentation begins: background check, diploma, passport photos, health report, and contract copy, sequenced around a six to eight week apostille.
The diploma is rejected over a stamp requirement that changed while it was in process. The August start date is no longer reachable.
I fly to the US, since the Egyptian visa is expiring and China is not yet reachable. The move is rebuilt around documents that can be obtained from there.
A different diploma, printed in-house and stamped by the state in about ten days, replaces the one stuck in a three-month queue. A new background check is issued where I now live, and both go through the apostille process.
Four suitcases, one dog, a health check, a residency application, and a dog registration on the other side.
| What happened | Effect on the plan | Response |
|---|---|---|
| Diploma rejected over a changed stamp requirement | The critical path snapped and the start date became unreachable. | Replanned around a different qualifying diploma that could be issued and stamped in about ten days rather than three months. |
| Background check redone three times | Five weeks lost to a translation requirement nobody stated up front, then a rejection over an uncertified translator and a mistyped passport number. | Treated the document as its own workstream with its own checks, then replaced it entirely once residency changed the requirement. |
| Dog's titer test could not be processed in country | A hidden dependency with a long turnaround sat on the pet travel path. | Sent the sample abroad and sequenced the health certificate and flight booking behind it. |
| Only one airline allowed a dog in cabin on the route | Pet space could not be reserved until my own ticket was booked, and availability was limited. | Ordered the bookings explicitly, mine first, and kept a carrier and baggage contingency for the day of travel. |
This is the full documentation set a project of this size produces, and it is the same shape I build for client work: a plan with real dependencies, a log of what could go wrong, and a written record of every change and why it happened.
Pricing
No proposals, no discovery-call gauntlet, no annual contract. Most agencies between five and fifteen people don't need to hire a project manager. They need one project set up right, and then somebody to keep it that way.
One project, properly set up.
Founding rate for the first three clients, then $450 flat. Delivered in 5 business days.
One project, one client, up to three workstreams and eight people. Larger than that and I'll quote it.
Start the conversationA project manager on your team, part time.
20 hours at $75/hour. Month to month, cancel anytime.
Or email amanda@kerschenworks.com
The five business days below are the Project Reset. A Fractional PM retainer starts the same way, with a call, and then runs month to month instead of ending.
Email me, or answer eight questions on the contact page. Either one tells me what the project is and whether it fits.
We talk through the project, the hard dates, and who touches it. If it isn't a fit, I'll say so.
I build your Project Reset: the timeline, the status template, and the risk log, then walk you through all of it on a thirty-minute call.
Whatever your team already uses. I work in Asana, Monday, Basecamp, and Notion, and I will learn yours if it is something else, so the status template lives inside the tool your team is already in rather than becoming one more place to log into.
A Project Reset covers one project, one client, up to three workstreams and eight people. Anything larger than that I'll quote separately, so you know the price before any work starts.
Everything I build is yours, and the walkthrough call is there so your team can keep it current. If you'd rather it stayed somebody else's job, that's what the monthly retainer is for.
Fill out the eight intake questions on the contact page, or email me and we'll start there. The founding rate of $300 holds for my first three clients.
About
Timelines, status reporting, and risk tracking for small teams and agencies.
The title has changed a few times, but the work has not. For seventeen years I have taken on things that are complicated, dated, and full of people who need different things, and made sure they land.
I learned it in advertising, planning and buying annual media across 30+ markets on a $1M budget, alongside account teams and creative, where the launch date belonged to someone else and missing it cost real money.
I spent the fifteen years after that in K-12 education, as a Science Program Lead and Department Chair in three countries. That is project management wearing a different title: multi-phase programs, immovable dates, budgets, and a dozen stakeholders who each needed something different from the same plan. Running it in three school systems is what taught me to build plans that hold up when the people, the tools, and the rules all change.
KerschenWorks is that same discipline, sized for teams who need it without a full-time hire. I hold the Google Project Management Certificate and the CAPM, sit for the PMP in November, and serve as Program Manager for Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow, a youth entrepreneurship nonprofit, running program delivery on Agile and Kanban practices.
What that looks like for you: your designers design, your developers build, and the timeline, the client updates, and the risks are mine to watch.
Contact
Send me the project that is worrying you, in a few sentences. I will tell you what I would do with it, whether or not you hire me.
Eight questions, about ten minutes. This tells me whether the project fits a Project Reset and lets day one start with real work. Your answers come straight to me, and I reply by email.
Podcast
Fifteen minutes, one problem, one thing you can do about it this week.
Each episode takes one specific way project work goes sideways when nobody's job is watching it: the job posting that asks for 40 hours to cover 15 hours of real work, the sprint that can't close because the client hasn't replied, the delay you hear about four days before delivery. You get why it happens, what it's costing you, and one tool you can use this week without hiring anyone.
New episodes land on YouTube and Spotify at the same time.