Abby Fretz

Adapt­able process­es for adapt­able PMs

I teach dig­i­tal project man­age­ment and oper­a­tions to project leads and their dig­i­tal teams. I work with folks to help them cre­ate a frame­work for adapt­able process­es and oper­a­tions that work for their teams, projects, and their own PM practices. 

Train­ing and teach­ing is in my blood

I’m a train­er at Loud­er Than Ten where I teach and sup­port keen appren­tices who are learn­ing the art and sci­ence of project man­age­ment so they can sup­port their teams. I’m also a free­lance PM/​Ops Con­sul­tant and sup­port sharp teams of project man­agers, UX Researchers, devel­op­ers, and design­ers while refin­ing their approach to project process and their craft.

It start­ed with maps: geospa­tial soft­ware design

My sto­ry begins in 2005 at a geospa­tial soft­ware design com­pa­ny where I dove head­first into the world of Agile prod­uct man­age­ment. In 2012, after five years of Agile prac­tice, I was thrilled to run dig­i­tal projects and teams while work­ing at sev­er­al Philadel­phia-based dig­i­tal agen­cies. My love of teach­ing grew as I began teach­ing and men­tor­ing in the field with GirlDe­vel­o­p­It, lec­tur­ing at sev­er­al con­tin­u­ing edu­ca­tion pro­grams at local uni­ver­si­ties, lead­ing work­shops for pro­fes­sion­al meet­up groups, and most recent­ly, dig­i­tal PM and oper­a­tions con­sult­ing for dig­i­tal agen­cies. I’m in love with learn­ing and excit­ed that I get to be a life­long stu­dent as well as a teacher.

Com­mu­ni­ties mean everything

When I joined Hap­py Cog in 2013, I con­tin­ued to speak and pub­lish my work. Hap­py Cog’s involve­ment in the Dig­i­tal PM Sum­mit events (a first-of-its-kind con­fer­ence series specif­i­cal­ly for Dig­i­tal PMs) intro­duced me to an increas­ing­ly active, inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty of pas­sion­ate DPMs. I’m ded­i­cat­ed to nur­tur­ing a com­mu­ni­ty that sup­ports one anoth­er, shares resources, and con­tin­ues to rev­o­lu­tion­ize our respec­tive industries. 

I sure like bees

I’m also a ​‘beek’ — short for bee­keep­er: keep­ing bees in the city has giv­en me the oppor­tu­ni­ty to learn from some of the most incred­i­ble project man­agers and teams in nature. Bee­keep­ing makes me a bet­ter observ­er and a more patient human, and I under­stand effec­tive team sys­tems a whole heck of a lot more after spend­ing so much time with these amaz­ing com­mu­ni­ties of insects. They’ve also giv­en me a ton of great project analo­gies and bee puns to pol­li­nate vir­tu­al­ly any conversation.