I raised my hand near the end of a session at PMO unCON. The room was quiet. People were tired and ready for lunch. But I had a takeaway I wanted to share — something about value, and how we frame it.
I started with context. I'm not currently inside a PMO, I said. And the facilitator stopped me.
"Well, why are you here?"
I was taken aback. I literally did not know what to do with that question. Especially in a room full of people navigating a brutal job market, where a lot of folks are out of work and still fighting to stay connected to their field. Why are you here felt less like curiosity and more like a challenge to my legitimacy.
I stumbled. I said I was on sabbatical, that I used to support a PMO, that I now serve as the Mentorship Program Director for PMI San Diego — where we build mentorship programs to support PMs and PMOs. Then I made my point about value and shut up.
I recovered. I think. But it put a damper on the rest of the day. I'd had such a strong first day, and that moment knocked something loose.
Here's what I've been sitting with since.
The question stung because it assumed that value inside a PMO space only looks one way. Role title. Employment status. Direct line to a PMO org chart. If you don't have those things, your presence needs to be justified.
But the insight that came out of that same session stayed with me too, and it's the thing I actually want to talk about.
When I describe the Coaching Pods program to the PMI San Diego board, the value I lead with is engagement — converting mentees into volunteers, building PMI SD's presence as a place where PM professionals are genuinely supported. That's what matters to them.
When I talk to mentees, the value is different. Progress toward specific goals. Support that doesn't disappear after a one-day workshop. Feedback from people who have been where they are.
When I talk to mentors, it's different again. The pod model lets them extend their impact beyond a single relationship — one mentor, multiple people growing at once.
Same program. Three completely different value statements. All of them true.
The lesson isn't just about mentorship programs.
It's about how we talk about PMO value at all. You can't have one universal value statement and expect it to land everywhere. You need to develop it in different languages — shaped by who's in the room and what they actually care about.
That question — why are you here — still makes me want to roll my eyes a little.
But it also cracked something open. Because the answer I gave in that moment was incomplete. Here's the more honest version:
If PMOs exist to deliver strategic value through people, then developing those people intentionally isn't adjacent to PMO work. It is PMO work. And that's what I was at PMO unCON to do — to build the case that intentional mentorship isn't a nice-to-have. The research is clear: people in mentoring relationships are significantly less likely to experience burnout — across roles, generations, and job types. It gives people a place to practice skills, build confidence, and develop real capability over time in ways a one-time training program never will. And it does something that's increasingly hard to find in hybrid and remote environments: it creates an ongoing relationship where someone is genuinely invested in your growth.
Why was I there?
Because the work I do belongs in that room.
Coaching Pods is PMI San Diego's Outcome-Based Mentoring program. If you're building a PM development strategy and want to talk through what an ongoing mentorship structure could look like for your organization, let's connect on LinkedIn ↗.