Digital Project Management Training for Agencies with Ben Aston
Key Takeaways
- Project management is widely misunderstood and under-appreciated within agencies, leading to delivery breakdowns
- Account management and project management are distinct roles that require different skills and should not be conflated
- Investing in structured PM training pays dividends in delivery consistency, client satisfaction, and team retention
Gray MacKenzie sits down with Ben Aston, founder of The Digital Project Manager, for a conversation about the state of project management in digital agencies. Ben founded The Digital Project Manager in 2011 as a resource for PMs working in the agency world, and has since built it into one of the leading communities for digital project management professionals.
The PM Role in Agencies
Ben starts with a fundamental observation: project management is one of the most misunderstood roles in the agency landscape. Many agencies either undervalue the PM function or conflate it with account management, creating confusion about who is responsible for what. The result is projects that run over budget, miss deadlines, and frustrate both clients and team members.
Ben draws a clear line between account management and project management. Account managers own the client relationship - they handle communication, upselling, and strategic alignment. Project managers own the execution - they ensure work gets done on time, on budget, and to spec. When agencies blur these roles, both functions suffer.
Why Training Matters
Most agency PMs learn on the job through trial and error. Ben argues that this approach is inefficient and costly. Without formal training, PMs develop inconsistent habits, miss foundational best practices, and often burn out from the stress of managing complexity without a proper toolkit.
The Digital Project Manager School was created to address this gap. Ben designed the curriculum around the specific challenges that digital agency PMs face - managing creative teams, handling scope changes, communicating with clients who do not understand technical constraints, and balancing multiple projects simultaneously.
Proper training gives PMs a shared vocabulary and a consistent framework for managing work. When every PM on the team follows the same core processes, the agency benefits from predictable delivery, easier knowledge transfer, and better visibility into project health.
Hiring the Right PMs
Ben shares his perspective on what makes a great agency PM. Technical skills matter, but they can be taught. The harder-to-find qualities are soft skills: the ability to build trust with both clients and internal teams, the curiosity to understand the work deeply enough to manage it effectively, and the resilience to navigate the inevitable surprises that come with complex projects.
He recommends hiring for initiative and learning speed over years of experience. A PM who is curious, adaptable, and genuinely invested in the team’s success will outperform a veteran who relies on rigid processes that do not flex with the realities of agency work.
The Business Case for PM Investment
Ben closes with a practical argument: agencies that invest in project management see measurable returns. Better scoping leads to more accurate estimates. More consistent delivery leads to higher client retention. And empowered PMs reduce the burden on agency owners, freeing leadership to focus on growth rather than firefighting.