P2: L., more F not really PM
we go and figure that out: is it simply a matter of matchmaking, or is there a deeper disconnect? Once there’s a shared language and a clear problem definition, we can usually step out again. That said, it doesn’t always go smoothly. With Robocrops in agri-tech, for example, we’ve been at it for years. The idea was to create an intermediary organization to bridge growers and technology companies. But we haven’t found a model that works well yet — it still costs a lot of time and support from us, and at some point you have to ask yourself: do we give this up, or do we push for another year? What partners generally want from us is project management, communication, visibility — being on stage, access to new customers. And of course funding, but we don’t have project financing ourselves, so that always requires collective effort.
P3: L., not really PM
My own role is very varied. A lot of it is pushing — keeping parties moving, because for both businesses and schools this often feels like an extra job on top of their day-to-day work. Day-to-day building management, communications, PR, onboarding new partners, keeping local councillors and municipal civil servants informed — and that times seven municipalities, each with their own layers of management.
P4: L., more F
The Green Village is that: a real mini village right on our campus, with streets, squares, buildings, permanent residents, an energy grid, a heat network, solar panels — everything. But with a fence around it. Inside that fence we have a special status that lets us experiment with building techniques, materials, paving, water capture — things that aren’t allowed elsewhere. And we monitor everything carefully, because at heart we are engineers and scientists.
What that setup allows us to do is involve water authorities and municipalities very early in the process. When someone comes with a new type of nature-friendly bank, we share the plan with them immediately and ask for their initial concerns. Then we install it, monitor it, and come back after a year or two with results. After more than 10 years we’ve gotten much better at understanding how municipalities and water authorities work and what you need to think about when you want solutions actually implemented.
P5: S., PM RWS
The innovation loket — our innovation desk — is the intake point for ideas coming in from the market. They check whether something is a priority and link it to the relevant focus point. On the one hand we’re genuinely happy when companies proactively bring ideas. On the other hand, sometimes we say: lovely that you’re bringing yet another variant of asphalt, but we already have so many in development — not right now. And occasionally a company comes in with something we hadn’t even thought of yet, running ahead of us, and then we get genuinely enthusiastic.
P6: M., PM Novum
The PM safeguards the quality and feasibility of incoming projects at the front end — his core question is always: the right people, the right issue, the right conditions? Once a project is underway, he largely steps back and monitors from a distance through automatic notifications, status updates, and informal channels. He only intervenes when there are bottlenecks or changes. His role is therefore explicitly facilitative and coordinating, not content-driven — he describes himself as the person who arranges the preconditions so that the team can do its work, and who ensures at the end that results actually land within the organisation.