A few years ago, I walked into a PMO review meeting that I’ll never forget.

The room was packed with senior executives—CFO, COO, a couple of VPs—all sitting around the table with that look. You know the one. Arms crossed, half-listening, mentally calculating how soon they could wrap this up and get back to “real business.”

I was there to present the PMO’s performance report for the quarter. We had crushed it.

• 92% of projects delivered on time.

• Budget variances under 5%.

• Resource utilization at an all-time high.

Textbook success, right?

So why did I feel like I was about to get eaten alive?

I wrapped up my presentation, feeling pretty confident—until the COO leaned back, raised an eyebrow, and asked:

“That’s great… but how is this helping us grow revenue?”

Silence.

Then the CFO jumped in: “And how are these projects reducing costs?”

Now everyone was looking at me. I could feel the blood draining from my face.

We were tracking all the right PMO metrics—or so I thought. On-time delivery, cost performance, resource efficiency… We were running a tight ship.

But here’s the hard truth I learned that day:

➡️ The business doesn’t care about how well you manage projects.

➡️ The business cares about how your projects drive business value.

And I had no answer for that.

 

Why Most PMOs Get It Wrong

That meeting was a wake-up call.

Like many PMOs, we were focused on operational success—completing projects on time, within scope, and under budget. That’s the PMO playbook, right?

The problem is, those metrics only tell part of the story.

The executive team doesn’t care how many projects you finished on time if none of those projects are driving business outcomes.

• A project delivered under budget but failing to increase customer retention is a failure.

• A project that meets every milestone but doesn’t improve profitability is a waste of resources.

But this is where many PMOs go wrong—they focus on internal success rather than business impact.

 

Shifting the Focus to What Matters

After that painful meeting, I made it my mission to figure out how to realign our PMO metrics with business outcomes.

I started by sitting down with the executive team—one-on-one. I asked them:

➡️ What are your top business goals this year?

➡️ What would make you consider the PMO a strategic partner, not just an operational function?

➡️ What keeps you up at night?

The answers were eye-opening.

Revenue growth. Customer retention. Reducing operational costs. Shortening time-to-market.

Not one person mentioned project completion rates or budget variance.

That’s when it hit me: We had been measuring success on the wrong scoreboard.

 

New Metrics, New Mindset

We completely overhauled how we measured PMO performance. Instead of tracking operational efficiency alone, we focused on business value:

✅ Contribution to revenue growth – How many of our projects were linked to product launches, market expansions, or increased sales?

✅ Customer satisfaction and retention – Were our projects improving customer experience and reducing churn?

✅ Strategic alignment – Were the projects we greenlit aligned with the company’s long-term strategic goals?

✅ Cost reduction – How were our projects helping the business reduce operating expenses or streamline processes?

✅ Stakeholder satisfaction – Did executives feel like the PMO was helping them deliver business outcomes?

It wasn’t easy. It required building new processes, setting up better reporting, and making some tough calls about which projects to prioritize.

But once we got it right, the difference was night and day.

At the next quarterly review, I presented a different report.

• Two new product launches contributed to a 12% increase in quarterly revenue.

• Customer satisfaction scores jumped 15% after a project focused on improving customer onboarding.

• A business processes improvement project reduced operational costs by $2 million annually.

When I finished, the COO smiled for the first time in one of these meetings. “Now this… this is what we need from the PMO.”

 

How the Right Tools Make the Difference

Here’s the thing—realigning metrics wasn’t just about strategy. It was also about execution.

We needed a way to track these new business-focused metrics, align them with project execution, and give leadership real-time visibility into performance.

That’s where a platform like Smartsheet can help a lot more than a traditional PPM system.

We built out custom dashboards in Smartsheet that tracked not just operational performance, but strategic impact:

• How each project was contributing to revenue, cost savings, or customer satisfaction.

• Real-time risk assessment to keep projects on track.

• Executive-level reports that showed clear business outcomes, not just task completion.

The moment leadership could see—at a glance—how projects were driving business value, everything changed.

• We gained more executive support.

• The PMO had a seat at the strategy table.

• We stopped being a cost center and became a growth driver.

And it wasn’t complicated—Smartsheet made it easy to set up, automate, and adjust as business goals shifted.

 

What This Means for You

If your PMO is still measuring internal success instead of business impact—you’re not alone.

But here’s the truth:

✅ Your PMO should be a strategic partner, not just a project tracker.

✅ The right metrics are the ones the business cares about—growth, efficiency, customer value.

✅ The right tools—like Smartsheet—make it easier to measure and communicate that impact.

The PMO I walked into years ago is unrecognizable today. And it started with asking the hard question: “Are we measuring what the business cares about?”

 

Now It’s Your Turn

How does your PMO measure success? Are your metrics aligned with business goals—or just project outcomes?

👉 If you’re looking to refine how your PMO measures success and want to align it more closely with business goals, let’s chat. Send me a direct message or schedule a quick call—I’m always happy to exchange ideas and help you tackle these challenges head-on.