Innovation can be a growth engine or a liability (when a PMO isn’t equipped to manage the complexity behind it). For this global food manufacturer, the early warning signs were unmistakable: rapid product expansion, inconsistent project leadership, uneven governance and limited visibility across a fast-growing innovation pipeline. With execution strain increasing and strategic initiatives competing for attention, the organization turned to MustardSeed to strengthen its PMO maturity, restore alignment and build the disciplined project leadership needed to deliver with confidence at scale.
The global food manufacturer undergoing rapid innovation and product expansion had established foundational project management practices, but the organization needed to advance beyond its initial PMO framework to keep pace with increasing complexity.
With cross-functional innovation accelerating, the PMO required:
The PMO had reached a pivotal moment: it wasn’t broken, but it wasn’t scaling fast enough for what the business needed next. Leadership sought a partner to advance maturity, deepen adoption, and strengthen execution across the innovation portfolio.
MustardSeed was brought in to elevate PM capability, modernize portfolio systems, and enable the PMO to operate with greater discipline and confidence.
Within a 12-month period, MustardSeed delivered an integrated set of PMO advancements designed to strengthen skills, governance, leadership alignment, and visibility across the innovation ecosystem.
The transformation centered on five key workstreams:
MustardSeed delivered a series of live, instructor-led PM Best Practice (PMBP) training sessions, ensuring every participant could interact, ask questions and apply concepts in real time. These sessions covered Risk, Decision Management, Leadership Escalation, Change Management, Scheduling, and Project Initiation, each tailored to the organization’s innovation workflows and challenges.
Training effectiveness was exceptional: 97% of participants agreed the training improved their ability to perform their roles
The live format included scenario-based learning, real project examples, and hands-on exercises, giving PMs and “accidental PMs” actionable tools to manage their work more effectively.
To ensure scalability and sustainability, MustardSeed converted the live PMBP curriculum into an eight-module on-demand Project Leadership Academy, including:
Each module included:
On average, each module contained 11 artifacts, with some containing more than 20. The Academy was integrated into the company’s LMS for continued reinforcement and onboarding.
To translate training into real behavior change, MustardSeed embedded directly into two critical innovation portfolios:
MustardSeed supported project teams in aligning scope, clarifying dependencies, and building new visual artifacts for decision-making. One artifact was cited by leadership as “best in class” and quickly adopted by other teams.
MustardSeed modeled the Leadership Escalation workflow, showing teams how structured decision pathways reduce delays and improve cross-functional alignment. This hands-on support accelerated adoption of new PMO practices across the innovation ecosystem.
MustardSeed served as a strategic thought partner to PMO leaders, helping them:
Leaders described the partnership as transformational: “Your PM leadership is best in class and we are grateful for your ability to move this complicated project forward.”
Another shared: “MustardSeed helped us uncover options tailored to our business needs instead of generic solutions.”
The PMO needed greater visibility into work across brands, timelines, priorities, and resource constraints. MustardSeed delivered two major systems:
Designed to support the organization’s Strategic Innovation pillars, this ecosystem enabled:
MustardSeed built a capacity and prioritization model that allowed leaders to:
These systems created the portfolio intelligence needed for confident decision-making.
Using MustardSeed’s PMO Maturity Calculator, the organization increased its maturity score:
CSAT scores at closeout:
This engagement demonstrates how a PMO evolves from foundational practices to a more mature, strategically integrated function capable of:
With the right frameworks, training ecosystem, coaching, and portfolio tools, PMOs can deliver measurable improvements in discipline, clarity, and organizational performance.
We respect the privacy of the organizations that trust us to embed within their teams. For that reason, we do not publicly disclose client names or partner names in our case studies. If you would like to verify our impact and speak directly with a reference, we are happy to facilitate introductions.
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