Sprint delivery that survives the next change
Backlog, capacity, and done criteria treated as product work, not a board that drifts while nobody owns the cut.
Delivery · Scope · Risk · Stakeholders
Project managers who keep the sprint honest, not the status slide
A project-manager hire is not “someone who can update a board.” iQud delivery leads own scope, risk, stakeholder updates, and coordination across engineering, QA, and design, not a status slide that only looks green in the meeting.
- Scope and risk owned in writing
- Sprint cadence that survives reality
- Stakeholder updates without theatre
- First delivery plan in about a week
Project management delivery signals
- 5 dTypical time to first delivery plan
- PMNamed owner for scope and risk
- 2 wkSprint cadence with clear gates
- 1 seatMost clients start with one lead
The project-manager seats we actually staff
“Project manager” is not one job. We match on the delivery surface you need, the same product work behind iQud’s live Software Development and MVP Development pages.
01 02 Scope and change control in writing
What is in, what is out, and what moved, owned in the sprint, not discovered the night before ship.
03 Risk and dependency tracking
Blockers, vendor waits, and cross-team gaps named early, not a surprise in the status call.
04 Stakeholder updates without theatre
Clear progress, clear asks, clear trade-offs, not a slide deck that only looks green in the meeting.
05 Coordination across eng, QA, and design
One cadence for the people who ship, so handoffs are planned work, not Slack archaeology.
06 When a BA or engineering seat is better
A requirements gap that needs acceptance criteria depth, or a build gap that is really application code, still wants a different hire. We will say so on the intro call instead of forcing a PM-only seat.
Tools they open on day one
Every tile is a live iQud technology or service page. The strip below is the delivery and collaboration stack these leads already work in (Jira, Slack, and the rest of the project tools around the squad), not a frontend or backend dump.
From intro call to a running cadence
A project-manager hire should be owning the board, the risk list, and the next stakeholder update, not sitting in a two-month onboarding theatre while delivery stays a rumour.
1 Map the delivery gap
Product vs agency cadence, tools, stakeholders, seniority, overlap hours, and what “honest in 30 days” looks like on scope and risk.
2 Shortlist real leads
We match available project managers to your brief and share relevant sprint, MVP, or multi-squad delivery work.
3 You interview
Meet the human who will join standup. Validate how they talk through a scope cut, a missed dependency, and the last risk they owned past the status slide.
4 First sprint in your tools
Board access, rituals, and a first delivery plan, typically inside a week once you say go.
Start with one seat. Grow if the roadmap says so.
Most clients embed a single project manager first. A second lead or a BA/PM split only when the work actually needs it.
One embedded lead
A project manager joins your squad, takes direction from your product owner, and works in your rituals.
Best forClosing a delivery gap without a new vendor process
Dedicated project-manager seat
A stable owner for scope, risk, and stakeholder cadence, with senior review on the sprint.
Best forA product that needs a named delivery owner
Scoped delivery initiative
A defined slice: an MVP launch, a release train reset, or a multi-squad coordination plan with contracts already in motion.
Best forA milestone you can point at, not an open-ended status sandbox
Project manager hiring rates, in writing
Two ways to staff a project manager. Hourly for spikes and defined milestones. A dedicated monthly seat when you want someone in your standup every day, at a lower effective rate than running the clock.
Hire by the hour
$20/ hour
Flexible project-manager capacity for launch spikes, release trains, and scoped milestones. You only pay for hours worked.
- Same project managers as a monthly seat
- Best for overflow, a launch, or a single program reset
- Start fast, pause when the spike is done
- Billed against actual hours, not a retainer
Best value
Hire for a month
$2,000/ month
A named project manager on your sprint, about 160 hours of dedicated delivery capacity, with senior review in the cadence.
A full-time month at $20 is $3,200. This seat is $2,000.
- Named lead in your board, rituals, and standup
- Scope, risk, and stakeholder work in the same engagement
- Month-to-month. No annual lock-in.
- Lower cost than the same hours billed at $20
Rates are for dedicated project managers (scope, risk, stakeholder delivery). Seniority mix and overlap hours are confirmed on the intro call. We will not quote a delivery surface we do not already run.
Why product teams staff project managers here
A mediocre PM hire produces a status slide that looks green in the meeting. These leads produce delivery that survives real scope cuts, real blockers, and your next release.
Product work, not “who can update the board”
They live in scope cuts, missed dependencies, and why last week’s delay should have been a named risk earlier.
Your tools, your rituals, your hours
GIFT City overlap with Europe and the US. Delivery reviews happen live when your leads are online.
Senior eyes on the sprint
Mid-level speed without unsupervised process debt. Review is part of the engagement, not an extra SKU.
Ten clients a quarter, on purpose
We do not run a revolving bench. Capacity is limited so the lead you interview is the one in standup.
Project manager hiring questions
Start with one. Most clients embed a single senior or mid-level project manager, then add a second lead or a BA if the roadmap justifies it.
All three when they are product work. An Agile seat owns sprint honesty and scope cuts. An MVP seat owns milestone clarity. A multi-squad seat owns dependencies and stakeholder cadence. We will only shortlist leads on delivery surfaces we already run.
That is a BA hire, or an engineering hire, not this delivery seat. Say so on the intro call and we will not force a PM profile onto a requirements-only or code-only brief.
After we map the role and you approve the hire, first delivery plans typically land within a week, faster when the board, stakeholders, and rituals are ready.
Yes. Jira, Slack, ClickUp, Asana, Trello, your standups. We do not invent a parallel process unless you ask for one.
Hourly ($20) is for spikes and defined milestones. You pay only for hours worked. The monthly seat ($2,000) is a named project manager on your sprint, about 160 hours of dedicated capacity. The same month billed hourly would be $3,200. Seniority and overlap hours are confirmed on the intro call.
Give the product a project manager who can keep the sprint honest
Tell us product vs agency cadence, tools, and the first milestone you want owned. We’ll come back with a named profile, a start window, and a two-week plan.