THEME PARK PROJECT MANAGEMENT: 1

In this book, former Walt Disney Imagineer Val Usle captures best practice remedies to sources of drama that swirl around a Big Idea that has emerged from the shelter of Blue Sky and into a Project needing technical, operational, and commercial vetting. The outcome of this vetting is binary – that is the Big Idea gets stronger and the Project goes onto the next phase of work or it dies and unceremoniously moves to an art vault. Project Management is the process used to robustly vet the Big Idea by providing process lanes for a Team that includes an Artist at its nucleus. However, to be successful Project Management needs more than just a framework for artistic, technical, operational, and business transactions. It needs to address the human physics that comes with scary smart people working under pressure to help the Big Idea get stronger so that it overcomes all the reasons not to build it. The human glue bridging the gap between pure process and effectively harnessing the team’s talents is the Project Manager, and that person’s role is at the heart of this book.