Proud Talks is our conversation series where Proud Engineers’ experts share the ideas, experiences, and challenges behind their work. This time, we sat down with Kaspar Kala to talk about project management, public sector projects, and why much of the work ultimately comes down to people, communication, and navigating uncertainty
At Proud Engineers, project management is closely tied to analysis, legal thinking, service design, and collaboration. Many projects involve public procurement, multiple organisations, changing priorities, and a large number of stakeholders. In that environment, project management becomes less about following a fixed process and more about helping different people move towards a shared outcome.
“For me, project management is still fundamentally about helping the team reach a solution that works for the client,” Kaspar says. “But a large part of the work is understanding people, expectations, and how to move forward when not everything is fully clear yet.”
Understanding the real problem and working in uncertainty
Many Proud Engineers projects focus on analysing processes, services, and organisational needs rather than building technology itself. The work often begins with understanding how something functions today and whether the original problem definition actually reflects reality.
That means projects can evolve significantly during the process.
“Sometimes the initial request turns out not to be the real issue,” Kaspar explains. “As you analyse the situation more deeply, you realise the organisation may actually need something slightly different.”
This is particularly common in public sector projects, where procurement and decision-making cycles can be long. Priorities, leadership, or expectations may change before the project is fully underway.
“There is always some level of uncertainty,” he says. “You are often starting work without fully knowing the people involved, their working style, or what pressures they are dealing with internally.”
Because of that, relationship-building becomes an important part of the work from the very beginning.
Trust is built through actions
According to Kaspar, trust is one of the most important parts of successful project work. In practice, that trust is built less through promises and more through consistency, transparency, and communication.
“The main thing is showing that people can rely on you,” he says. “Not through words, but through actions.”
This becomes especially important when projects become difficult or when expectations between stakeholders differ.
In some projects, different organisations or teams may all have different goals, timelines, or interpretations of success. Managing those situations requires continuous communication and a willingness to understand perspectives outside your own role.
“A project manager often has to think on behalf of many different people at once,” Kaspar explains. “You need to understand what the client expects, what the team needs, and what may become a problem later even if nobody is talking about it yet.”
Project managers are part of the work itself
At Proud Engineers, project managers are not separated from the substance of the project. They are often also analysts, legal experts, or contributors to the actual solution design.
That creates a broader understanding of the project and helps identify risks earlier.
“If you are close to the actual work, you can usually see issues developing before they become major problems,” Kaspar says.
The same mindset also applies during public procurement processes. Preparing a proposal is often treated as a project of its own, involving deadlines, coordination, planning, legal review, technical input, and collaboration across different experts.
“You are coordinating people, managing expectations, and trying to build a realistic plan before the actual project has even started,” he explains.
Working without formal authority
One of the more complex parts of project management is that project managers are often responsible for outcomes without having formal authority over everyone involved.
In public sector projects especially, people may come from different institutions, departments, or organisations. The work depends on collaboration rather than hierarchy.
“You cannot force people to move in the same direction,” Kaspar says. “A lot of the work depends on people actually wanting to contribute.”
That is why communication and emotional awareness matter as much as planning or methodology. Understanding what motivates people, what pressures they are under, and how they react in difficult situations becomes part of everyday project work.
“A client representative may also be under pressure internally,” he explains. “There can be organisational politics, different interests, limited resources, or changing priorities behind the scenes. You need to be aware of those dynamics because they affect the project whether you see them directly or not.”
Experience creates intuition
Although project management frameworks and certifications can be useful, Kaspar believes much of the work is learned through experience.
“There are many practical things you can learn,” he says. “But a large part of project management comes from experience, pattern recognition, and learning how people and projects behave over time.”
Over the years, those experiences become internal instincts and routines. Many decisions happen based on accumulated understanding rather than formal rules.
“You develop your own internal playbook,” Kaspar says. “At some point, certain things start feeling like common sense simply because you have seen similar situations many times before.”
That also shapes how difficult conversations are handled. Experience helps project managers stay calm, understand feedback in context, and focus on solutions instead of reacting emotionally.
“Sometimes people communicate very critically even when the actual issue is relatively small,” he explains. “You learn not to panic immediately and instead focus on understanding what really needs to be solved.”
Responsibility is part of the role
For Kaspar, one of the defining parts of project management is responsibility. Even when mistakes happen or situations change unexpectedly, the role involves helping move the project forward.
“Responsibility does not mean everything always goes perfectly,” he says. “It means staying with the problem until it is resolved.”
That responsibility also extends internally. A successful project is not only one where the client is satisfied, but one where the team still feels motivated and wants to work together again afterwards.
“A project can appear successful externally while the internal experience for the team has been very difficult,” Kaspar says. “For me, a good project means both sides feel that the outcome was worthwhile.”
Reflecting on the work
Interestingly, Kaspar does not describe becoming a project manager as a single career decision. His background is in law, and over time he realised that many forms of legal and analytical work already functioned like projects, with deadlines, stakeholders, dependencies, and shared goals.
“I probably became a project manager gradually without fully noticing it,” he says.
Looking back, he sees that much of the role connects naturally with his own way of thinking: bringing structure into complex situations and helping different pieces move together more clearly.
And in many ways, that remains the essence of the work today.