Leading Without a Playbook

How to Navigate Projects You’ve Never Seen Before

Read Time: 5 minutes

Some projects come with templates, best practices, and clear roadmaps.
Others… do not.

You are thrown into something new:

• A niche industry
• A legacy system
• A process no one fully understands

And somehow, you are expected to lead it.

Let’s talk about how to move forward when the path is unclear and no one has the answers.

The Trap of Waiting for Clarity

When you feel out of your depth, the instinct is to wait.
Wait until you understand more.
Wait for leadership to provide direction.
Wait for someone else to speak up.

But leadership is not about waiting.
It is about moving forward when others can’t or won’t.

You do not need perfect knowledge to make progress.
You need the right mindset and tools to learn fast.

How to Lead When You’re Still Learning

Here’s how to build confidence and lead effectively even when you’re not the expert in the room:

✅ Start with structure. Outline what you do know. Frame decisions around risk, effort, and impact, even if the subject is unfamiliar.

✅ Ask second-level questions. Not “what is that?” but “what are we trying to avoid?” or “what does success look like?” These questions move things forward.

✅ Lean on the experts, but own the plan. Let others fill in the technical gaps. Your role is to organize, connect, and lead, regardless of the topic.

✅ Document as you go. Create clarity for the next person by writing down what you learn. This makes you valuable even in ambiguity.

💬 A PM in our community shared how she was put on a compliance-driven AI integration project with no background in AI. She spent the first two weeks interviewing engineers, mapping dependencies, and defining risks. Three weeks in, she was running the roadmap. Her takeaway: Curiosity is a leadership skill.

You Do Not Have to Be an Expert to Lead Experts

Here’s what leading with clarity looks like when you’re not the technical expert:

• You need to know what to ask
• You need to keep things moving
• You need to connect the dots that others don’t see
• You need to hold the room when it’s messy

Great project managers are not just executors.
They are sensemakers.

When everyone else is uncertain, you create a way forward.

This Is What Growth Looks Like

The most career-defining projects are rarely the easiest ones.

Leading through ambiguity builds:

• Confidence
• Credibility
• Career capital

You are not expected to have every answer.
You are expected to lead anyway.

And that's how trust is built between the milestones.

👇 Your Turn

Have you had to lead when someone above you was unclear or missing?

👉 Share your story in the comments below or respond to this email.

You might be featured in an upcoming spotlight!