Tanya Boyd: Hi Ben. Thank you for joining me for this. I’m ready to learn more about the origin story and the mission of Corbeau. So, first, I want to kick this off. Tell me a little bit more about why the name Corbeau, where that came from.
Ben Rebeske: Sure. A long time ago, galaxy far, far away, right? I was a young, eager project management professional. My career started early, right out of college. One of my first jobs was working help desk with Microsoft back in the Windows 95 and Windows 98 days. I got my first taste of project management when the supervisor said, “We need someone to get us ready for the Windows 2000 product launch. Set up the knowledge base, the phone support network, and business processes.” I jumped all over it. I didn’t know it at the time, but that was project management, and I loved it. I’ve been a project manager ever since.
I spent a career with various consulting firms and in industry, working my way from project manager to senior project manager, program manager, complex program manager, and then portfolio manager within PMOs, building PMOs, governance, value realization, regulatory, and audit traceability. Frankly, I had a mid‑career crisis. I needed a break. Nine hundred million dollar programs, international work, a lot of politics. So I paused to reassess.
I spent a summer in Europe, eating, touring, and learning other languages. A friend called about seven months later, “Hey Ben, I know you’re on sabbatical, but I have a small project. I think you’d love it, and I really need your help.” As a favor, I went back and implemented an IT transformation and ERP projects as a freelance consultant. Great team. It felt like solving a puzzle, uh, making up time in the schedule, testing faster, training in parallel, and addressing resistance to change.
We went under budget and live early, one of the most stable go‑lives of my career. Very satisfied client, fantastic team on both the consulting and customer sides. Being part of that, orchestrating schedules, relationships, integrations, deliverables, and success recognition reminded me why I love the craft. It tuned me toward the concept of project success. What ingredients could I carry forward to other teams and clients?
You asked about the name. I think I saw a nature show about ravens and crows, their ability to solve puzzles, and the fact they’re community birds. If a human has fed a raven before, other birds seem to know that person is a friend. Conversely, if someone was rude, they remember and warn others. That symbolism resonated: awareness of each other, covering for each other, solving puzzles together.
“In French, ‘Le Corbeau’ came up. It probably means raven more than crow, but I liked the Latin root words, ‘core’ meaning heart and ‘beau’ meaning beautiful. Beautiful heart mattered to me.”
I came from big consulting, long hours, big money, high prestige, high stress. I wanted simple, clean, transparent, integrity first. What you see is what you get. Make a promise, keep the promise. We joked about the watermelon project, which looks green outside but is really red inside. If it’s red, I’ll tell you, and here’s how we’ll get to green. That level of transparency.
Not just a consultant in a suit in a cubicle. I wanted relationship‑driven consulting. Corbeau, a company of one, was born, and we’ve grown into Corbeau Tech, a powerhouse of talented, seasoned professionals in project management, PMO delivery, technology‑forward project success, runbook implementations, and the Project Success Academy that spun out of our consulting practice, sharing practitioner knowledge so others can be successful.
Tanya Boyd: Thank you for sharing that. I love origin stories, and naming and symbolism matter.
Tanya Boyd: So, tell me more about Corbeau today. What is the main mission?
Ben Rebeske: Corbeau’s focus now is getting businesses through a major technology pivot. We are a technology‑forward project success practitioner firm. We specialize in rapid delivery and rapid build‑out of successful enterprise PMOs, tailored to business needs and lines of business. We’ve done it for technology organizations, healthcare organizations, and nonprofits.
By being technology‑forward, we remove mechanical burdens that used to plague traditional PMOs. There was a PMI stat that 80 percent of PMOs fail in the first three years, often due to perceived unnecessary rigor, more paperwork, change orders, spreadsheets, too many emails, and meetings. Executives don’t want to spend energy on that. It can be a tax on focus.
“We take the best of PMOs—transparency, visibility, rapid assessment, clear governance—and bring insights to leaders more quickly.”
We take the best of PMOs, transparency, and visibility into priority projects and pipeline, rapid assessment of score, prioritization, and health, clear governance on decision making, and what‑if scenarios. If we pause one project and elevate another, what are the implications? We bring insights to leaders more quickly. Technology accelerates this, so we deliver visibility and options, predicted outcomes and scenarios, much more than before. That is the new age of empowered project success.
Tanya Boyd: Across healthcare, IT, and nonprofits, what are two or three common problems you see?
Ben Rebeske: The pattern I see, uh, across large PMOs, industry PMOs, global integrated projects, is not just communications or unknown risks or politics. Those contribute, sure. The common node is the inability to make timely decisions.
“The biggest opportunity for the modern PMO is rapid decision making.”
Sponsors and executives want to help. If they could remove blockers or allocate resources quickly, projects could get back to green, realize benefits on time or sooner. The problem is we often cannot give them the information and options they need in time to make rapid, great decisions.
Here is a concrete example from what I’ve lived. We could not get estimates on critical work. Three weeks later, we finally had a steering committee meeting, and by the time a decision was made, the go‑live had already slipped four months. Then you have regulators, users, commissions, and boards to inform. It’s late. That delay is not because the team lacks skill. It is because decision data arrives too slowly.
Project management should feel more like navigation. When you drive on vacation, and an accident happens, Waze says, “Take the frontage road.” In projects, with Corbeau’s methodology, we are building project success navigation so sponsors, stakeholders, and managers can make real‑time decisions with options, like “reroute,” “defer feature X to a cleanup sprint,” or “add a backup team,” so value is protected, and timelines do not drift.
Tanya Boyd: How does Corbeau use new technology to accelerate decisions?
Ben Rebeske: A shameless plug, our Project Success Navigation tool, Crows Nest. It is mobile‑first. Executives and team members can see what is going on with their projects. People hear “new app” and groan. The good news is that it is a navigator. You do not stop using Microsoft Project, Primavera, Asana, and Monday.com. Crows Nest connects to what you already use, aggregates the information, and turns it into valuable performance insights and recommendations.
“Crows Nest doesn’t replace your tools—it connects, aggregates, and gives you real-time recommendations.”
If a software sprint under‑delivered, it can suggest deferring certain features to a cleanup sprint, adding a backup team, or changing testing delegation. It does not automate the transactional parts. It gives insights on what to automate next. Think dashboard navigation for projects. Everyone, so to speak, can see whether we are on pace, where and why we are off pace, and options to get back on track.
Pair that with lightweight, tailored governance, change control, clear communication, rapid decision paths, and portfolio prioritization, and leaders can see what happens when one project moves, one stalls, one is green or red, then make informed decisions, reduce wasted capital and time, and realize value sooner.
Ben Rebeske: When we implemented the executive PMO for a healthcare client, they asked us to help run in‑flight projects while building the PMO. We came prepared with a methodology and a runbook, tailored to their culture, people, and staffing. We took on projects to staff emergency departments and stand up clinics. They specialize in healthcare, not project management. Even reporting red, yellow, and green is not intuitive if your day job is running a clinic.
“We brought harmonized tools and behaviors, applied only what mattered right now—easy transitions and habits.”
Shoulder to shoulder, we finished in‑flight projects while the PMO was implemented. Clinics opened, QA finished on services, patient intake could begin, because the projects finally finished.
Tanya Boyd: You mentioned shoulder to shoulder. How is Corbeau’s mindset different?
Ben Rebeske: Our clients are big, Fortune 100 and Fortune 500. We deliberately compete with larger firms, but we keep a shoulder‑to‑shoulder stake. Integrity and looking out for each other are core tenets for our consulting team. We close the loop and take responsibility.
“We use double RACI—a big "R" and a little "r." There’s always an understudy, a wingman or wingwoman, learning for coverage and rapid transition.”
Processes and governance are mapped with overlap, so nothing falls through the cracks. Early on, we do two in the box, client plus Corbeau. Corbeau might be big R at first. By month two or three, the client becomes big R, and Corbeau rolls off.
It was important to us that you receive value from projects and from your experience with Corbeau. Our unofficial tagline is, “We get in, we leave, and we leave you better.” We deliver the mission, keep the promise, and do not linger when you are good to go. Our PMO implementation package is soup to nuts. We interview, assess, understand culture and tools, harmonize strengths, double R for learning and transition, wedge ourselves out so you become self‑sufficient, and we help hire and place roles before we leave.
Tanya Boyd: Empower people, not enable them. Coaching and mentorship are purposeful, not permanent. As a closeout, speak about tailoring for value and when to use which tools.
Ben Rebeske: We align culture first. We have a playbook, toolset, PMIS, and data model, so your portfolio data and performance are stable and harmonized. I cannot throw the whole book at you. In big consulting, I made that mistake, giving a Level 5 maturity book when someone needed algebra, not differential equations.
“We adapt to your culture, find strengths, fit the maturity model, pick low‑hanging fruit, easy to adopt and high value.”
By month five or six, you are self‑sufficient, you have hired whom you need, and you have a roadmap for the next maturity levels: 90 days, 180 days, one year, three years.
It is broader techniques, new habits, and governance, all evolving. Tools and tech will change. We want to be there with Project Success Academy and check‑ins so your skills stay current. We focus heavily on the first 90 days to get you to level two, build habits, ensure adoption and understanding, then the next 90, and the next, nice and steady, so the foundation is solid.
“I refuse to be part of that 80 percent PMO failure statistic. We will not let that happen to our clients.”
Tanya Boyd: The metaphors help, and the stress on sustainability matters. People rush projects, business, certification, and learning, but taking things in stages helps knowledge stick, so we can build on foundations.
Ben Rebeske: That’s right.
Tanya Boyd: This has been awesome. Thank you for your time and answers. I can’t wait to do it again.
Ben Rebeske: Thank you, Tanya.