There is a certain kind of clarity that shows up when someone has spent enough time inside the same problem, across enough organizations, to recognize the pattern before anyone else in the room can name it. Talking with Mike Gardyasz, that clarity comes through quickly, not as theory, but as something earned.
As SPM Practice Director at CoreX, Mike sits at the intersection of strategy, execution, and the uncomfortable space in between, where most organizations quietly struggle. Ask him to explain Strategic Portfolio Management to a smart executive in a minute, and he does not reach for jargon or frameworks. He goes straight to the tension most leaders feel but rarely resolve.
“Strategic Portfolio Management is how you make sure your company is investing time, money, and people in the right work, and getting results from it. In most organizations, strategy is defined at the top, but execution happens in silos. SPM connects those two. It gives you a single, real-time view of all incoming demand, active initiatives, resources, and spend, and then helps you prioritize based on business value, not organizational politics or noise.”
That last part, the shift from noise to value, tends to be where things begin to break down. Many organizations believe they understand portfolio management, but what they often have is something narrower.
“The most common misconception is that SPM is just a project management tool, or a PMO upgrade. It’s not. That thinking keeps organizations focused on tracking work instead of deciding what work should exist in the first place. Project management tools help you execute better. But SPM operates one level above that."
That distinction becomes even more important as organizations grow. Over time, Mike has seen the same signals surface again and again when a portfolio begins to drift.
“The clearest sign is that if you ask leadership the question of ‘what are you working on, and why’ they cant answer. Everything is labled a high priority, work on everything starts quicker then it finishes, there is never a single source of truth on where anything stands, which creates a general lack of trust in any technology. Coupled on top of that, resources become over burdened due to the fact that their executive team is driving blind and feeling that the strategy they put in place, is not driving the investment they anticipated.”
When that kind of pressure builds, the instinct is often to reach for speed. Teams start talking about agility, about moving faster, about doing more in less time. From Mike’s perspective, that instinct usually points to something deeper.
“Generally this is also a sign that the portfolio is out of control. They more then likely are over loaded with work, and feel that not enough is getting accomplished considering their priorities and objectives (which generally also at this point are probably changing every week). This to me, isn’t a sign that there is a lack of agility, but rather a lack of portfolio discipline.”
That idea, discipline over speed, leads to one of the harder conversations Mike finds himself having with organizations.
“I would say that it’s the fact that many organizations do not have a delivery problem, as many customers and executives believe, but that rather they have a prioritization problem. Many organizations believe they need to hire more staff, or move faster, or invest in better tools, but in reality no one questions if they are trying to do too much at once, if trade offs are being evaluated, and the most uncomfortable thing is asking if they are saying 'no' enough.”
It is a simple idea, but not an easy one. Saying no requires clarity, and clarity requires trust in the data, the process, and the decisions being made. That is where Mike sees the real divide between organizations that truly leverage SPM and those that simply have it installed.
“I believe that separates organizations that use SPM well, from those that only own it is that those who really do this well leverage the tool to help drive decision making, while those who don’t, just track work. Several aspects go into supporting this like proper governance, and making sure demands are fully reviewed and vetted, resources data is considered, and alignment to strategy is continuously reviewed and discussed. The tool is very powerful, but in order to truly leverage it consideration of people, and process in support of the tool is what really makes it impactful.”
For Mike, the payoff in this work is not abstract. It shows up in moments that are easy to miss if you are not paying attention.
“For me, its when all the light bulbs click for our customers. Usually this is in a training session where we work with several personas within a PMO, or organization and begin to test out their use cases. Being able to see our customers get excited, and finally see the end to end process go from paper to action, after weeks of implementation is very satisfying and exciting.”
That sense of momentum, of things finally connecting, extends beyond individual engagements. It is also what excites him about where CoreX and the broader ServiceNow ecosystem are headed.
“With CoreX, there is a lot to be excited about. The ability to expand out SPM use cases into OT, and further into Asset and Enterprise Architecture is very exciting. We bring a lot of expertise in those areas and combined with SPM, we can really help a lot of organizations begin to see how ServiceNow as a platform, [not to mention] a product like SPM, can add an insurmountable amount of value.”
Outside of work, that same sense of investment shows up in a different way, focused less on portfolios and more on people.
“First and foremost a dad to three kids, and a husband to my wife of 13 years. Right now we are very invested into our kids, and we are a huge baseball family. My wife and I do try to relax by the pool in the summer, but that time is getting harder to find! Of course, we always look forward to our family vacations and Disney without a doubt takes the gold for best time ever with the family!”
It's a fitting parallel. Whether he is helping organizations make better decisions about where to invest, or spending weekends moving between baseball fields and gymnastics competitions, Mike’s focus stays consistent. Pay attention to what matters. Make deliberate choices. And understand that the outcome is shaped long before the work ever begins.