Interview with Dr. Patricia Domínguez Marín by Alexander Sheludenkov
Your profile is striking – a PhD in mathematics, a career in project management consulting, and a substantial volunteering record with PMI. Was any of this planned?
You see it as very special, but for me it feels natural. I loved mathematics as a child, and when I started thinking about what to study at university, it was the obvious choice. And once I was there, I always enjoyed the idea of going further, so the PhD followed. At the time I was investing in it, it felt like something enjoyable, not like work or a burden.
Then, coming to Germany, I had a small but real surprise. In Spain, more than half of the mathematics students were women; it was simply not unusual. When I arrived here, and later when I was working in software companies, I found that a woman in mathematics or technology was not quite seen as the norm yet. And then I became a mother, a mother of a daughter, and something shifted in me. I wanted her to grow up in a world where whatever she wanted to do was simply accepted. No one is telling her, “That’s not for girls.” That is when I began motivating young people in STEM. And once you start, you realise: it is not just giving. You learn enormously from the experience, too.
My involvement with PMI came later, by coincidence. There was a diversity group in PMI Germany that had a very active agenda and was looking for new volunteers. I attended one of their events, found it compelling, and joined. Once inside, I saw the necessity, not only for young people, as I had seen when I became a mother, but for the women already working in the profession.
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You started in mathematics – a discipline of clear rules, proofs, and definitive answers. Project management is famously the opposite: ambiguous requirements, shifting politics, uncertainty at every turn. How do you reconcile those two worlds?
Honestly, I do not see them as opposites. The first thing mathematics gave me is the ability to solve problems, and that is exactly what a project manager does all day. As for uncertainty: that is also mathematics. It is statistics. You have probabilities, you estimate impact – that is, risk management in its purest form. I do not always need to put a number on paper; I have developed an intuitive feel for it. I sense when something is a genuine risk and needs to be mitigated.
In my work, I do a great deal of operational project management, helping move processes forward, not just tracking budget and schedule. I analyse data, look for patterns. That, again, is mathematics.
And uncertainty exists in mathematics, too. When you are working on a problem, you are working in uncertainty until you find the solution. The only difference is that in a project, you sometimes must make decisions before you have all the information. But mathematicians understand that well, you work with what you have, frame your assumptions clearly, and keep revising.
You have written and spoken about Ikigai – the Japanese idea of finding your purpose at the intersection of what you love, what you are good at, what the world needs, and what you can earn from. For many project managers, the job feels like pure execution: deliver, hit the milestone, meet the target. How does Ikigai fit into that reality?
Ikigai is not only for project managers, it is for everyone. But it is particularly relevant for us, because the job can feel like pure execution and nothing more. If you are passionate about solving complex problems, about navigating uncertainty, about communicating across a diverse group of stakeholders, then being a project manager is your place. You are good at it, you like it, you earn from it, and you help others. That is the Ikigai intersection.
I have added a fifth pillar to the model, which I consider essential: that what you are doing aligns with your principles. In its original framing, this is perhaps less emphasised, but for me it is fundamental. If something conflicts with my values, I cannot perform at my best, regardless of how well the other four conditions are met.
The most difficult part of project management, and perhaps where Ikigai gets complicated, is the human and political dimension. That is also why volunteering fills something that a corporate project sometimes cannot. In volunteering, I see directly who I am helping. In a large technology implementation, it is harder to feel that you are changing someone’s life. The emotional salary of volunteering is very real, and I think we underestimate how much that matters to people’s sustained engagement with their work.
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You were instrumental in creating PMI Germany’s Female Empowerment Program, which has since been adopted by other European chapters. Devil’s advocate: why a specific program for women? Why not simply provide better project management training for everyone?
I have to be transparent; the original idea was not mine. When I joined the diversity group in PMI Germany, this was already their highest priority. What convinced me was the data from the existing mentoring program. PMI Germany has many members and many volunteers, but every time a mentoring cohort opened, very few women applied as mentors. Many more applied as mentees. The experience was visible on their profiles, but the confidence to present themselves as someone from whom others could learn was not there. That is a structural problem, not an individual one.
At first, I was sceptical that a women-only program was the right response. So we ran a small pilot, just to see whether there was appetite. And then the applications arrived. Some said: I have fifteen years of experience, but I do not know whether I should be the mentor or the mentee. That told me everything. A fifteen-year veteran questioning whether she has something to offer, that is not a personal failing. That is the system.
So we built something different from a traditional mentoring program. We renamed it the Female Empowerment Program precisely because we discovered that the word “mentor” was giving women a comfortable excuse not to step up: “That’s not for me.” In our model, there are no mentors and no mentees. There are peer groups of three, all equal, no hierarchy, who choose one another. Beyond the peer sessions, we organise inspirational talks and additional activities. The participants define the agenda based on what they say they need.
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How do you tailor the program to each group’s specific needs?
You cannot empower others by telling them what to do. That is a contradiction, mathematically speaking. If I want you to find the inner inspiration to move forward, how can I simultaneously prescribe the path? So from the very beginning, we ask: what do you need? Which topics interest you? Crucially, the participants also choose their own peer groups, which means all three members are genuinely there by choice, with no hierarchy. The act of listening that creates that space is itself part of the tailoring.
Throughout your career, you have led global, often remote teams with very different technical backgrounds. What have you learned about developing people, not just delivering through them?
My projects are complex, data transformation, and large-scale technology change, and I genuinely need all of my team members operating at full capacity. That is not a management philosophy; it is a practical necessity. Which means I am deeply invested in helping them grow, both as a team and individually.
The most important tool I have is empathy combined with attention to what is not being said. I had a team member who was technically exceptional, the kind of person you assign your most critical tasks to because you know they will be executed perfectly. One day, a task came back with an error. Instead of pointing out the mistake, I called him and said: I am not calling to tell you that you made an error. I am calling to ask: what is happening? It turned out to be a private problem. We discussed it and explored possible directions together. One of the ideas from that conversation became the actual solution.
Listening, real listening, creates the conditions for trust. And when people trust you, you get the best version of them. Stressed people, people under excessive pressure, do not perform at their best. This is not idealism; it is risk management.
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You have spoken about AI bias, a topic that receives less attention than productivity or data privacy. What do project managers specifically need to understand about it?
The foundation is critical thinking. We must evaluate the results we receive from AI tools rather than simply accept them. And this should be cultivated from childhood, because children are using AI too.
Here is a simple example: if you ask an AI image generator to create a picture of a project team at work, and every person it produces is of a particular demographic, ask yourself, is that my reality? And even if it is your reality today, should it be? Research consistently shows that diverse teams produce better project outcomes.
The deeper issue is this: AI is trained on internet data, and not all communities, countries, or groups contribute equally to what is on the internet. The data reflects what has been written, not what exists in the world. I was recently preparing a presentation and searched for statistics on a topic, and found only “national” figures. National, from which nation? The algorithm had also weighted certain sources far more heavily than others.
As users, we have some ability to push back. But the more significant point is that project managers increasingly will be leading AI projects, not just using AI tools. They will have input into what data is selected, which algorithms are applied, and how the model is validated. Awareness of bias is not merely an ethical concern; it is a project management competency.
The most effective structural solution is diverse teams building these tools. If the people developing an AI system come from a narrow range of backgrounds, the blind spots will be narrow and consistent. Diversity in the development team is one of the most powerful mechanisms we have for reducing that risk.
Dr. Patricia Domínguez Marín holds a PhD in mathematics, leads complex technology transformation projects across Europe, and has spent years building volunteer programs at PMI that push for greater inclusion. In this conversation, she talks about what mathematics really teaches you about uncertainty, how she came to build PMI Germany’s Female Empowerment Program from the ground up, and why she believes critical thinking, not any particular tool or certification, is the most future-proof skill a project manager can have.
Alexander Sheludenkov, Project Manager with a decade of experience delivering transformation projects across supply chain, IT/OT infrastructure, and technology. Led initiatives in complex environments in Ukraine and Iraq, working with governmental and private clients. Currently based in Poland, serving clients across the EU. Passionate about emerging PM methodologies and data-backed approaches to project performance. Contributor to the PMI Poland community and advocate for evidence-based practice.