There's a folk theory that 2020 wrecked project management. The data from PM Solutions' January 2021 survey tells a different story. According to PM Solutions Research, organizations performed better in 2020 than in previous years, and the lift lined up almost perfectly with how aggressively teams switched to virtual project management practices.
That doesn't mean the year was easy. It means the teams that adapted fast were the ones who pulled ahead, and the lift came from a small number of habits, not from the software they bought.
Key facts
- Survey timing: January 2021, looking back at 2020 in practice.
- Headline finding: organizational performance improved year over year.
- Strongest correlation: wider use of virtual project management strategies and tools.
- Doubled behavior among top performers: virtual training investment.
- Cultural marker of top performers: trust, transparency, flexibility and direct financial support for remote staff.
What the data actually measures
Performance here is not just revenue. The study tracked an array of metrics, from financial outcomes to employee satisfaction, which is why the conclusion is more useful than a revenue chart. Teams that did well on soft measures also did well on hard ones.
The variable most tightly linked to that outcome was the breadth of virtual project management practice: how many tools and rituals had been moved online, how quickly training was shifted into virtual formats, and how the team was supported in the move.
The four cultural moves that mattered
Top-performing organizations in the survey shared a recognizable cluster of habits. They moved quickly to support remote workers with a mix of benefits. They doubled down on virtual training rather than pausing it. They were transparent about decisions in a way that built trust. And they offered the kind of financial support that said, in effect, "we know this is a strain."
These are not new ideas. What changed is that organizations that had hesitated on them pre-2020 were forced to act, and the ones that acted fast were the ones whose employee engagement scores held up.
Our analysis
The lesson is not "everyone should now work remotely." It's that virtual project management is a real discipline, not a contingency plan. The teams that learned the discipline in 2020 keep the habits because the habits measurably helped.
The lesson for project managers is more specific. Investment in virtual training was the strongest signal in the data. That tells you the bottleneck was not tooling, it was capability. Teams that could learn remotely got better faster than teams that couldn't.
A worked example
Say you lead a 30-person program team that went fully remote in March 2020 and never went back. In 2021, your retrospectives start to flag that new hires are taking longer to ramp than they used to. The fix isn't more documentation. It's a structured two-week virtual onboarding cohort with live sessions, pairing rotations, and a defined mentor. That mirrors what the high-performing organizations in the survey did with training, and it costs far less than turnover.
Bottom line
Treat virtual project management as a permanent capability, not a pandemic workaround. The data says the teams that did are still ahead.
Frequently asked questions
When was the PM Solutions survey on virtual project management conducted?
PM Solutions Research conducted the survey in January 2021, covering what organizations did during the pandemic to meet targets.
Did organizational performance improve or decline in 2020?
According to PM Solutions, organizations achieved better performance in 2020 than in previous years, alongside wider use of virtual project management.
What was the strongest marker of top performers in the survey?
High performers roughly doubled their existing virtual training strategies and quickly supported remote workers with cultural and financial help.
Why does the survey emphasize culture, not just tools?
The data links trust, transparency, flexibility and direct financial support to higher engagement and stronger outcomes, beyond the tools themselves.
What should a project manager take from the data?
Invest in virtual training and onboarding for remote teams, since that variable correlated most tightly with the performance lift.