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Newsletter Editor’s Note: Preparing for a certification can feel both exciting and overwhelming - and who better to learn from than colleagues who have just gone through the process? In this new Q&A series, we highlight recently certified team members who share their personal journeys, study approaches, challenges, and tips for success. Their real-world experiences aim to inspire and support anyone preparing for their next exam, offering practical insights and honest reflections from those who’ve been right where you are. At the end of each feature, you’ll also find a short author bio to help you get to know the voices behind the stories.

What motivated you to pursue your GPM-b certification?

I studied environmental impact during my bachelor’s degree, but back then it felt abstract and distant. Over the years, sustainability became more personal and tangible for me. Professionally, I work in a company where sustainability is a strategic pillar - it influences every program and every project we deliver. Personally, I’ve become increasingly aware of the consequences of our unsustainable choices: temperature rise, biodiversity loss, widespread pollution, and even the very practical experience of renovating my house.Seeing how resource-intensive and wasteful even small renovation can be has made me realize how deeply sustainability must be embedded in everything we do - from daily habits to large-scale programs. I wanted to properly educate myself, understand what can truly be done, and bring more structured thinking into both my personal and professional decision-making. While I was already using sustainability concepts at work and thinking about them privately, the GPM-b methodology gave me a much broader perspective and practical tools. The P5 Impact Assessment, in particular, stood out to me - so simple, yet so powerful. It made me feel like every project, whether it’s a house renovation or a global transformation program, should go through this lens.The course content flows naturally and felt, in a way, visceral - deeply practical and immediately applicable. I’m genuinely happy I took this step.

Do you have one or two tips for others preparing for the exam?

My main tip is to take full advantage of the course content and reference materials - they are very comprehensive and give you everything you need, from principles to practical tools. But what really made the difference for me was connecting the GPM methodology with what we already know from the PMP framework.

If you’re PMP-certified, you’ll notice very quickly that the GPM process, stages, and tools align naturally with PMI’s process groups, knowledge areas, and ITTOs. Mapping them together helps not only with understanding the GPM approach, but also with seeing how GPM actually expands the PMI standards with sustainability, systems thinking, and long-term value considerations.

This makes the GPM-b easier to learn and much more intuitive - and it also helps you understand how sustainability isn’t a separate task, but something that can be integrated into everyday program and project decisions.

Author’s Bio

With a background in mechanical engineering and a master’s in engineering management, Samuel Brugnaroto thrives where technical depth meets cross-functional coordination. Over the past six years, he led operational projects and programs while contributing to manufacturing strategy at Danone.

Newsletter Editor’s Note: Feeling inspired? We’d love to spotlight your journey next. If you’ve recently achieved a certification or are proud of the path you took to get there, reach out to editor@pmi-nl.nl. We’ll support you in shaping your story so it can motivate and guide others on their own certification path.