Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate a model of adoption of social media to assist project managers in the treatment of lessons learned (LL). Target, a collaborative model to foster learning in projects, approaches the problem of LL management from nearly a new light and perspective. Design/methodology/approach – This research was conducted using a mixed methods approach with a research design denominated partially mixed concurrent equal status. In this design, both quantitative and qualitative elements were conducted concurrently in their entirety before being mixed at the data interpretation stage. These elements have approximately equal emphasis with respect to reaching the objectives of the research. Findings – The results indicate the most suitable social media that match each LL process. They show how to manage LL through processes made in any phase of the project life cycle. The LL processes most commonly used in the projects are raising awareness, collect and store. According to the questionnaire respondents, 54.5 percent of organizations make use of social media in project management, and among the interviewees, half of them use such tools in projects. In addition, 84.1 percent of the questionnaire respondents believe that social media can assist in the LL management. Research limitations/implications – This study did not get proven successful experience reports in the management of LL. Respondents and interviewees mentioned and recognized such importance, but in projects that use LL management there are no control reports of this learning in organizations in order to measure the gains from the practice of LL management, which indicates an area for future work. An empirical validation of the model proposed in this paper is one immediate research to be done. Another future work is to validate the model in projects from disparate sectors. Practical implications – The Target model could minimize the problem of knowledge drain, which is ineffective learning practices, resulting in knowledge hoarding, limited sharing and superficial LL practices. Thus, the use of processes supported by collaborative tools that promote discussion, with a familiar format for the user and with an efficient search engine, can generate greater involvement in projects. The usefulness is determined as practical and scientific. It is determined as practical use, because the model allows the selection of tools for each LL process and it can be applied to projects in organizations. Originality/value – This research proposes a new approach to the management of LL supported by social media. The Target model adds a theoretical contribution to LL processes associating them to social media. This research revisited the extant LL processes and methods in the literature, proposing a new process – raising awareness – that covers personal and interpersonal aspects for the management of LL. The theoretical contribution lies on incremental originality, since it is based on existing theories, processes, methods and tools in order to provide a solution to a known problem.
