A Day in the Life of Ellie Lewis: Principal Project Manager

What does an average day look like for you as a Principal Project Manager?

A typical day involves a lot of meetings, but they’re far from ordinary. I spend time catching up with various project teams. As a project manager, I can work on anywhere from one or two projects up to ten or more simultaneously. Currently, I’m juggling about eight projects.

My main focus is ensuring everyone is fully enabled and knows exactly what they’re doing. I check that everything is on track, review timelines and budgets to ensure we’re progressing as predicted and raise any issues as they arise.

What do you enjoy most about your role as a project manager?

I enjoy the variety. Working on multiple projects exposes me to new and interesting challenges. I particularly appreciate working with the different disciplines we have at Crux. It’s a continuous learning experience – I discover something new every day about areas I didn’t even know existed or that people worked on. My highlights are the variety and opportunity to work with a diverse range of people and skill sets.

What inspires you about the future of product design and its potential impact on society?

What truly inspires me is the development of novel design, working within a team creating something that hasn’t been done before, either in or out of Crux. One of our most stand out projects we worked on was developing a low-cost respiratory device for global deployment in a pre-pandemic state, which was heavily user-centred. We spent a significant amount of time focusing on the user, aiming to design something inclusive that the majority of people can use. This approach has enormous potential to impact society positively.

It’s incredibly rewarding to be part of creating something entirely new. Being part of such pioneering work makes me feel proud and inspired about the future of product design.

What are the most promising trends or innovations that you expect to shape your industry in the future?

AI, particularly tools like Microsoft Copilot, has significant potential to enhance efficiency in our industry. The technology could help us use existing data from similar projects we’ve completed in the past, allowing us to pull together project plans or work breakdown structures much more quickly.

I also anticipate more automation and data processing innovations. We’re always looking for ways to streamline our processes and explore new tools to help us work more efficiently.

What has been your favourite or most interesting project to work on?

I work on such a variety of projects it’s difficult to pick one. However, when we have the freedom to drive project deliverables and focus on the user, I find this most interesting. The biggest challenge on one specific project was ensuring the product could be used globally in various settings and environments.

This led to an extensive research phase, allowing us to travel to different parts of the world to understand how people live and how they would interact with our devices. My colleagues visited Colombia, while I and two other team members travelled to India. We explored different locations to observe the extremes of medical care environments.

This global focus led to some insightful experiences. It was fascinating to take our Bristol born models into people’s homes and working environments completely different from what we’re used to. Seeing how people interacted with our designs in these diverse contexts proved invaluable for the project.

What advice would you give to someone considering a career in this field?

Communication is key, as is understanding people. It’s crucial to realise that team members and clients have different priorities to you. You need to understand what’s important to all stakeholders involved and work collaboratively, being transparent about project dependencies and reasoning for deadlines.

Being personable goes a long way. It’s important to remove the blinkers from your plan, be open to the bigger picture and get comfortable with being uncomfortable. If everything always went to plan, we’d be out of a job! You’ve got to be prepared for things not going as expected and be able to adapt.

What do you get up to outside of work?

I’ve lived in Bristol since starting my degree in product design at UWE, and I really enjoy the city. Bristol has excellent food to offer and lots of different ciders to taste!

I also love to travel, and when I’m on holiday, I always seek new adrenaline-fuelled activities. If I see something I haven’t tried before, I’m always up for giving it a go.

At home, we’re currently in the middle of a loft conversion. While professionals handle the major work, I’m looking forward to getting stuck in with the finishing touches and making it our own. It’s a different kind of problem-solving from my day job, but just as rewarding.