#digitalprojectmanager

What is your name? Sam George (only if I am naughty) Harper-Wallis

And where are you from? Stourbridge

Role: Digital Project Manager

What is it you do? In a sentence... I facilitate the delivery of the scope of a project for Made Media's clients.

In a paragraph… My job as a project manager involves many different functions: cat herder, scope wrangler, delivery man. As a PM it's my job to watch over and coordinate projects to make sure that we can give the client exactly what they need on time and budget. Day to day this includes project client calls, trello management, testing, SoW writing, sprint briefing, requirement defining, and dependency gathering.

Tell us a little about your professional journey to Made? In 2010 I went to university in Manchester to study Cellular Molecular Biology. I always had a passion for science, especially biology, so it was an easy choice.

After completing university I started to look for a job so naturally as a newly minted science graduate the obvious choice was to become a recruitment consultant. I did this job for around 6ish months, before being moved into a contracts manager/business manager role to scout out for new business opportunities.

I then fell into a product owner role with a new business being spun out from my company, focusing on supply teachers for the education sector. While working as a product owner, I was also dipping into project management. I really enjoyed this side of the business, so I decided to look for a job with an agency which my mentor at the time suggested would be the best challenge for me.

I moved to a small bespoke agency in Manchester, but I knew I wanted to move back home, so in May 2018 I decided to take an opportunity in Birmingham as a Digital Project Manager, with another agency based in the Jewellery Quarter. During my first year, I worked with some massive clients and really honed my project management skills.

Through this project management work, I started to work with the operations director who helped me implement changes which improved company-wide cohesion. I was then offered a new role that sat between the account and studio team. Here I was the gatekeeper for all things process. The studio process, work request process, support and SLA process. During this time I implemented new processes to improve efficiency. I did this for over half a year but my heart was elsewhere. I wanted to get back in front of clients and deliver great projects which I can be proud of.

In October I had an interview here at Made. We take a really pragmatic approach to development resource and project management which appealed to me. So I was extremely pleased when I was offered the job as a project manager.

I joined in November and so far I am loving every day! 

What do you like doing when you're not working? Mostly cooking, gardening, eating, walking the doggo.

What is your proudest achievement? I completed Bravo Training in the Army Reserves. I started my 16 days of training at Grantham, getting up at 5 am and going to bed, at some times 11 pm.  This wasn’t the hard part, nor the constant exercise or sleeping in the cold or even drills. It was being away from my girlfriend Hannah.

What is your slogan in life? You can't control people's actions but you can control your reactions to them. #stoic4life

What is the best thing you’ve ever seen performed? Cirque du Soleil.

'Alexa...' or 'Hey Google...'? Hey Google...

If you were an Animated Character, who would you be and why? My girlfriend helped me answer this as I was struggling - "You're Jimmy Neutron - You have a massive head, not because you're clever, you just have a massive head".

What would the title of your autobiography be? The man with a massive head.