30 May 2023

  • Financial Services

Employee Spotlight: Amy Bracewell, Programme Director

This month’s #employeespotlight is on our Programme Director, Amy Bracewell, who has been part of the cxpartners team for 6 years. In the blog she tells us about how she was always destined for project management, sheds some light on exactly what she does at cxpartners and dives into her passion for gender equality.

Hi all,

I’m Amy and I’m a Programme Director here at cxpartners.

Terrible journalist, good organiser

I’m a Project Manager by trade. I’ve always loved being the one with the plan within my group of friends. When I was at uni, I worked for the student paper. I was a terrible journalist but good at running the schedules, delivery timelines, keeping an eye on our budgets, and making sure the team was working well together. My Dad was smart enough to tell me that I didn’t have to do all of that for free, and it was called Project Management. Genius.

Four days after graduating from Sussex University with a Sociology degree (specialising in gender studies), I joined a direct marketing agency as a graduate Project Manager. I spent a few years there, learning the ropes of how project plans, budget sheets and status reports work.

A photo of Amy as a child pretending to talk on the phone, looking very serious. She's sat next to another little girl who is also pretending to talk on the phone
Me (on the left) discussing the budgetary implications of another mini milk.

Human-Centred Project Management

I started at cxpartners in the summer of 2017. I started within the Financial Services team where I was plunged into the world of research, UX design and insurance. I applied to cxpartners because of their reputation of being industry leaders in good UX practice – something that I really wanted to get into. I now often refer to myself as a Human-Centred Project Manager which means I put my team’s needs first when planning everything! Projects are not successful in my book if our team members are overstretched, undervalued and sad. I hope the teams I work with see this as my superpower; care of their wellbeing is certainly where I try to add the most value!

I count myself very lucky to have stumbled across the advert for a job at cxpartners. How different my life would have been if I’d not seen it!

What do I actually do at cxpartners

Over my time at cxpartners, I’ve delivered such a variety of projects and programmes. I’ve been part of the team to deliver a live chat for Womens Aid, I’ve been involved in a large scale customer centric transformation for SSE Energy Solutions, and I’ve been in the West End conducting research with theatre goers for ATG. The thing that drives me forward is the need for us to be kind and to make things more equal for everyone.

I’ve moved from mid-weight Project Manager to Programme Director over my time here. My current role means I look after the commercial wellbeing of the Financial Services team, overseeing project delivery, team planning and mobilisation on key accounts.

The FS team and what we’re trying to achieve

Our mission in the Financial Services team is to help people make better financial decisions – by designing simple, easy-to-understand financial products and services.  It’s wonderful to be part of a team that really cares about supporting the most vulnerable people in our society. We are also lucky to be working with a group of clients who truly believe in the power of listening to their customers and putting their needs at the front of business decision making. Some of my thinking around researching with vulnerable people is here.

Who runs the world?

My passion for gender equality that kick started at university remains to this day. The empowerment of women, especially, has always been something that I’ve believed in and strived for in my personal and professional life. I take a really active role in the LadiesWotUX community that we have at cxpartners that addresses some of the inequalities we see in our industry. We are lucky at cxpartners to be led by some incredible leaders (many of whom are women) so we do spend a lot of our time focussing on how we can make a difference for those who are still at a disadvantage and how we empower those in our industries. There’s some really incredible stuff going on with mentorship that is making us all excitable.

I am currently in the midst of a Women in Leadership programme run by our parent company, Sopra Steria. It’s been a really eye-opening experience, leaving some of us feeling emotionally raw as well as empowered. We have learnt how to be authentic and bring your whole, true self to work.

Bringing work home and home to work

This is possibly easier for me as work is my home life too. My husband (as of the 25th April this year) and I met while working at cxpartners and continue to work together as colleagues today. Between the two of us we have 16 years of experience here at cxp.  It certainly means we are a good team and has meant the wedding planning featured project plans, kanban boards and wedding invitations designed in Figma. If you want to see a cost breakdown plug-in for Notion, I’m your woman, although currently it features elements such as “shoes” or “Mark’s suit”.

A photo of Amy and Mark, having just got married. Amy is wearing a white dress and carrying a small bunch of peonies. Mark is wearing a blue suit. They're both covered in confetti and smiling
A regular afternoon out for me and Experience Director, Mark

#greatplacetowork

cxpartners truly is a great place to work (officially ™) and this is 100% down to the people that work here.  There is no-one I dread working alongside (which probably means that I’m the one people are trying to avoid!). Everyone, without exception, is kind and smart.  Everyday, I am completely surrounded by incredibly intelligent, generous and interesting people. We all have one thing in common and that is the need to be curious about the world around us. Why has that been designed in that way? What can we do to make things better for people? Fundamentally, how can our skills make a difference to the industries we work?

If you want to talk about Human Centred Project Management or that you seem to be doing project plans for free for your friends, please drop me a note, I’m always happy to natter.

Learn more about Employee Spotlight: Amy Bracewell, Programme Director

Amy Bracewell

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Programme Director

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