
Episode #11
Project Manager by Day, Movie Buff by Night W/ Elena Varela
Be a guest on People at Pyramid: https://feeds.transistor.fm/people-at-pyramid Process improvement, Lean Six Sigma, and the planning that decides a project before the work even starts, with our member Elena Varela. This week on People at Pyramid, we're spotlighting our member Elena Varela, a business manager at Drexel University who spends her days making complicated projects run smoothly. If you have ever watched a big initiative stall, drift, or collapse under its own weight, this conversation is for you. Elena works in process improvement, and she is a believer in the Lean Six Sigma approach and the DMAIC framework: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control. But the heart of what she does is simpler than the terminology sounds. Before any project starts, she gets the requirements clear and builds a charter everyone can agree on. Skip that planning, she says, and it always comes back later as bloat, rework, and a timeline nobody signed up for. She also talks about the human side of the job. A big part of managing projects is managing people: getting experts in a room, keeping them pointed in the same direction, and building the trust that keeps the work moving. Elena calls it herding cats, and she clearly loves it. We get into where AI tools fit, too. Elena and Vince trade stories about using them for the parts of the work nobody wants to do, and about what happens when you hand them the hard part instead. Then the conversation turns to something closer to Elena's heart: movies, storytelling, and why she is drawn to stories about human connection. Meet Elena, and hear why she is the kind of member who makes this community what it is. CHAPTERS: 0:00 - Meet Elena Varela, Business Manager at Drexel 3:00 - Project Management Best Practices 7:40 - Movies, Storytelling, and Human Connection 10:30 - A Show Recommendation and How to Connect GUEST LINKS: Elena Varela on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elenajvarela/ ABOUT PEOPLE AT PYRAMID: People at Pyramid is the Pyramid Club's member spotlight podcast. Every episode, we sit down with one of our members to hear what they do, what drives them, and the stories that make them worth knowing. Hosted by Vince Quinn. SUBSCRIBE for a new member spotlight every other week. CONNECT: Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/people-at-pyramid/id1784545290 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7alEumoeEpbqgHzaugBPLZ Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdd93VlJAwBR_m7jDhPxq3agoS8iLuT4G People at Pyramid: https://feeds.transistor.fm/people-at-pyramid Vince Quinn on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/vincequinn Interested in being featured on People at Pyramid? Register here Want help with your podcast? E-mail Vince Quinn vq@sbxproductions.com Want to learn about Pyramid Club Membership? Click here.

