#weshapetech

Every month we ask one individual in our network a few questions about their way into tech, their motivation and their lessons learned.

Hi Silva, let’s start from the beginning. Tell us where you’re from!

I have had an interesting journey across the world. I was born in Tirana, Albania and moved to New Jersey with my family when I was 11 years old. I consider myself essentially American. But after having lived two years in sunny San Francisco before moving to Zurich, I would say California is home, or the “place where I’m from”.

What valuable advice did you get from your parents?

As any child of immigrant parents in the US, the number one lesson taught to us as kids was to work hard and study hard. I was always surrounded by books and I understood the importance of knowledge and education as the key to my future.

How did you become interested in tech?

Completely by coincidence when I found a position as a client partner at Ginetta, a web design agency. I worked in the art and design world in NYC and San Francisco before coming to Zurich. My exposure to the tech world before Zurich was only through all the people I got to know in the Bay Area. My husband is a computational physicists and once secretly signed me up for online coding classes. I learned quickly that I wasn’t cut out for coding, but I realize now that my love for working with people can serve as a good bridge to the tech community.

What aspects of your work are you proudest of?

I feel I can very easily connect with people and I want to be someone that others feel good around. If I’m successful at that, then that’s what I’m most proud of.

What drives you at work?

The drive to do excellent work. I don’t like the word perfectionist as I think it has an element of “obsession” in it, but I do strive for excellence. I want to inspire those around me to also not take any shortcuts and always do a thorough and good job. Of course this doesn’t mean that you should take months to get a small task done!

What has been your toughest challenge you faced while working in tech?

Not being able to always speak the tech lingo during discussions. It’s very intimidating to enter the tech world and not have a detailed understanding of the technical topics being discussed. But this gets easier and easier over time and you learn that simply asking questions can be extremely rewarding.

What advice would you give other women in tech?

Learn! Learn as much as you can. It’s obvious that men are the majority in this field and I truly believe that only surpassing them in knowledge can bring us closer to equal representation.

This month François Montay, Sr. UX Designer & Team Lead at Google explains why he supports the idea of a diversity movement such as WE SHAPE TECH.

I am fortunate to be a father of 2, a girl and a baby boy, both 3rd culture kids. My little girl will soon be 7. She is bright, bubbly and curious about a ton of things. Which is something I foster and encourage every day. 

The other day, while I was getting cash at the bank automat, she went on asking questions about "how it works, and how the machine knows how much money I have in my piggy bank. ” And here I am, describing technology and security to a 7 year old.

The whole experience turned out to be very interesting not only because she was truly fascinated by the way “machines” could communicate with each other, but also because technology was no longer a complete mystery. It became accessible, reachable, but still magic somehow. Maybe someday she'll want to explore more, and if she does, I want to make sure she has equal opportunity in this field than her brother.

This little crash course in computer science made me reflect on our practice. We need more women and diversity in our company because we need to be the reflection of our end-users. The same applies at the team level. “You don’t know what you don’t know.” Bringing as many perspectives as possible into a project is the surest way to maximize its chances of success.

Every month we ask one individual in our network a few questions about their way into tech, their motivation and their lessons learned.

Hi Sweta, let’s start from the beginning. Tell us where you’re from! I grew up in a small town named Patna, on the banks of the sacred river Ganges in India. Our family was part of the great struggle for India’s Independence from the British rule (my great grandfather, Babu Gorakh Prasad, was a close friend and ally of Mahatma Gandhi during the freedom struggle)

What valuable advice did you get from your parents?

Resilience is key for a meaningful life. The courage and ability to bounce back from difficult situations and come back stronger than ever is what sets one apart.

After my Masters, I joined India’s largest textile conglomerate, Arvind Mills, as the first female manufacturing manager in its 80-year history. I was only 23. I had no prior manufacturing experience. And I was managing a team of 300 men. Earning the immediate respect of my team wasn't a luxury, it was a necessity for professional survival. In this journey, resilience was my greatest friend as I worked hard to earn the trust, love and respect of my team-members at different occasions

How did you become interested in tech?

While in India, I launched Arrow-Woman, India’s first womenswear clothing brand in offline retail. After completing my MBA in the US, I started at eBay as a Product Manager for the Fashion Vertical…...it felt like a natural transition from offline to online retail aka ecommerce.

What aspects of your work are you proudest of?

I'm a passionate, user-focused tech enthusiast who represents the voice of the customer to our product teams.

What drives you at work?

Things that kick me out of the bed everyday for work. First, I want to be a part of the greater momentum at Google - turning potential ideas into great products that will provide value to our users. Second, my curiosity and hunger to learn new skills everyday in the hope of a greater hope;)

What has been your toughest challenge you faced while working in tech?

My toughest challenge has been work and life balance. To me, my family is most important, but my work is my Karma. It is very difficult to do one more than the other….

What advice would you give other women in tech?

I’d say that it is very important to know yourself truly, or else you’ll never know what you really want

Be open to take criticisms, it will only help you grow!

Be authentic and dare to be who you are…..at first, it might be strange and lonely, but trust me it will only prove your worth

Sweta, thank you very much for serving over 600 members and over 1,000 followers of WE SHAPE TECH as a role model!

Am 30. November fand der zweite Event von We Shape Tech in Bern statt. Dieses Mal in Zusammenarbeit mit Ellepreneur, einer Community für Unternehmerinnen und selbständige Frauen in Bern. In einer inspirierenden Location, dem Impact Hub Bern, konnten wir zusammen mit gut 40 Frauen und 2 Männern einen spannenden Abend geniessen. Das zentrale Thema des Events war «Mut». Sowohl während der Workshops als auch während des Interviews mit Anaïs Sägesser gab es einen guten Austausch von Erfahrungen, Tipps, Ideen und Meinungen.

Brigitte Hulliger hat den Event eröffnet mit Überlegungen zur Veranstaltung «Digital Manifest», die vor Kurzem auch in Bern stattgefunden hat, im altbekannten Bild von Teilnehmenden, ohne grosse Vielfalt. Sie fragte in die Runde, wo die Frauen in der digitale Zukunft geblieben sind.

Nach einer kurzen Einführung ist die Zeit gekommen für Workshops. In drei Gruppen diskutierten wir über die Überwindung von Mut im Alltag, im Beruf und in der Freizeit. Wir haben Erfahrungen ausgetauscht über die Überwindung und den Mut, den wir häufig brauchen, um unsere Ideen umzusetzen, uns in der Öffentlichkeit zu positionieren oder einfach etwas Neues zu versuchen.

Während des Workshops haben wir neue Komponenten sowie Erfahrung, Unterstützung und gute Vorbereitung als Strategien identifiziert, die uns helfen können, die «unüberwindbaren Hürden» in mutigen Situationen zu reduzieren.

Nach dem Workshop wurden die Teilnehmenden aufgefordert, sich eine Postkarte zu schreiben mit ihren persönlichen Mutmachern. Diese werden sie in den nächsten Wochen erhalten (Bitte Foto twittern, wenn ihr sie erhalten habt :-)).

Nach den Workshops kam die Zeit für das Interview mit Anaïs Sägesser über Beruf und Berufung. Miriam Gantert befragte sie zu ihrer Karriereschritten, dem Mut eine sichere Stelle zu verlassen und eine neue professionelle Karriere zu starten.

Anaïs hat mit uns ihren Erfahrungen während den verschieden Etappen ihre Karrierewechseln geteilt und geschlossen mit:

Das anschliessende Apero war eine super Networking Gelegenheit mit interessanten Gesprächen. Es war schön euch alle wieder zu sehen und wir freuen uns schon auf unseren nächsten Event am 22. Februar 2017. Mehr darüber erfahrt ihr in unserem Newsletter.

...and before you can realize, it’s almost Christmas time again. Have you planned your holidays already? Do you already know which gifts you will give to whom? And frankly speaking, didn’t you promise yourself that that next year, you want to enjoy the pre-Christmas time more deeply? Anyhow. Here is your chance to detach from the Christmas hazzle, lean back and meet other inspiring ladies such as yourself!

Your friends from WE SHAPE TECH set up a cool X-mas event at a hip place in Zurich. Bring your full self to this evening and feel free to bring your friends (just ensure they’ll register as well!). Celebration is only fun in the company of others – the more the merrier! We want to organize a cozy dinner that allows great ladies like you to connect to each other in a casual atmosphere, therefore, we limited the number of participants to 30. We have a first come, first serve policy and the tickets are selling out fast. Most likely, we will close the application on December 1st, and it would be sad if you’d miss the fun.

What makes successful women successful? A great network is always key. Be the inspiration and the encouragement for others and get inspiration and encouragement from others. We all are sitting in the same boat, let’s help each other on our journey – strong women help strong women! Or simply put: let’s just have a fun evening! We will ensure that you change seats various times, hence, you will have various chances to meet other great women.

We are looking forward to seeing you soon,

The WE SHAPE TECH team

Date: 14th December 2016, 18:30 Location: Brisket Southern BBQ & Bar, Pfingstweidstrasse 6, 8005 Zürich Sign up: get your ticket on Eventbrite and bring your friends along!

The fourth We Shape Tech event in Zurich was dedicated to recruit, retain and lead diverse teams. This was our first event that was explicitly open for a diverse audience, so everyone was very pleased that the number of male participants on this evening was correspondingly high. We listened to representatives from Siroop, Southpole and Google Switzerland who shared fruitful insights with us. The event was hosted by Google Switzerland and moderated by Daniel Frei.

Startup views and challenges by Siroop Isa Steiner, CTO at Siroop, was the first key note speaker on stage. Siroop needed to recruit more than 100 people in just one year and hence was forced to hire diversely. Diversity for them is a topic that is more about integrating people with different experiences such as age, race or sexual orientation than about integrating men and women in the workplace. Siroop aims at hiring people that share a common mindset and are highly intrinsically motivated.

Siroop’s key values are transparency and tolerance such as flat hierarchies. They value experience over age and are striving to embrace change. Currently Siroop has about 20% women working in  tech, whereas the overall diversity ratio is 2/3 men and 1/3 women, which might be partly due todifferent working models that Siroop supports.

Question: 《Is there too much diversity?》 @tweetizzy:《In my opinion, only when too many opinions contradict with company values.》#weshapetech

— siroop_inside (@siroop_inside) October 5, 2016

Diversity is a must for South Pole Group Renat Heuberger, CEO at the South Pole Group, has no other choice than being diverse. The business of the South Pole Group is to clean up the supply chain and to save our planet from the undergoing climate change. He works in a global business that includes working with big as well as very small companies. The skill chain include people from political, financial, tech, legal and communication departments in a very international setting with offices scattered across the globe. Therefore diversity is a reality and a must for him.

Southpole defines itself as a social enterprise. It has to deal with cultural differences and its CEO believes that hiring bright people helps to bridge across cultures.

Complex systems require diverse teams as well as joint forces of smart brains.

CEO of #southpole talking @ #weshapetech pic.twitter.com/COVt38vWwW

— Nadia Fischer (@NadiaZuerich) October 5, 2016

Diversity is healthy for better products - Google Eric Tholomé, Google Switzerland’s site lead, told us that Google favors diversity and wants to create awareness that there is still work ahead. Currently about 19% of the developers and 31% of Google’s staff are female for instance. That is not enough to him and Google is investing a lot of resources into improving the diversity rate in all areas due to the fact that diverse teams are building better products.

Google’s current conviction is that smart people can be found and hired everywhere. They still want to hire the best people so the bar just cannot be lowered in order to raise diversity. Currently a lot of effort is being carried out to make the staff more divers. There is a Googler-in-Residence Program in place that helps to raise the share of black computer scientists and a lot of regular internships are offered. Check out Google’s diversity site if you like to learn more about Google’s diversity stats.

Google fosters a bottom-up culture in conjunction with a speaking-up culture. The daily work is organized in groups and people are pretty used to debate topics. Conflicts with respect to ideas are considered helpful and fundamental. But “at Google we are discussing ideas not people” according to Eric Tholomé. An internal training program to avoid unconscious bias has been raised back in 2013.

"It should not be the minorities' problem to fix the minorities' problem!" Well said @tholome from @Google_CH #weshapetech pic.twitter.com/IBxCGVeXJo

— Céline Tykve (@celine_tykve) October 5, 2016

With a lot of food for thought, the guests and speakers  went on for networking and Apéro. A warm thank you to all speakers, participants and especially to Google Switzerland for the invitation into their premises.

Thanks for the nice gifts @siroop_ch. #weshapetech pic.twitter.com/prlY9w1eup

Every month we ask one individual in our network a few questions about their way into tech, their motivation and their lessons learned.

Tell us where you’re from! I grew up in Switzerland in a region called Napf in canton Lucerne. After having lived for a couple of years in Toronto, Canada together with my husband we moved back 11 year ago to Switzerland. After that I completed a Master in Design Communication at Bern University of Applied Science and worked for a software company. At the end of  2015, me and two of my friends  decided to start our own company.

What valuable advice did you get from your parents? “Trust your instinct and be a good listener”. I was told to trust myself to find answers but also to take the responsibility which comes with my decisions.

How did you become interested in tech? For my master thesis, I developed a digital platform concept for teaching History to school children. Along the way during this thesis, I got interested in the power of technology and the positive impact it can have on society and business.

What aspects of your work are you proudest of? I enjoy working in a team set-up to achieve a common goal. I’m proud of instances where I have contributed to my team in finding solution to a challenging problem and energized team members to overcome hurdles.

What drives you at work? A few aspects come to my mind:

Coming up with new ideas and testing them.

Doing things better: Whether it’s optimizing processes or improving customer experience.

Learning and trying out new things and sharing it with my colleagues

What has been your toughest challenge you faced while working in tech? I have experienced the power of interdisciplinary teams and at the same time the challenges which come with it, especially regarding communication: Many times it is hard to understand each other because the vocabularies used for the same things are different in each discipline. We lack a common vocabulary.

What advice would you give other women in tech? My learnings so far are:  

Don’t aim for perfection; rather test with an 80% version with customers.

Focus is key: Pick 1 to 2 actions to work on vs. multiple topics.