Build

All this month, Karen Catlin and I have been digging into the theme of mentoring. We started out by sharing the debut Build episode on why some people are reluctant to seek mentoring, and last week we talked about how to approach mentors, set expectations, and thank them. In today’s final episode, on mentoring for this month, we’re going to talk about what you can do to become an effective mentor yourself. We understand that you might be reluctant to be a mentor for a number of reasons: you don’t have the time, you don’t feel qualified, or you feel like your experiences may not relate. Don’t worry Karen and me have you covered! You’ll learn: How mentoring is a two-way street benefiting both the mentor and mentee Why you don’t need to have same experience or perspective as your mentee Who should be holding the mentee accountable What to do when you just don’t have time, but still want to help someone who approaches you What to do when someone brings you a deeply personal problem Transcript Poornima: In the p

Have you already tried mentoring and found that it’s not working for you? Is it because you’re just not getting what you want out of it, or other people have convinced you it’s just not worth your time? We get that something may go wrong, which is why in today’s episode we’re going to cover ALL the things that can go wrong with mentoring. But we won’t leave you hanging… Karen Catlin (https://karencatlin.com/) and I will provide concrete tips (including some exact script to use) for: - Why you might consider finding a mentor inside versus outside your current company - How you can go about setting clear expectations with your mentor - How mentoring and coaching are different - How to decide if it makes sense to pay for coaching - Why it’s important to thank your mentor and how to do it effectively In the next video, we’ll conclude our theme of mentoring by sharing how you can get started as a mentor! Transcript Poornima: In the last segment, we talked about the importance of mentorship and why some people may

Welcome to Build brought to you by Pivotal Tracker! I’m your host, Poornima Vijayashanker.  Each Build episode consists of a series of conversations I have with innovators. Together we debunk myths and misconceptions related to building products, companies, and your career in tech. One misconception I fell prey to early on in my career was staying heads down and waiting for someone to acknowledge my accomplishments. The thought of tooting my own horn seemed too self-promotional. I was worried about what my teammates and boss would think. It wasn’t until I came across people who helped me find my voice and style that I realized the disservice I had been doing to my career. Through their guidance and support, I realized how beneficial mentors can be to your career. While there’s been a lot of talk already about the need for mentors, in today’s segment we’re going to take a slightly different angle and explore: Why many resist seeking mentorship What is a mentor versus a sponsor When is mentoring appropriate Wh

There’s been a lot of debate and controversy around the lack of women and minorities being represented in tech companies from entry-level to the C-suite and board room. However, what isn’t showcased is how there is sisterhood within tech, where women are helping each other out, and enacting change at every level from schools to the board room. To talk about how women are investing and encouraging each other, I’ve invited Samantha Walravens who is the co-author of the new book Geek Girl Rising: Inside the Sisterhood Shaking Up Tech. If you’re a woman, minority, or male ally you’ll learn from Samantha how: Women like Maria Klawe at Harvey Mudd have tripled the number of women graduating with Computer Science degrees Women are connecting female founders to female angel investors and influencers to grow their startups Corporations are changing and disrupting the dynamics of the boardroom   This is the last episode of FemgineerTV but don’t worry it’s not the end... After hosting FemgineerTV and listening to audi

There are a lot of people who want to change their career later in life. They want to do more challenging work, earn more money, and have a better lifestyle. Given the growing need of technical talent in the US, it would see like a technical career would be a great choice, right? Unfortunately despite the dearth of technical talent, many people are wary because of the misconception that transitioning into a technical career later in life is just too hard. Another is, as you start to fall behind on your technical skills, it’s hard to play catch up! Hence, a lot of people struggle to stay relevant. Piling on career pauses like parenthood make it even harder! However, the growing number of retraining programs, bootcamps, and online education options are looking to cater to busy people who are eager to transition into a technical position. In today’s episode we’ll talk to Tina Lee, who is actively is working to change these misconceptions with her nonprofit MotherCoders, which helps moms on-ramp to technical care

If your company doesn’t produce a hockey stick graph for growth by the end of the first year, you’ve done something wrong. Don’t expect it to become one of the fastest-growing companies, just shut it down! Seems drastic, no? Sadly, that’s what many founders are led to believe. The truth is, it can take several years to really figure things out. Some of the fastest-growing companies today began really slowly. To debunk the myths around how long it takes to really see significant growth, I’ve invited Ooshma Garg, the CEO and Founder of Gobble. Gobble is a weekly dinner-kit delivery service that helps busy people cook dinner in just 10 minutes with one pan. It is growing quickly, doing $100M in sales. But it didn’t happen overnight. It took 3+ years of twists and turns through the trough of sorrow. This is one of my favorite episodes because Ooshma does a great job of talking openly about issues that many founders struggle with like: - why you should pursue your idea, even when you don’t have a funding or a tech

Two common pieces of startup advice that get doled out are you need to be in Silicon Valley to start your startup, and you need to cater to customers in the US market. That’s a tall order considering the rising cost of housing, the war on tech talent, and a number of challenges facing immigrant entrepreneurs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SybHtHG6gcA). Plus it’s simply not true. There are a number of startups that are starting up and succeeding outside Silicon Valley (http://femgineer.com/2016/05/myths-overcome-idea-to-global-product/). To help debunk this myth and others, I’ve invited Marina Mogilko (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAQg09FkoobmLquNNoO4ulg) who is the co-founder of LinguaTrip (https://linguatrip.com/en/), an online marketplace that connects language learners around the world to language schools. What you’ll learn from Marina in this episode: - How Marina and her co-founder came up with the idea for LinguaTrip, and began it as an offline business. - How they transitioned from offline to onl

Many of us think of a career as the period between college graduation and retirement. We’ve bought into the myth that taking a pause is considered a career killer because to truly be successful we have to keep working! As a result, many companies both large and small have developed a work-first culture that operates 24/7. But what if we want more from life than just work? I’m not talking about work and life balance. I mean taking a REAL pause that is longer than a weekend or a month vacation and isn’t tied to work taking a sabbatical from work to write a book, travel, start a company, or go back to school. I mean pausing just for a life goal, like pausing for parenthood. Is it even possible and can we do it without killing our careers? Well to help us answer this question, I’ve invited Lisen Stromberg who is the CEO & Founder of Prism Work, a culture innovation consultancy. She and her team partner with companies, leaders, and advocates to innovate the workplace so the next generation isn’t forced to c

It’s the start of a new year, and you’re probably really excited to run some experiments for your startup or company. Since you’re keen on trying a lot of things, you’re probably going to be saying yes a lot! Saying yes is a great way to show others that we’re open to trying new things, taking in feedback, and making time for them. However, when we say yes over and over we start to lose our focus. If we do it too many times, it can be disastrous, especially when time is of the essence and we are trying to get something off the ground, like a startup! So today we’re going to flip things around learn a simple and tactical way to say NO. And to teach us how to say NO the right way, I’ve invited Steli Efti: https://twitter.com/Steli, who is the CEO & Co-Founder of Close.io: https://close.io/. While Steli and I dig into best practices for people who are in startups, this episode also contains valuable nuggets for individuals out there who have struggled to say no to a boss, teammate or customer effectively. Do

There has been a lot of conversation in the tech community about how to build a pipeline of computer scientists for the next generation, bring awareness to groups that aren’t current represented and improve diversity numbers. While there’s been a lot of work and initiatives that have cropped up over the years, there’s still a lot to be done. Whether you believe in diversity or are skeptical about it, at some point your organization is going to want to scale its recruiting efforts. In today’s episode, Jessica McKellar (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_McKellar) and I are going to skip past the usual complaints, and get down and dirty into what is and isn’t working and why. Jessica is currently an engineering manager at Dropbox (https://www.dropbox.com/) and was previously the Director of the Python Software Foundation (https://www.python.org/psf/). Jessica has also co-authored two books about computer programming (Twisted Network Programming Essentials - https://www.amazon.com/Twisted-Network-Programming-

I’m a HUGE proponent of working for an early stage startup, having already done it three times in my career. I even did a series a couple years ago to showcase the benefits of being an early stage startup employee, which you can watch here. However, early stage isn’t the only stage. It would be unfair of me to or anyone else to lead you astray based on what has worked for us. You’ve got to find a stage that fits your needs. To help you out, in today’s episode, I’ve invited a guest who has oodles of experience working at growth stage technology companies, Pedram Keyani. Pedram is currently the Director of Global Growth Engineering at Uber. He’s grown the engineering team from around 20 to 250 engineers in the past couple of years. Prior to Uber, Pedram was the director at Facebook and began working there when it was a 200 person company, and was there during the IPO. Pedram began his career working at Google as a software engineer right around the time it was IPO’ing. This was a really fun episode to do with

Working on teams is great because we get to share our skill sets and learn from one another as we build. However, there are moments that prove to be challenging like… … when you think you’re in agreement with your team, get to work, then days later the decision gets shot down. All that wasted time, energy, and effort! Or… … when you’re excited to try something new, but you can’t because you have to get approval from multiple people, some who don’t even know who you are! Dealing with the all the drama can be demotivating and stifle innovation. So how do you get groups people out of their own way in order to make decisions, deliver on innovations, expose weaknesses in strategy, and is it even possible? Yes, it is and my goal in today’s episode is to show you how! I’ve invited Janice Fraser who is the Director on the People Team at Pivotal Labs. Janice has a rich 16-year career with notable accomplishments such as being the CEO and Founder of Luxr, CEO of Adaptive Path, and more. We’ll be focusing the conversati

What’s THE best problem to have hands down? Most people would say growth. And I’d agree 100%. But it’s not as rosy as you’d imagine. Whether you’ve gone from a five-person garage startup to 15, 50 or 500 person team, there will be some challenges. And at each stage tackling those challenges can leave us feeling like growth is more of a burden than a boon. We have to learn to balance the pressure to satisfy customer demands while managing and nurturing a team. This requires hiring new people who fit into the culture, altering our development process to include them, and learning to delegate tasks that have become too much for one person to handle. Easier said than done. But don’t worry because, in today’s episode of FemgineerTV, you’re going to learn how to handle the great problem of growth from our special guest Darin Swanson who is the VP of Engineering and Platform at New Relic. Darin is going to share some valuable lessons from his experience growing the New Relic team over the past 4+ years. As you watch

Did you take a risk and then realize, “OMG I am in too deep?” But by the time you realized it, it was too late. There was no time for a do-over. You were stuck and really the only logical thing to do next was to throw in the towel and call it quits. Or was it? Well in this episode of FemgineerTV, we’re going to be tackling the topic of how you can rescue yourself from a risky setback. And to help us out I’ve invited Jessica Mah who is the CEO and Co-Founder of InDinero. She has grown InDinero from zero to multi-million dollar revenues with nearly 200 full-time staff and has been on the cover of Inc Magazine, featured in the Forbes and Inc 30 Under 30 Lists. Jessica studied computer science at U.C. Berkeley. Jessica went from engineering to entrepreneurship right out of college, but it hasn’t exactly been a bed of roses for her. She’s had to overcome a number of setbacks along the way, including being on the brink of bankruptcy! She’s been kind enough to share her story openly with us, and as you watch the epi

Have you contemplated leaving the comforts of a company to strike out on your own to pursue a creative calling? Perhaps you have an idea for a product or service. While there’s a strong pull to pursue it, hesitation maybe holding you back. You’re worried about being good enough, attracting customers and clients, and how to make it all come together to find fulfillment, but also tend to the practical side of things like paying the bills! You’ve probably heard plenty of stories around striking out to build a startup, raise capital, and pursue a BIG idea. While that sounds exciting, you’re looking for an alternative approach... Well in today’s episode of FemgineerTV, we’re going to be tackling all these topics. To help us out, I’ve invited Jessica Hische, who is a letter, illustrator, and type designer. Jessica began her career working for a design studio HeadCase. Then went on to work for a prominent designer, Louise Fili, and eventually struck out on her own. Jessica has had notable clients like Wes Anderson,

Risk can mean a number a number of things. It could mean speaking up. Or striking out on your own. But taking a risk is hard. What’s easier is following a known path. Creating what we’re told to create. Doing what we’re told to do. So why not just go for the easy path? Because it doesn’t always lead to us to feeling fulfilled in our careers and everyday lives. What does is pushing our creative limits, and that’s where risk comes in. The reason risk is hard is because it’s surrounded by fear. Anytime we want to take a risk by sharing ourselves or pursuing a new experience, our inner critic: that little voice inside our heads stops us dead in our tracks. It fills us with fear... Fear of criticism, rejection, and failure. It’s hard to put the inner critic in its place because of the way we’ve been educated and conditioned: to not make mistakes. So what does it take to get over our fears and take a risk? Creative confidence. Creative confidence is a mindset, a way of being, that comes from design thinking. Design

Raise your hand if you’ve ever had a boss you just didn’t quite get along with. Both of mine are reaching for the stars! I always thought it was me… Until one day I met up with a previous boss I had, who saw all the work I had done since leaving the company and told me, “Wow we were really holding you back!” That statement was vindicating. But I didn’t want vindication. What I had wanted all along was a boss who would lead me by providing consistent guidance and feedback to help me improve. I’m sure my story is not unique, but it has become an accepted leadership style, because we’re told that the best products and companies are led by bossholes people who rule through fear. While there maybe a few of those lurking out there, it’s actually a pretty big myth, and one that we’re going to debunk in today’s episode of FemgineerTV! We’ll also talk about how the boss who is a buddy aka Michael Scott, is even more damaging that the bosshole, because they are holding back the criticism you need to perform better. So

You’ll recall in that in the last episode of FemgineerTV, I interviewed Maria Giudice the VP of Experience of Autodesk and author of The Rise of the DEO. We talked about how traditional CEOs have been replaced by a new breed called DEOs. In the latest episode of FemgineerTV, I’ve got a great example of a DEO for you: Lily Sarafan, the CEO of HomeCare. Lily began her career when HomeCare was just a startup, and has been integral to its growth and eventual acquisition. But that’s not all, Lily is also very active in the tech community as a startup advisor, mentor, and investor, she’s also involved with a number of nonprofits, holds a political office, and avidly travels. As you watch the episode you’ll how she manages all her projects and has learned to cultivate a leadership style over the years that resonates with her personality. Lily definitely exhibits many of the DEO traits such as: - Evaluating and take risks - Being a systems level thinker - Using her intuition to guide her decision-making - Having a hi

In this episode, we’ll be talking about why traditional CEOs have been replaced by a new breed called DEOs, design executive officers, and how companies are basically being led by executives who embrace design thinking. To help us out, I’ve invited Maria Giudice formerly the founder of Hot Studio. Maria built and successfully ran Hot Studio through 3 tech busts, I’d say that’s enough of a reason for me to want to learn from this amazing design leader! Hot Studio was eventually acquired by Facebook. Maria’s latest role is as the VP of Experience Design at Autodesk and she has co-authored a new book called The Rise of The DEO. Whether you’re a leader or aspire to be one, you won’t want to miss listening to this episode, because Maria and are I are going to be talking about how DEOs: Are different from traditional CEOs Evaluate and take risks Are systems level thinkers Use their intuition to guide their decision-making Have cultivated a high level of social intelligence Care about getting shit done! Co-create

In this episode we’re tackling a tough topic that isn’t talked about a lot: The Challenges Immigrant Tech Entrepreneurs Face. Whether you’re an immigrant, thinking of immigrating to the US, or just a startuper, you’re sure to be inspired by this episode, because we talk about what it takes to overcome a number of obstacles and setbacks over a 4 year period before breaking into the US market with big customers and investors! Agustina Sartori, the CEO & Co-Founder of Glam St shares how she began her career as a software engineer in Uruguay working at a startup, and then decided to strike out on her own with her co-founder Carolina Bañales to build Glam St. Watch and learn: How she and her co-founder landed their first big client L’Oreal before building anything! How they built their first prototype. Alternate sources of funding they pursued because there aren’t a lot of investors in Uruguay. How cultivating a level of self-awareness when talking to potential customers and investors is beneficial to