🙋🏾‍♀️ In 2011, I was hired into my first junior role in tech @Groupon

👩🏾‍💻 By 2020, I was headhunted into a VP role in a global tech company @Brandwatch

🤖 I achieved this progression in less than a decade, without ANY coding skills

🔮 How did I do it?

*a thread*

🤓 I established a track record of results.

💪🏾 No magic formula can replace hard work: do your job well & hit all the targets you are set.

😬 When you're struggling, ask for help so you can stay on track to get results, or collaboratively adjust targets.
🎨 I stayed creative.

🧙🏿‍♀️ When challenges arose I was bold enough to try new solutions. Not everything worked, but constantly trying produced valuable innovations.

🧠 I was proactive in finding new, better ways to get the job done.
🤩 I was a self-promoter. I recorded my achievements & ensured they were mentioned in any performance / compensation reviews.

😎 I put myself forward for any opportunities to gain recognition e.g. speaking opportunities or awards.

👀I actively worked on gaining visibility.
🙂 I was myself. Some say you need to be ruthless to succeed. I don't buy it. I'm a nice person so I'm nice at work, too.

❤️ I didn't fake it. I always acted on my values, and spoke up when something didn't feel right. I showed integrity.

🤗 I was a team player. To everyone.
👊🏾 I toughened up & thickened my skin. Mostly to absorb constructive feedback better.

🗣 I learned how to ask for feedback that showed me my blind spots & flaws so I could work more effectively.

👂🏽 I learned how to listen without defending myself, and simply absorb & learn.
🚀 I took risks. When a career opportunity arose that better served my purpose: I jumped at it.

🍂 I embraced change AND I embraced failure.

😒 Things don't always go to plan, I accept that, I expect that.

💪🏾 Every step in the journey made me wiser & more resilient.
🤠 I followed my gut & learned to filter out naysayers & those who didn't get me.

✊🏾 @hustlecrewlive wouldn't exist if I listened to super smart, experienced tech pros who told me it wouldn't work. We're on track for 7 fig ARR. And it's my side hustle.

🤓 I did things MY WAY.
🤗 I built a support network who understood my ambitions & eccentricities.

🌈I embraced my differences & uniqueness & leaned *heavily* into these.

❤️ I surrounded myself with people who bigged up these parts of me.

🙋🏾‍♀️ In doing so, I built my self-belief & self-confidence.
📚 I never stopped learning & challenging myself.

🧐 I surrounded myself with people smarter, more ambitious & driven than me.

🤯 I expanded my knowledge thru podcasts, articles, videos, books.

🧠 I built a network of mentors I've never met but whose content I've absorbed.
📈 An economist by training, I accepted the sacrifices required to succeed.

😕 I accepted missing out on fun stuff when in-between jobs or starting @hustlecrewlive.

🛍 I accepted times I could only afford essentials.

😥 I accepted declining mental & physical health, too.
✍️ Finally, I mastered the art of story-telling.

🗺 I never had a plan for my career progression, although I always so desperately wanted one.

🚶🏽‍♀️ I just keep putting one foot forward, then at specific milestones, craft a compelling narrative looking backwards.

💫 Good luck.

More from Tech

A common misunderstanding about Agile and “Big Design Up Front”:

There’s nothing in the Agile Manifesto or Principles that states you should never have any idea what you’re trying to build.

You’re allowed to think about a desired outcome from the beginning.

It’s not Big Design Up Front if you do in-depth research to understand the user’s problem.

It’s not BDUF if you spend detailed time learning who needs this thing and why they need it.

It’s not BDUF if you help every team member know what success looks like.

Agile is about reducing risk.

It’s not Agile if you increase risk by starting your sprints with complete ignorance.

It’s not Agile if you don’t research.

Don’t make the mistake of shutting down critical understanding by labeling it Bg Design Up Front.

It would be a mistake to assume this research should only be done by designers and researchers.

Product management and developers also need to be out with the team, conducting the research.

Shared Understanding is the key objective


Big Design Up Front is a thing to avoid.

Defining all the functionality before coding is BDUF.

Drawing every screen and every pixel is BDUF.

Promising functionality (or delivery dates) to customers before development starts is BDUF.

These things shouldn’t happen in Agile.

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