This is the first of my female-focused series, where we meet Daphne. I’ll let her speak for herself.

Introduction

Who are you and what do you do?

If you asked me who I was one year ago, I would have had trouble differentiating between the two questions. My profession was my identity. Today, I take an epistemological approach. I am Daphne: a woman, a tech leader in Customer Success, a scientist, a daughter, a researcher in technology ethics, an outdoors lover, a surf student, a friend… 

What I get paid to do today is Manage the UK, Ireland and Iberia teams for Customer Success at Hubspot. This means that my team helps customers in those regions to market, sell and service their clients at scale online using technology (Hubspot). My main role as a manager is to build a high performing team, that means attracting and retaining talent, while challenging them to become the best version of themselves. 

What is the best part of your job?

I love solving big problems and reaching audacious goals. In business, my passion is to help businesses achieve their goals at scale, especially businesses with purposes that go beyond making shareholders rich. So, my favourite part of my job is to be able to build a hybrid machine (humans + technology) to deliver on that. Working with my team to equip them with the knowledge and skills to deliver on that is what I love doing most.

How did you get to where you are today?

I studied Chemistry, and very quickly realised that despite loving science, lab life wasn’t for me. I went into business school, worked in retail for a couple of years and learned some really important lessons. My passion for solving big problems at scale brought me to technology, more specifically it brought me into how people use technology in business. Over the course of almost 4 years, I worked with a team of amazing women to build a truly global and fully remote Customer Success Start-up (WNDYR) focusing on helping businesses adopt work management tools. I loved it because we enabled businesses to solve bigger and hairier problems faster. That brought me into product management; really looking into how to build technology products. I learned how to effectively build solutions that solve brand new problems at scale.

After exiting that start-up, I joined Lufthansa (through LSG and their Retail Management Platform - Retail inMotion) as their Head of Customer Transformation, to build their Customer Success organisation from the ground up. I learned a lot about myself during my time there. Having come from a start-up, where you are cash/resource-strapped but have 100% autonomy to solve problems, and going into a corporate environment where you have resources/cash but no autonomy, I realised I wanted to be somewhere in the middle. 

So, I made a move to Hubspot. In addition to working for a company that fit the criteria above, it was important to me to work for a senior leader that I admired and I could learn from. At Hubspot, I manage the UK, Ireland and Iberia teams, and also get my hands dirty with global projects to advance our customer and employee experiences. 

What did you find to be the most challenging part of your career?

My time in Retail inMotion. I was continuously frustrated with the culture of the company. From how they ran the business, to how they built products and managed customers, and especially at Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging when it came to how female leaders were treated.

The key lesson I learned though is that choosing the right environment and company culture is critical for your happiness. The pay check and the title are important, but they have no effect on your job satisfaction when it comes to the daily grind. 

Communication and Leadership

How did you and your team find the transition to remote working in March?

I built a business fully remotely; hiring, onboarding, building relationships, managing, motivating and at times, even firing virtually. I was ready for remote work. But, to transition the team to this mode, it wouldn’t have been so smooth if Hubspot didn’t have the right tools and culture for it. The tools to communicate, manage work, drill into performance, help customers etc., are essential. If you haven’t invested in those yet you are already miles behind. But the culture was essential. While a lot of people were suddenly not busy, on furlough etc., we were busier than ever with businesses shifting to online marketing, selling and servicing. The team was adaptable and very resilient. 

However, our culture was hugely connected to socialising in the office, so replicating that, or moving to online has been a little hard for me as a manager. There are only so many zoom quizzes and cookalongs you want to attend, right? While we are likely back in the office in early 2021, most people will never go back full time, having tasted the benefits of remote, so I will have to continue to figure out the challenge of building a culture around remote! Any tips are welcome!

As a manager, what do you do day-to-day to encourage team-building?

• Virtual Coffee Breaks: A slot of voluntary attendance where people can come together to just chat and have a coffee.

• Using the start of every meeting as an opportunity to connect as people: “How are you?”, “ How is your family?”, “How are you coping with the kids at home?”. Just being genuinely interested in people as individuals.

• Virtual Events: Being creative with what we can do remotely (quizzes, cookalongs, bingo…)

• Get new people to introduce themselves to the team with a quick slideshow when they join. Use my network to make introductions outside the team for new people so they can build a network remotely. 

• Give the team autonomy to organise their own get-togethers (lunch dates, happy hours etc.)

• Personality Exercises: We did the Myers Briggs personality test and shared with the team what personality type we are, how we communicate, how we take feedback etc.

How do you check-in on your team members if you notice a lull in their productivity?

I check in with the team on a weekly basis on many areas of their work. From the hard quantitative stuff (forecasting, targets, etc.) to the qualitative (how are your conversations with customers, how are you feeling when it comes to time management). 

I don’t agree with the surveillance of employees. I believe in leaning on trust, openness and managing through leading indicators. I wouldn’t have you in my team if I couldn’t trust you and if I didn’t have confidence in your ability to do the job. If someone is having a hard time, I am empathetic and I will work with them closely in designing a plan to help them take ownership of their development through those tough patches. I will give support and guidance. I will coach and mentor.

Productivity to me is your ability to deliver against the goal. For some people it means taking some time off to get focus, working on a flexible schedule etc. again, here I would lean on trust. 

What do you think leads to customer success?

• A company mission and incentives that are aligned to delivering customer value is key. Those two things will drive behaviour with your team, and if the incentives are not there to do what is right for the customer, it will always be secondary.

• Acquiring the right customers. It’s tempting to serve everyone, but the cost of acquiring a customer is high, so focus on getting the right customers and then getting repeat business from them.

• Active listening: Listening, acknowledging and validating your understanding, exploring, and only then, focusing on solutions. 

• Actioning feedback: A lot of companies gather feedback, very few take action to make real change based on the feedback they receive. Those who do continuously improve their experience, their product, their offering etc., and end up with a superior position in the market.

The Gender Question

Have you noticed any major differences in the way people treat you?

Yes. I don’t feel like it has hurt my career but I know that my gender and my age have had an impact on how I am treated. In the past, I have been given seats at very important tables due to my hard work and professional accomplishments, however, despite being included, I was not given a real voice. I have had male colleagues speak over me time and time again. I have had my experience and ability to perform questioned, when male counterparts were simply trusted to do the job. However, I have also had male bosses and colleagues that elevated me and that used their privilege to promote inclusion and belonging (thank you!).

Do you know, roughly, the percentage of men to women in leadership positions in your industry/area?

About 24:76 is the breakdown of female to male in tech leadership in 2019. I am lucky to work for a business that values this and publicly posts our stats when it comes to diversity! We are not perfect but we are working on it.

How can we be sure we don't pass subconscious bias down the line to our team members/clients?

First and foremost, I think you need a culture of diversity, inclusivity and belonging. Secondly, you need to make sure your processes and systems are built following that philosophy.  And lastly, I look at my role as an individual. I have assessed my biases and I openly chat about them to my team and my peers. I ask to be called out on those biases. For example, I have a bias towards education. I love seeing academic titles, big university names, interesting research being published etc. For that reason, when I interview, besides being conscious of this bias, I also ask my panel to keep me in check. 

What advice do you have for young women entering this industry?

Luckily, we have a very modern culture in technology, so you are already at an advantage. Focus on delivering value in your role (eg. hitting targets, helping others onboard quickly, sharing knowledge with the team etc.), be smart and strategic about the work that you do, make sure it connects to the business goals. Don’t be afraid to be vocal about your ambitions, tell your manager exactly where you want to get to and by when. Ask for help in getting there. Be truly open for feedback, ask for it, dissect it, act on it. Be vulnerable but also be resilient, change is a constant in today’s world. 

If you want to find out more about Daphne, you can go to her website.