Thank you all for following this series, it’s been a joy to share the experiences of womxn running their own businesses, or thriving in male-dominated industries. This week, we’re meeting Lara Hanlon, a designer.

Introduction

Who are you and what do you do?

I’m Lara and I’m a designer. Born and raised in Ireland, I currently live in Brooklyn, New York City. In 2014 I joined a big old company called IBM and that’s where I’ve been working ever since. I dabble in all sorts of design from web design to product design to brand design to design education.

What is the best part of your job?

I design for IBM Research which is the part of the IBM organisation that researches, invents, and creates new technologies like quantum computing and artificial intelligence. It’s an incredibly technical and nerdy field but I love the challenge of turning all of the complicated content and thinking into beautiful, functional and accessible things. In order to do that, though, I need to collaborate with people to understand the details and ensure my ideas solve problems, tell the correct story or compel the right audience. That’s probably the best part of my job — working with so many smart people to get cool shit done.

How did you get to where you are today?

My design career has taken many different turns in a relatively short amount of time. I definitely did not stay on a single path since graduating in 2013. Aside from my day-to-day job, I tend to take on a lot of side projects or extra-curricular work to gain as much experience as possible. I think I’m just very excited about what design can do for the world and the different careers a designer can have which encourages me to jump into the unknown at times, accept any and all opportunities that come my way, and work really hard to get to where I want to be.

What did you find to be the most challenging?

Almost every other week I go through a bit of a designer identity crisis. Because I have so many different interests in design and have worked on wildly different projects over the years, I sometimes feel like I don’t know what I’m doing or what I want to do long-term. This recurring crisis is often caused by imposter syndrome, whilst my perfectionist streak and insatiable curiosity can be blamed for the rest.  

Section 2 - Communication and Leadership

As a creative, there's often an assumption that you can take a vague idea and make it into a product - what do you need from your clients to make sure you can create constructively?

This is a wild misconception but one I hear all too often (mostly from non-design folk). For me, research and content are must-haves in the design process. Research allows you to understand actual customer needs, market trends, and future possibilities. Content, on the other hand, allows you to create something that is realistic and accurate. Without proper research insights, your ideas won’t be very informed and without content, your designs can become abstract and useless.

Have you ever experienced a lack of communication or clarity from senior management that negatively impacted on your work?

Yes, yes, and yes. Working in a big company means there are a lot of people involved in the decision-making process of almost anything. Although it’s important to have diversity of thought, when members of senior management don’t share the same ultimate goal or understand the implications of their decisions, chaos can ensue. In my experience, lack of communication or clarity typically stems from a lack of internal alignment. The negative impact on work is that the focus can shift to quantity and speed over quality and rigour.

IBM has hundreds of thousands of employees across the globe, what's the internal top-down communication like? Do you feel like there is a personal element to communication that's sent company-wide?

For such a huge company, I think our corporate leadership team does an amazing job at top-down communication. Our CEO hosts office hours regularly for anyone at IBM to join and ask questions. It’s very conversational and transparent. We receive weekly, monthly and quarterly updates from others such as the company President, Directors, VP’s and local business leaders in the form of newsletters, video recordings, or live ask-me-anything’s. It all seems quite personalized and authentic, which makes you feel like a human rather than a cog in a machine.

You're a senior designer now, which means you spend a lot of time in meetings - do you find there's open communication and collaboration in these meetings?

The team I currently work with are so wonderfully open and amicable it makes my job not just easy but enjoyable. Although there is pressure to deliver good work and meet intense deadlines, there is a real sense that everyone wants to get there together. The respect everyone has for each other’s discipline, expertise, and time really shows when we collaborate: we listen, ask questions and trust one another to give constructive feedback. My design group is also quite fun so we tend to get sidetracked talking about cats now and then (which helps to break the corporate timbre…).

Section 3 - The Gender Question

There's no denying that tech is an incredibly male-dominated industry, have you ever noticed that you're treated differently to your male peers?

Over the years, I’ve had some male colleagues remark on my appearance, age, and accent in ways that they would never do to their fellow male peers. I’ve also encountered quite a few men in the industry who are pros at taking credit for other people’s work and, unfortunately, I or my womxn colleagues have often played the pawns in that regard. All that said, I rarely feel like I’m being treated differently – at least not in a significant way. By significant, I mean that I don’t feel as if my performance or input is overlooked or undermined simply because there are male peers involved in the same conversation or project. I’m lucky to work with very forward-thinking, inclusive and diverse team members and I’m lucky to have many male mentors and friends who support and propel me forward in my career.

Do you know how many womxn hold leadership roles within IBM or similar companies?

Within the IBM Design group, I believe womxn hold between 45–55% of technical leadership positions. Which is awesome. Within the entire IBM organisation – globally – I don’t know the exact number but I do know that we have some incredible womxn at the C-suite level and that there are many ongoing initiatives within the company to help teams reach greater gender parity. Externally, I read a stat recently that womxn hold just 18% (or thereabouts) of senior leadership positions in large organisations...which is mind-boggling. 

How can we be sure we don't pass subconscious bias down the line to the womxn coming up the ranks behind us?

I think the most important frame of mind to adopt is one that positions everyone as an equal. Because in the end, it’s not about women versus men. It’s about everyone working together to educate, listen, change, collaborate and ultimately make progress. I don’t want to see womxn become obsessed with replacing men, to become the dominant force. We should be striving to be the best we can be. When gender or biases get in the way, it’s important to focus on the work that needs to be done to remove those blockers rather than just blaming and shaming. 

What advice do you have for womxn who want to enter the design and tech worlds?

It’s not uncommon for womxn to compete unfairly or aggressively with other womxn. Womxn already have a hard time advancing in the tech world largely because it is so male-dominated – we don’t need to become our own adversaries. My advice is simply to support each other. Volunteer to mentor someone less seasoned than you or reach out to someone you admire for advice. It goes a long way. And speak to your male colleagues, peers or friends! Having conversations about gender (in)equality with everyone involved or impacted helps to move the needle, even just a tad.  
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If you want to find out more about Lara’s work, you can visit her website. If you want to read the rest of the series, you can do it here.