Laura Cardinal is a mother of two young daughters who’s determined to prove that women can ‘have it all’.
That is a successful career, a great job in a male-dominated industry, and a family.
As the VP of Product at Xero, she leads a global team of 160 and helps more than 700,000 small business customers around the world.
Below she answers our #womenintech Q&A and tells us how, despite never planning it and having dropped out of university, she’s created a leadership career in technology, and why she thinks there’s plenty of scope to create more positive narratives about women in the industry.
1. Has your tech career been planned or did it just happen? Tell us about how you got started in tech.
A career in tech definitely wasn’t planned, and was far from my list of dreams as a teenager. I dropped out of uni, studying graphic design, so I could work and support my ex-husband (fiance at the time) while he studied computer science. He always knew he wanted to be a software engineer — back then I still had dreams of becoming a famous rock star.
After three failed interviews I finally managed to secure an admin traineeship at a water company, and before long was promoted to a team lead role — a huge learning curve for a 21 year old with no experience, leading a team of ex-plumbing inspectors with over 40 years of experience.
Our main purpose was to print out site plans from the computer and give them to plumbers as they came into our customer service desk on the way to a job, which basically told them where to dig for pipes.
My journey in tech began (unbeknown to me) with an idea to create an application to do this work for us, saving us time and money by having the plumbers print their own plans in the comfort of their own office. After many failed pitches and befriending the guys in IT, this idea eventually became reality and my first product was launched. And so begun my addiction to using technology to make people’s lives better and a passion for leading the teams that build it.
2. What qualifications (if any) do you have that support you in this role?
Despite my original plan, I never did make it back to uni — I enjoyed working too much. I have an admin trainee certificate, a diploma of frontline management, and several pieces of paper that certify my attendance at short courses all of which I achieved while working.
Every bit of learning has supported me in my role, especially when informal in nature — through the people I work with, mentors, and more often than I’d like to admit, from my own mistakes. I continue to learn something new most days.
3. Do you know any coding languages, is this relevant to your career?
I attempted to to learn .php and .net many many years ago, but decided that there were much smarter people around who were better at it than I was, and there were other ways that I could contribute within the tech industry.
4. What’s your proudest achievement so far in tech?
There is not just one. Every single time a group of people with different skillsets and backgrounds get together and solve a problem, amazing things happen. I love those ‘aha’ moments, and being in this industry has let me be a part of so many.
5. Why is diversity so important in the tech sector?
Diversity is important in every sector. Teams that are made up of individuals from different backgrounds, genders, sexuality, cultures and mindset are so much more productive and innovative than those that aren’t.
Being around people who are different from us generally makes us more creative. In a diverse team each person brings something unique and different to solving the same problem or completing the same mission. Old ways of thinking are more regularly challenged and people are inspired to step outside the limitations of their own perspectives.
6. What do you want all girls and young women to know about careers in tech?
I would like to challenge the popular perception that many may have about a career in technology. It’s not all geeks and maths or having your head buried in a computer coding all day. It’s a collaborative, innovative, team-oriented, and creative industry that is absolutely booming.
As women we naturally excel in all of these areas, we can bring so much to this industry. We tend to favor collaborative, creative and people oriented careers, and what might not be common knowledge is that the tech sector ticks all of those boxes.
I’ve learnt so much during my career in tech and working with passionate people, from different backgrounds to solve interesting and real life problems has given me an abundance of new skills that I can apply to all aspects of my life.
7. What do you personally do to raise your profile and voice as a woman in tech – use social media, speak, network, participate in industry events etc?
I’m currently preparing for a presentation at the Women in Technology and Telecommunications Leadership Summit in Sydney, focused on leading globally distributed and diverse teams. My personal goal this year involves seeking out more opportunities like these and being able to share my thoughts and experiences through media, mentoring programs and networking events.
At Xero I’m dedicated to creating an inclusive workplace and supporting the amazing women in our team to raise their own profiles and voices. They’re doing some awesome things from seeking out and sponsoring ‘Women in Tech’ events to encouraging girls to code through school incursions.
8. How can we get more women speaking at technology-related events?
Conference organisers need to ensure diversity amongst their speakers and not just in talks that focus on being a women in tech. Have someone on the committee dedicated to seeking out women presenters and make it a point to have as close to 50 / 50 representation of both genders of speakers at an event. More women who speak at events will only encourage other women to come forward and put themselves out there to do the same.
We should think about and implement ways that we can make public speaking in tech more ‘safe’ for women who may fear not being accepted or challenged in a male dominated arena. These could maybe include a system that allows the speaker to take questions from the audience offline or via email rather than from the floor, or even hiding the names of presenters on voting forms (for vote-in style events) to avoid potential unconscious bias from delegates — which may see more women’s talk submissions voted in.
There are tons of ‘women in tech’ meetup groups and committees. Think about reaching out and partnering with one of those for your event. You can leverage their established networks to find speakers, get more women attendees or even have them play that diversity champion role on your event’s committee for you.
Oh and lastly…If you are going to give away t-shirts to delegates, make sure you have more than just a few in women’s sizes as well!
9. What does your ‘daily juggle’ look like? Can you run us through an average day in your life? From working, to finding time for yourself (if any) to dealing with out-of work responsibilities etc?
I’m not sure there is such a thing as an ‘average day’ in my life but over the years I’ve discovered how beneficial routines can be and try to stick to some sort of consistency at the start and end of each day.
Travel is a big part of my role and I spend a lot of time in New Zealand. While I’m in Melbourne I often have my 2 daughters (6 and 10) living with me — so this is a somewhat accurate representation of a typical day during those weeks:
5.45ish: Wake
My ‘uniform style’ wardrobe really pays off here. About 6 months a go I culled most of my clothing and built up a uniform of jeans, tops and jackets – I get to wear casual clothes to work but I was spending too much time fussing over what I would wear each day. Now I just pick from a combination of options that mostly all match each other and don’t need to think about it any more.
6.30ish: Me
This is a little bit of time that’s all mine before the rest of the house and work wakes up. I’m not in mum or GM of product mode, and I use this time for whatever I like. Sometimes I eat breakfast and check emails or social media, others I just relax with a coffee and think about how I’d like the day to pan out.
I started this habit last year and even though it’s not consistent, it makes such a difference to the rest of my day. Who knows, one day I may even use this time to get to a gym, one step at a time 🙂
7am: Them
Being 9am in New Zealand, I often dial into a meeting or two, or spend some time on my emails. I love the flexibility that working online gives — I can get an hour or so of work in and then spend some time with my daughters before seeing them off to school.
These meetings usually consist of 1 on 1s with my direct team of Product Managers and Heads of Engineering. Having these types of meetings first thing, without the distractions of the day means I can focus on them and their development objectives. While I don’t get to see them face to face every day, I use this time to connect.
8.15: Interlude
I’m lucky to have a partner that stays at home and helps support me in my career by doing the majority of household chores and kid wrangling. We’ve been trying this since the start of the year after I came to the realisation that it’s ok to not do everything myself and let go a little bit, and so far, so good. He makes the lunches and gets the girls ready, then I get to spend a bit of time with them before they head off to school. It’s so much better than the way mornings used to be… rushed and chaotic. I usually walk to the office once they’ve left.
9am: Work
No day in the office is the same – this is one of the great things about my job. Some days focus more on our product vision and strategy and how we can improve our product management practice, others on how we balance technical debt or structure our engineering teams. There might be another catch up with my team, either as a group or another one on one, or a meeting with my manager to focus on my own development and objectives. Occasionally there is a sync with our CEO Rod Drury, to get his feedback on some of the latest product innovations and ideas from the team. Quite often there is also a focus on recruitment and maybe even an interview or two, as we’re growing our teams at the moment across Australia and New Zealand.
6pm: Family
Most days I try to be home by 6 and we have dinner together as a family. Sometimes dinner is accompanied with cartoons or supergirl on the tv, but we try not to beat ourselves up over that :). After dinner it’s kid time. We might play a boardgame or simply hang out before doing readers and putting the kids to bed.
8pm: Us
Kids are ‘usually’ asleep and the house is ‘usually’ quiet. I might spend a bit of time finishing up work tasks from the day, talking over a glass (or two) of wine with my partner about anything that pops into our mind or sinking onto the couch to watch some ‘grown up’ tv — currently we’re alternating between Game of Thrones and Orphan Black.
10.30: Sleep
I like to be ready to sleep by this time and have had at least an hour of no screens before then — I’ve noticed it makes my mornings so much better. Most nights I read for about 20 minutes before turning off the light, usually something non-fiction.
10. What more would you like to see the tech industry doing to better support women in the field?
Having more women in key senior leadership roles in the tech industry is crucial to supporting women in the field. We don’t have enough successful role models as a women in tech which unfortunately sends a clear message that this industry is a male dominated one. This not only discourages women from pursuing a career in tech in the first place, but also from staying and progressing their careers.
We need to support the careers of women in tech today to develop them into the next generation of industry leaders, and in turn, become role models for the women considering or starting a tech career tomorrow. Companies could implement a dedicated leadership track that focuses on building skills such as resilience, assertive communication, and confidence. Also, make a point of looking for opportunities for individuals to step up and encourage them to do so. It’s amazing how many women hold back from putting their hands up for career opportunities in comparison to men.
Creating a positive narrative for women in tech and raising the profiles of the role models we have today will go a long way to changing perceptions and shifting the gender balance