Each quarter, we’ll take a break from the regularly scheduled AI programming on The AI Forecast podcast to direct our attention to women leaders in technology. We’ll hear from powerful visionaries at the top of their fields as they share their journeys, the lessons they’ve learned, and the insights gleaned from their success.
For the inaugural episode of Women Leaders in Technology on The AI Forecast, we welcomed Kari Briski – Vice President AI Software Product Management at NVIDIA. Kari shared the stories and strategies that inform her leadership style (like GSD or “getting stuff done”), what it means to trust your instinct, and the advice she gives to young women embarking on a career in technology and to women further along who feel stuck where they are.
Here are some highlights from that conversation.
For tough decisions, be like water and flow around it
Paul: Let’s talk about roadblocks. When you do face a roadblock or a barrier, especially something that you care deeply about, how do you navigate that?
Kari: When you hit a roadblock, how can you be like water? How can you flow around it?
To flow around it, I have to see my options – what’s going to get me the most success immediately to get data back so that I can use that data to then make another decision? When you hit a roadblock, A) don’t get discouraged, B) step back and look at the picture, and then C) take small steps along the way to go around it. Because the roadblock could be there for a really good reason. Or it’s a bad reason. Either way, you need to learn from it and move on. That’s the biggest thing, too: just learning from it and still moving forward.
It’s going to be a bit bumpy along the way. You’ve got to be able to clearly lay out the path forward versus everyone tackling the project on their own terms with no direction. Emphasize that we’re going to build the road forward together.
Leaning on resources to allow for more focused time with family
Paul: We’re all entitled to lives outside of work – looking after ourselves and our family at the same time as ensuring that we’re having great, fulfilling careers. It’s easier to say, but it just seems devilishly hard to do.
Kari: It’s really hard to do. Now has never been a better time to be able to have services that can support you in having time for your family. For example, grocery delivery – I’m not spending time at the supermarket. I’m spending time picking up my daughter and having a 20-minute conversation with her on the car home after practice. And then the food’s already there when we both get there. And then you and the family can make dinner.
You always have to make focused time. That’s true when you’re at work and it’s true when you’re at home. Because if you’re doing six things at once, you will burn out and then no one ever feels that they got any attention. From customers, teams at work, and your family, to yourself.
Advice from Kari to women at all stages in their careers: It gets harder, but you get better
Paul: What’s the one piece of advice you find yourself going back to most often as you’re mentoring people?
Kari: I have one piece of advice I’ve always said, and I will continue to say it. I say that it doesn’t get any easier. It will never get any easier. It just gets harder, but you get better. With your capacity to learn and take on more, you become a better leader, you become a better person, you are able to gain scope, and then you are now able to take on more. It might seem easier, but it’s actually harder. You’re just able to do more. Allow yourself that ability to grow and handle more.
Paul: I know your mother was a mentor and huge influence in your life as someone who worked in STEM. Were there other mentors in your career and your life that helped bring you to where you are or that maybe are still in your life?
Kari: Yeah, all the time. I came out of college with five women in my class, so I wasn’t always looking for a woman mentor, to be honest. I’ve had a lot of really fantastic male mentors because it’s more about either our personality or what we are trying to achieve or goals in life or they hadn’t been through that before.
Don’t try and look for one person, because again, nobody’s perfect. And don’t try and use that one person as a model, but kind of use information from as many sources as you can get. Find the qualities in the people that you admire, and then apply it to yourself.
Paul: What’s your advice for someone beginning to embark on their career?
Kari: Number one, it takes time. You don’t have to be the biggest leader in the first four years out of college. Give yourself time. And at the same time, stick with it. Try and gain as many different types of experiences to grow yourself. So, if you’re not pushing yourself, if you feel comfortable, then you’re not growing.
Get comfortable feeling uncomfortable. And I think that’s another one that’s especially true for women. It’s more likely that women don’t put themselves in positions to feel uncomfortable. For example, maybe opting against taking a job where they feel they meet nine out of 10 of the job description bullet points, not all 10/10. Get comfortable feeling uncomfortable. Push yourself to learn that one bullet point that you don’t have or go take up a project around that so that you learn.
The other thing would be it’s okay to fail. Because when you fail fast, those are the growth moments as you learn from your mistakes very quickly. But don’t be afraid to get back into it because now you know what you did wrong and you’re not going to do that wrong again. Give yourself time, push yourself, and be able to learn from your mistakes.
Paul: For those who are mid-career and feeling like they’re stuck and they’ve got a manager or a culture that doesn’t get it. What would you say to them?
Kari: Change. I felt that way too. I was scared to leave a company or switch a position, but I definitely looked at the road ahead of me or the people ahead of me. It was not very diverse, and I thought to myself: I have the ability to break that glass ceiling, but is this something I’m passionate about that I want to do it here?
Are you passionate enough about the work that you’re doing to be uncomfortable, to grow, to push boundaries, to challenge people? And if you feel like you’re constantly getting those roadblocks, then make a change. Someone else will value you more. You’ll learn more through the process. So that’s one aspect. And then the other one is really reflect on yourself. Why are you hitting that wall? How can I improve myself? How can I take on a job? Again, how can I learn?
To learn more about Cloudera’s Women Leaders in Technology, join the LinkedIn community and visit the home page.
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