Mindera’s Women in Tech with Guest Speaker Nivi Baral

At Mindera, we are passionate about making tech an inclusive space for everyone. To do this, it’s essential to allow spaces to amplify the voices of underrepresented demographics in the industry.

Our US Ops Team started the Women in Tech Series at Mindera to create a safe space to have meaningful and often uncommon conversations about women in the tech industry. Mindera has had four guest speakers, with more lined up in the coming months. This series originated to encourage and inspire our Minders to speak up and leave fear and archaic societal norms behind. Initially, it was a series started by our US women in tech team and has now expanded to include all our Minders worldwide to continue nurturing these discussions.

In a recent edition of our Women In Tech series, our inspiring guest speaker was Nibedita (Nivi) Baral, who joined us as the Vice President and Head of Software Engineering and Development at 2K.

Nivi shared insights from her 15 years of experience and expertise, including learnings from her current time at 2K and previous roles in the tech industry. Her work as a diversity, equity, and inclusion advocate also brought great awareness and perspective to the session.

Key Takeaways from this talk

Don’t forget to ask questions

As an expert in digital transformation, agile methodologies, software development, product architecture, and strategic planning, Nivi reminds us about the importance of asking why and what.

• Why are we doing things this way?
• Why is this important?
• What is the value?
• What is the overall program?

In our fast-moving world, especially in the tech industry, it can be easy to assume answers or get stuck in how “things have always been done.” Challenging norms and traditions is a truly agile way of operating.

Ask yourself questions, too

One key piece of advice Nivi gave during this session was to ask yourself questions, especially regarding Imposter Syndrome, diversity, and inclusion.

Nivi was honest about her own experience with Imposter Syndrome and about being a minority woman leader in a male-dominated industry. She noted that while she has experienced inequality, we need to be careful that our voices don’t also hold us back. How we talk to ourselves, think about ourselves, and what we believe about ourselves makes a difference. So, if you’re dealing with a looming thought of “they must think x of me” or “I’m not smart enough to do x,” take a moment to ask yourself, “Why do I think that?”.

Asking ourselves why we feel a certain way and why we’re doing the things we do is a great way to remain focused on goals and better address any issues, questions, or concerns that may arise. By thinking this way, we can also open up dialogues with colleagues to help address our thoughts and provide peace of mind.

Take your stakeholders' perspective

Balancing priorities and stakeholders is a common challenge in the tech industry, even more so as you grow further in your career. Nivi’s advice is to:

• Ensure communication with your stakeholders.
• Give them predictability. Seemingly simple things like giving them updates and transparency about risks will help foster a healthy relationship with your stakeholders.
• Be sure to address the “what’s in it for me?” question that affects your stakeholders' bottom line.
• Lead with Empathy.

When it comes to leading teams and occasionally changing processes, Nivi highlighted the importance of leading with empathy. Leading with empathy means hearing people out, including them in the new process, and acknowledging all the work they have completed to get us to this point. Her philosophy is people, process, and then tech.

We are excited to continue the Women in Tech Series in 2024 and look forward to hearing the diverse voices of our speakers and learning more about their journeys in tech.

Contact us if you’d like to be involved in our Women In Tech talks.