Q&A Series | Hannah Pinnock
Thought Leadership • November 21, 2024 • Written by: Hannah Pinnock • Read time: 2 min
Hannah is the Strategic Design Lead at Methods and is passionate about putting people at the heart of organisational design and change...
Q. What advice would you give to women looking to start a career in tech?
There are so many roles in the technology space that don’t require you to have technical skills. Don’t discount the field because you can’t code or you haven’t got a technical education. There are many roles beyond the really technical aspects of the work we do that are integral to the successful design and delivery of products and services. I’d encourage anyone looking to kick start their career to look at the research, design and product roles that exist. Are you a real people person that’s great at being organised and doesn’t mind having a difficult conversation now and again? Then maybe you’d be a great Delivery Manager. Are you curious to understand why something is happening and have a deep understanding of people and their needs? You might make a great User Researcher. The tech world has plenty on offer for anyone who is interested.
Q. How do you stay up-to-date with the latest developments in your field?
Pre-covid, I used to spend a lot of time attending wonderful in-person events and I felt part of a thriving online design and digital community on Twitter. These days, I find the best people and content online is found on LinkedIn and BlueSky, as well as in podcasts such as Built for Change. I find attending conferences, events and training provides great opportunities to learn new things as well as connect with and build my network. These days I don’t have as much time to commit to such activities and the events landscape has never fully recovered from lockdown, so it feels much harder to keep my finger on the pulse.
Q. What emerging technologies or trends are you most excited about, and how do you see them shaping the future of your industry?
My discipline is organisation design, so I’m really excited by the move away from traditional HR functions towards holistic people focused teams that are driven to deliver a good colleague experience across the whole lifecycle of employment. I’ve loved exploring how product design can be applied to a people function in organisations and I think there is real merit in applying a human-centred approach to organisational change. Every organisation in every sector has a people function, so the potential to transform how we think about this space is huge. Change happens slowly and for now I’m only seeing the most progressive organisations, comfortable with innovation in this area shifting their language, focus and process.
Q. Are there barriers when it comes to women getting into tech?
We continue to see an absence of women and people of colour in senior leadership positions, which has a significant impact for those entering the field and those of us already in it. The industry itself is on the trajectory of being more diverse than ever, but this seems to result in a complacency around challenging the status quo of leadership teams. The barriers to women, people of colour, LGBTQ+ people and those with disabilities are deep and varied and require consistent and active engagement from those in positions of power to shift and break down. Until we see better allyship across the board, progress will be slow and the products, services and organisations we design and create will be poorer as a result.