Author: nagyija.bogas

Dynamic Women Podcast

For my last impulse blog post, I decided to listen to two episodes of a “Dynamic Women” podcast. It is an Award-Winning action-focused lifestyle and leadership podcast full of stories and strategies to help women design their success.

In the first episode, which was about strategic planning for success, they talked about how it is important to not blindly follow trends, emphasizing that what’s popular might not necessarily align with a personalized, effective strategy for an individual. Additionally, listeners of a podcast get an insight into Diane’s (Professional Certified Coach) personal experiences with strategic planning.

Another episode was about gender equity in the career fields, which had a podcast quest Sophie Warwick, Co-Founder of the Thoughtful Co. She revealed the story of how her passion turned into business and how she employs data analysis to develop in-house gender equity policies and drives the mission of building gender-inclusive workplaces. Sophie also raised an important topic of how women usually hesitate to negotiate for better compensation and promotions. The conversation from there goes to strategies for moving women into senior positions.

The topics discussed in this podcast are important and offer valuable insights for my research topic. By analyzing the gender pay gap, and negotiation challenges, and proposing actionable strategies, Sophie’s and Diane’s expertise aligns seamlessly with the core focus of my investigation.

Podcast Links:

• Strategic Planning: Mapping Out Your Successful Year Ahead with Diane Rolston
• Gender Equity: Get Paid What You Deserve with Sophie Warwick

Women at Work (Podcast): Ever Considered Joining a Board?

In the recent podcast that I listened to created by Harvard Business Review, the discussion with women in leadership positions about how they got there, gender discrimination, and their difficulties. Eight women who work in the board service share their experiences, challenges, and how they secured their seats.

One prominent figure contributing to the discussion is Lindsey Shorts, who has been on the board of directors at the Center for Excellence in Assisted Living for 10 years and was its chair for 7. She was honest about how it is sometimes difficult to deal with a lot of people, especially if the field is male-dominated, and how sometimes she had to make people listen to her and her ideas in order to be taken seriously. Lindsey shared that it was difficult for her to have a word in because of that. Because of this, she was feeling confused for a long period of time about her tone of voice (if she sounded not nice), if she said the right word, etc. What helped her was finding a mentor and having a person she could always go to If she wasn’t sure about something. What I liked is that she said that being in a board position is about understanding what people need, and what needs to be done, whereas many people see this only as an opportunity to do what they want.

Podcast Link

Aims	Objectives	Methods	Outcomes	Outputs
Investigate the impact of women-centric career empowerment platforms on the career advancement, job search strategies, and job satisfaction of women	1. Examine existing literature and studies. 2. Analyze existing platforms and communities. 3. Explore the influence of these platforms on job search strategies for women. 4. Conduct interviews and surveys to gather information about fears, experiences, and pain points. 5. Develop a list of required features and create wireframes and a prototype based on those.	Conduct surveys and interviews. Analyze existing platforms. Prototype development.	Find key factors and features that contribute to career advancement for women. Based on research and findings develop a prototype.	Literature and research overview. Showcase of the whole process, starting from literature, surveys to the final prototype.

Online webinar by Fairygodboss [1]

Recently I watched a webinar hosted by Fairygodboss [2], featuring women leaders from Siemens Digital Industries Software. Fairygodboss is an online community designed for women to share their experiences, ask for advice, and get resources to help in navigate challenges in the professional sphere. The focus was on supporting young women in their career start and development.

The leaders from Siemens Digital Industries Software started by talking about diverse roles available for women within their organisation and talked about what main features those have. What I think was helpful within this webinar, which women can use, was them talking about how they started looking for a job after graduating. Four women professionals were talking about the details of their jobs, how they were being interviewed, and what challenges they had. They also advised on what questions are important to be asked during interviews, what should be prepared, etc. During the webinar, mentorship appeared as a crucial topic in the area, as many women feel too intimidated when it comes to their proficiency and/or knowledge.

In conclusion, this webinar was a helpful experience, as it not only showed guidance for women in the professional sphere but also the importance of such platforms.

[1] Video from Webinar

[2] Fairygodboss Webiste

Being on a journey of searching for the right topic and question for my master’s thesis that I would want to explore was quite difficult for me because there were different things and ideas, that were interesting to me, and a lot of thoughts about them on my mind. For me the important part of it was to have something that matters and would be helpful as well.

What helped me to “clean up” all my thoughts and confusion was the last meeting with Ursula Lagger and after that, I decided to focus more on what outcome or experience I would want to provide for others with my idea. Based on the research I did and also on the previous ideas I had, I decided to work with the question: How does participation in a women-centric career empowerment platform influence career advancement, job search, and satisfaction among women?

With this, I hope to explore what experience women have when starting their careers, what helped to build careers for those who are already working; show the positive changes that occur when women support and empower each other and create a supportive environment in the professional sphere.

Ontology:

• What assumptions are you making about the reality of the phenomena or issues you are researching?: 
  1. Women face challenges when entering the professional world.
  2. The transition from academia/university life to work one is overwhelming.
  
• Do you view these as objective facts (existing independently of individuals’ perceptions) or as subjective constructs (shaped by personal experiences and cultural influences)?:
  I think for both cases it is a combination of both.
  

Epistemology:

• What are the primary sources from which you will or have derived knowledge about your research topic (e.g., empirical data, theoretical frameworks, personal experiences, cultural narratives)?: 
  Empirical data (surveys, interviews, etc.), theoretical framework + probably my own experience as well
  
• Consider if your understanding is mainly theoretical (based on concepts) or empirical (based on observations or data): 
  Empirical, since information from surveys and/or interviews will provide real-life examples, experiences, and ideas for solutions.
  
• Identify any potential limitations in your understanding or approach. Reflect on how your background or perspective might influence your interpretation of the research:
  To my mind, a person’s (in this case my own) professional background might influence the interpretation of the research because these depend on a person’s previous experiences, studies they did, and collected knowledge as well. Previous background and cultural differences as well may affect how a person thinks, solves problems, and their way of going through the process.

“Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products” by Nir Eyal

For my 5th Impulse, I decided to choose a book “Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products” by Nir Eyal. At the core of the book lie principles and an understanding of how habits are formed while using certain products or services. The main goal the author had was to show how design decisions can be used to captivate the user’s attention, and make them use the product more.

I chose this book because it also explains the psychology of user engagement but also shows real examples from already existing products and how they were created, which decisions were made, and how they affected the user’s experience.

To my mind, Eyal’s method of the “Hook Model” for product and service creation can be used for my thesis work as well. It will help to create a product that will trigger curiosity and make people engage more. Additionally, by understanding and using psychological drivers for habit formation, it is easier to design a product that really resonates with people.

What is this?

• Combinations of photos
• Memories
• Photos of my friends

How did it get here?

• I took these photos with my film camera
• The camera was purchased from a second-hand store specializing in analog photography equipment
• I got my film developed by professionals
• The film itself was manufactured by a Kodak factory, starting as raw materials before being processed and packaged

Who uses it?

• People use this to see an overall number and look of photos that were developed
• I use it as decoration for my wall

What does it do?

• Reminds me of traveling and special moments
• Makes me nostalgic
• Helps to see if I actually received/have all the photos
• Looks nice on the wall

When is it used?

• Daily while looking at it
• When one wants to see an overall picture

What is it made of?

• Camera, film, light.

Who made it?

• Me
• Manufacturers
• People who developed the film

Why does it exist?

• It exists to capture specific and special moments, it is also a form of artistic expression and is for evoking certain memories and feelings.

@Birgit Bachler: Feedback for Expose

Working title:
Inclusive Employment: A Platform for Women’s Job Opportunities

• The problem: The starting point is the challenges that women face when trying to find one-day/ contract or similar job positions due to reasons such as pregnancy, family issues, money, cultural reasons and other circumstances. The lack of flexible work options tailored to these constraints hampers women’s economic empowerment and independence.
• State of research: Existing information shows the importance of finding a solution for this but platforms often lack a focus on one-day or short-term contract jobs that align with the requirements of women facing limitations in employment.
• Question: How can the creation of such a platform empower women who have constraints related to full-time jobs and help them have a better life?
  
  
• The hypothesis:
  The main hypothesis/objective of my master’s thesis is to use inclusive design to create a platform that would empower women who have difficulties and constraints concerning work hours or contracts. A lot of the time happens that women cannot work or have difficulties finding jobs because of several reasons: no education, pregnancy, and maternity. the need for flexible working arrangements. This would also be a great tool for women from low-income countries/ unstable economically countries. So, my main idea is to have a platform that would allow women to have different types of jobs, even some without prior experience and to be able to create CV there and put skills. I want it to be easy to use for women from different countries and for it to help them grow financially and personally. This way women with limited resources would have access to earning opportunities and more economic independence.
  
• The method: Literature review, research, finding already existing interviews, conducting interviews, analysis of already existing solutions/platforms.
  
  
• Structure:
  1.Introduction
  2. Literature review
  3. Interviews and Surveys
  4. First drafts and user testings
  5. Design
  6. Conclusion and recommendations

While researching literature and information that would help in my work and master’s thesis, I stumbled upon a blog post by Ashlesha Dhotey about how designers can foster long-term relationship between products and users. To my mind relationships between products and users cannot be overstated because they define the experience too.

What I liked about the blog post that I found was that it was written by a student after their internship with Microsoft. It is a showcase of thesis work, which shows the dates and steps that the student did. The interesting aspect that she had was the use of literature through the research, she was using knowledge from the resources and applied them to her research questions and ideas, with this she was also sharing her own insights from them. She mapped out product qualities (for example: responsive functioning, interaction, etc) and in the end created a data sheet out of it. The main idea that could be seen through her work was that every object and product can be evaluated and if possible reused in some way. She was aligning work and decisions with products’ values.

Additional aspect that I liked about that blog post was author’s honesty. This is something I don’t see that often when reviewing or reading other designers’ process and workflow. She was honest about sometimes having bad weeks and not being able to get the information she wanted and admitting that sometimes certain tasks took her longer time than expected.

In my opinion, it is important to see and research other people’s workflow as it gives a deeper understanding of how certain problems are addressed and gives ideas to solve them in a more innovative or creative way.

References:

• Blog Post by Ashlesha Dhotey