A former tech investment banker, June Angelides is the founder of Mums in Technology, the first child-friendly coding school in the UK. A lack of options for learning alongside her baby led June to create a skills-based tech programme for like-minded mothers raising children. In this ProductTank London talk, June demonstrates a new way for organisations to approach learning for mothers while helping to close the gender gap in tech.
In product management, there is scope for success, failure, and everything in between. When June founded Mums in Technology, she “took time to open herself to failure”: she grew in confidence and gained insights on her goals.
When her Mums in Tech Javascript course struggled to secure enrolments, June took the situation personally and put pressure on herself to fix it all alone. Eventually she approached her team of volunteers and soon realised how supportive they were. She remedied the setback with openness to herself and honesty to others. She realised that she wouldn’t make much money from the Javascript course, so she explored other options and succeeded at other things.
She learned about the value of market research, timings, and pricing through this instance of failure. The situation taught her to set expectations in ways that would make failure more comfortable, because “we’re human and we all go through it”. Sharing this lesson, June ensures her team are prepared to cope with their own personal setbacks through acceptance, reflection and support; there is always a way to try again!
