Amber Bellou

The best advice I've received is to always go with MVP, minimum viable products, so that you can get the ball rolling and not try to be a perfectionist or do a very complicated thing first. Go with the easiest option that you have, the way that you can build the minimum viable product, and then from there, you can iterate and improve it over time. If you start off too complicated sometimes, it can make it difficult to actually get started and get the momentum going. So that would be the best advice I've received, to always go with MVP and to start small, have a pilot, and then make it better over time. Another piece of advice is that you learn as you go, and that's something that I really learned in my career as well.

In my first master's degree, I learned that oftentimes women only apply to positions or roles if they believe they have 100% of the qualifications listed, whereas men usually apply if they have more like 40% or 50%. That stood out to me because I do think that a lot of women want to make sure that we have all of the qualifications, that we can get all of the skills that are required before we get started. But in reality, I think you should give yourself more credit and give yourself more room to grow as you go. Just apply and just try to give yourself a chance. You don't have to have all of the qualifications, you can learn them as you go. Something else as well I would say is that don't be afraid of pivoting. I have a very interdisciplinary background - a bachelor's in anthropology, a bachelor's in political science, I minored in environmental science, then I got a master's in data analytics and computational social science, and now I'm going into a master's in education at Harvard. If you give yourself a chance to build an interdisciplinary portfolio or profile, you can be actually much more valuable because you'll be able to look at problems from a lot of different perspectives - from a social scientist's point of view, from an anthropologist's point of view, from a scientist's point of view, from a tech person's point of view. So don't be afraid of following your interests and building your own specific profile. It's okay if it includes a lot of different things because you can always bridge them together, and that can make you a much more valuable person.

As a woman in the tech world, it can be difficult because there are not that many women, although it is starting to change. Sometimes also being on the younger side, it can be challenging sometimes being the youngest woman in the room, especially when I'm dealing with people who are very experienced with the corporate world and maybe are from older generations. But I think that's something that's changing, and the culture overall in the tech world and in the ed tech world specifically is becoming more diverse. I think it's very nice to be able to work with people from all over the world as well. I would say sometimes as a woman, we just have to take up space and be loud and get our messages across, and not be afraid.

I would say being mission-driven is important. Having a strong sense of purpose, or building that sense of purpose. Also, honesty with yourself and others. And I think also curiosity and willingness to learn.