Tech for Non-Techies helps Business Leaders have great careers in the Digital Age, with episodes on innovation, digital transformation, start-ups and how technology is changing business.
Learn tech concepts, apply them to business strategy, and get practical advice on how to succeed as a Digital Leader today.
Learn how to work with tech clients, transition career, succeed in digital transformation and start a company as a non-technical founder.
Tech for Non-Techies is for:
- Leaders in corporates going through digital transformation
- Non-technical founders
- Professionals who want to transition into a career in tech
- Tech investors
Hosted by tech entrepreneur, executive coach and Chicago Booth MBA Sophia Matveeva.
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121. Five things you can do to thrive in the Tech Age
Episode 121
Wednesday, October 19, 2022 • Duration 17:57
If you want to have a great career today, you simply have to Speak Tech. But, taking courses is not enough. You must combine learning with smart actions to make your investment pay off.
Here are five action steps you can take today to thrive in the Tech Age:
Get involved with a tech start-up:
if you have specialist expertise, offer to become an advisor to a start-up so you can learn how digital innovation works from the inside.
For example, if you are a lawyer, offer your legal expertise in exchange for sitting in product meetings as an observer.
Get involved with an accelerator:
this is like point one, but instead of offering your expertise to a specific start-up, offer it to an organisation that helps start-ups.
angel investment networks are also another useful route to follow here.
Create your own tech focussed meet-ups:
This is especially useful if you want to learn and build your network in a particular niche. For example, if you work in a real estate investment fund, host events with start-ups and corporate innovators who are inventing new products in this space.
By being the moderator of these discussions, you grow your knowledge, build your network and expand your personal brand.
Go to the innovation department or the product teamand ask them what they are working on.
One of my students did this. Juliet Eysenck was a journalist at the Telegraph Media Group in the UK. She built relationships with the digital product team and ended up pivoting her career to become a product leader.
Look at your existing LinkedIn connections, find people who are working in technology innovation and contact them.
Tech for Non-Techies clients
120. Think like a Venture Capitalist to have a great career
Episode 120
Tuesday, October 11, 2022 • Duration 14:43
“The business strategies employed by highly successful start-ups and the career strategies employed by highly successful individuals are strikingly similar," says Reid Hoffman in his book The Startup of You.
VC premise 1: technology is a tool that solves a problem
Ask yourself: what problems is your industry facing now? What problems are you dealing with on day-to-day basis?
VC Premise 2: the problem must be important enough to solve
Even if the problem exists, it might not be important enough to solve.
This is why, you need to think: where is the biggest money drain? Where is the biggest productivity drain?
VC premise 3: Invest in the future, not in the now
VCs are not investing in today. They are investing in years and even decades ahead. Let’s use the same approach to your career.
Does your industry or the company you are working at look promising? Make a plan for how to adjust for future changes. Making a career change always takes longer than we want.
VC premise 4: diversify your assets
This means doing well in your current role well, and also getting involved with other projects.
One of the best ways to do this is to get involved with start-ups, because this helps you understand how innovation works in practice and gives you fresh ideas.
119. Why smart leaders expect the unexpected from software updates
Episode 119
Wednesday, October 5, 2022 • Duration 13:20
Software updates can have weird unintended consequences that the company doesn't even know about. Existing features that worked perfectly can stop working, leading to lost revenues and annoyed customers.
Listen to this episode to learn why this happens and how non-technical leaders deal with it when it does.
Learning notes from this episode:
A developer could write a line of code to affect one outcome, and there could be a completely different unintended outcome that they don’t even know about it.
When an app, site or algorithm gets complicated enough, these unintended consequences are more and more likely to happen.
To prevent this, make sure that different people test the new version on different devices and browsers.
In tech teams, this function is called Quality Assurance.
Remember that these unintended consequences are inevitable. The key is to catch them early and correct course.
Create a process for your users to quickly tell you if something goes wrong. The beauty of software products is that you can usually get rid of a bug in the system in the next release. The key is to find out about it in the first place.
There are 2 ways to apply this work to your goals:
118. Four questions to link business goals to tech tools
Episode 118
Wednesday, September 28, 2022 • Duration 15:40
Technology is a tool, not an end in itself. The quickest way to bridge the gap between tech and business teams is to relate business outcomes to technology.
Learning notes from this episode:
In every company, you always have two sides: the people who make the product, and the people who sell the product.
The aim of both sides is to grow the business, but they solve the same problem using different expertise. (It’s like Oceans 11, but legal)
As a leader your job is not to know everything, but to set a vision and break it down into goals. You need to learn, but you also need to know when to stop.
This is how non-technical founders build tech ventures and how corporate executives transform traditional organisations into digital leaders.
One of the biggest reasons non-technical leaders struggle to collaborate with their technical counterparts is fear that they will not understand what the technologists are talking about.
A quick hack, even without knowing any tech concepts, is to relate business outcomes to technology.
Most tech tools help companies achieve these four business aims:
Reach scale
Increase efficiency
Increase customer satisfaction
Improve security
You can start learning how to become a Digital Leader today by asking your tech colleagues how their work impacts these four areas.
Join our next FREE Training on 28 September, 12 pm EDT / 5 pm BSTHow To Speak Tech For Leaders There are 2 ways to apply this work to your goals:
117. Lessons from the Lean Start-Up by Eric Reis
Episode 117
Wednesday, September 21, 2022 • Duration 16:00
"Successful entrepreneurs don't have better ideas, they have a better process," says Eric Reis in The Lean Start-Up. To learn how to innovate with speed, listen to this week's episode.
Learning notes from this episode:
“A start-up is a human institution designed to create a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty,” says Reis.
Do not to apply your corporate experience to start-ups.
Corporates have:
Departments
A known business model
A known problem
Start-ups have:
3 people and a dog
No proven business model
A problem hypothesis
To test new ideas in conditions of extreme uncertainty, follow the Build-Measure-Learn cycle. (Pictured here)
This process is not only for tech products. Use it to invent new products and services, and if you get traction with existing tools, then consider investing in tech.
If you do not have a technical background, you will not know how to build a product so you could measure and learn. This is why The Lean Start-Up is a great theoretical guide to innovation, but does not present a clear path to product for non-technical innovators.
When investing in Deep Tech, remember that technology is just a tool, not an end in itself. Understanding who will use it and why is key to becoming smart money.
Learning notes from this episode:
When investing in any business, you must consider these questions:
What problem are you solving?
Who are you solving it for?
Are they willing and able to pay for it?
Understand what stage of the innovation cycle the start-up is in. This will help you evaluate risk properly.
For example, the first lab grown burgers were unaffordable for most people. The risk at that stage was not whether the product can be made, but whether it can be made at a cost that would allow wide scale sales.
Get a technical expert to evaluate the start-up’s invention and help you understand their risk. Take note if no other deep tech investor is involved.
This is what happened with Theranos. Prominent biotech VCs passed on the round because they had the expertise to know that what Elizabeth Holmes was promising could not be built.
One of the best ways to learn about Deep Tech investing is to attend accelerator demo days. Listen to start-up pitches and take note of what experienced deep tech investors are asking about.
For example, you could start with the Duality accelerator ran by the University of Chicago’s Polsky Center, which focusses on quantum computing start-ups.
There are 2 ways to apply this work to your goals:
115. Commercialising innovation and breaking into Deep Tech
Episode 115
Wednesday, September 7, 2022 • Duration 36:09
Great technology is not enough to build a successful business. You need customers who understand its benefits, and are willing to pay for them. This is why storytelling is a key part of commercialising innovation.
Lauren Xandra, Head of Marketing at Two Sigma Ventures, a venture capital firm investing in deep tech, talks about her role in building successful tech businesses and how she transitioned career into deep tech.
Learning notes from this episode:
"Just as important as supporting startups' technical growth, is helping them to be understood and able to tell a story that no only resonates with their end users, but also with potential corporate partners and outside investors, who are often less technical," says Lauren.
Venture Capital is usually a job that people transition into, rather than start their careers in. 68% of venture capitalists in the US have backgrounds in start-ups, according to research by Diversity VC.
"Making a strategic career move requires thinking entrepreneurially," says Lauren. This means investing time and effort into activities that will pay off in the long run, but not today, like volunteering for start-ups or accelerators.
Remember, this contact does have to work in a tech company. They could be like Juliet, working on the digital side of a traditional business innovation.
Ask these contacts to meet up so you can ask them about their work. You might make new friends or rekindle friendships, while building knowledge for your career.
What happens when you apply for a consultation call:
Sophia and her team will look through your application. If they genuinely think Sophia could help you, you will get a link to her calendar.
You will have a 20 – 30 minute call to discuss your goals and see if you are a good fit for each other.
If we establish that Tech for Non-Techies courses + coaching could help you and believe we would enjoy working together, we will discuss a relevant approach to suit you.
The aim of the call is not to sell you on anything that is not right for you. We both win if you get results, but we both lose if you don’t.
We love hearing from our readers and listeners. So if you have questions about the content or working with us, just get in touch on info@techfornontechies.co
What happens when you apply for a consultation call:
Sophia and her team will look through your application. If they genuinely think Sophia could help you, you will get a link to her calendar..
You will have a 20 – 30 minute call to discuss your goals and see if you are a good fit for each other.
If we establish that Tech for Non-Techies courses + coaching could help you and believe we would enjoy working together, we will discuss a relevant approach to suit you.
The aim of the call is not to sell you on anything that is not right for you. We both win if you get results, but we both lose if you don’t.
We love hearing from our readers and listeners. So if you have questions about the content or working with us, just get in touch on info@techfornontechies.co
For companies: If you want to increase productivity, innovation and diversity, then your non-technical teams need to learn how to collaborate with the techies.
BOOK A CALL to discuss bespoke training & consulting.
We love hearing from our readers and listeners. So if you have questions about the content or working with us, just get in touch on info@techfornontechies.co
For companies: If you want to increase productivity, innovation and diversity, then your non-technical teams need to learn how to collaborate with the techies.
BOOK A CALL to discuss bespoke training & consulting.
We love hearing from our readers and listeners. So if you have questions about the content or working with us, just get in touch on info@techfornontechies.co
For companies: If you want to increase productivity, innovation and diversity, then your non-technical teams need to learn how to collaborate with the techies.
BOOK A CALL to discuss bespoke training & consulting.
We love hearing from our readers and listeners. So if you have questions about the content or working with us, just get in touch on info@techfornontechies.co
For companies: If you want to increase productivity, innovation and diversity, then your non-technical teams need to learn how to collaborate with the techies.
BOOK A CALL to discuss bespoke training & consulting.
We love hearing from our readers and listeners. So if you have questions about the content or working with us, just get in touch on info@techfornontechies.co
For companies: If you want to increase productivity, innovation and diversity, then your non-technical teams need to learn how to collaborate with the techies.
BOOK A CALL to discuss bespoke training & consulting.
We love hearing from our readers and listeners. So if you have questions about the content or working with us, just get in touch on info@techfornontechies.co
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