The Transformation Issue | Idealog.co.nz
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women in tech
If you work in agile, most would assume you’re pretty
adaptable to change. With 15 years of experience in agile
and lean practices under her belt, Diana Minnee is an
expert at things like frameworks, methodologies and
learning mindsets. She even has the word ‘Sisu’ tattooed
on her wrist – a Finnish concept that has no English
equivalent, but means grit, bravery and resilience.
So, how does the head of delivery at Trade Me apply
the thinking that keeps some of New Zealand’s leading
organisations ticking to her own evolving life journey?
Last year, Minnee wrote a candid blog about her life
and why she was proud to look back on the things she had
achieved. She reflected on how when she was months away
from turning 17, she discovered she was pregnant.
Already seven months into her unplanned pregnancy,
the shock rippled through Minnee, her boyfriend, their
parents and the community.
“Upon letting my parents know, my stepmother’s first
response was, ‘How am I ever going to show my face to my
friends now? I’m so ashamed of you! You have ruined your
life.’ My father was silent, and I watched him grey before
my eyes,” she says.
Minnee’s career choices from this point forward
stem from her belief that, “Nothing is predetermined,
success looks different for everyone, and the opinion you
have of yourself is more important than other people’s
views of you”.
Keeping this belief firm to her heart, Minnee found
shift work as a waitress in a pub while raising her daughter
in a new town with her first husband. As her confidence
soared, she felt a desire to prove herself to the people who
told her she’d ruined her life.
Armed with an incredible thirst to learn and give the
middle finger, she zigzagged from shop assistant, to selling
newspaper ads, to working in an art gallery, to owning her
own salon. This wealth of knowledge in people, systems,
marketing and operations has helped her carve a niche in
today’s fast-paced tech industry today.
But while working as a salon owner, Minnee was hit
by a storm of personal and professional challenges: she had
a miscarriage, separated from her husband and lost her
business due to fraudulent activity committed by a trusted
employee in the space of a few months.
“Personally, death, poverty, divorce and a lack of
family support are all as bad as they say they are. The
lessons from these have meant I am ultimately stronger for
it, but I wouldn’t wish it on anyone,” Minnee says.
“We shouldn’t need to be as strong and resilient as
these things force us to become, and in many ways, this has
been to the detriment of closeness to others, sharing the
load, and admitting when I need support.
“Outside of these things, though, the hardest lesson
I have learnt is being burned badly by people you trust. I
mean big, harrowing, take-five-years-to-recover kind of
throw you under the bus type of burn here. It is hard not to
let that change your perspective from trusting first unlessproven otherwise, to being closed off and having people
earn your trust. I believe people are generally not out to
be assholes to you, and thinking the best of them is always
a place I go to first. There have been times when that has
been very hard to maintain, but doing what is right is better
than doing what is easy.”
For Minnee, it is easy to explain where she is now and
she believes it is down to an intentional push to embrace a
new phase in her personal life, as well as where she wanted
to be professionally.
“My life has been filled with some hard yards, a tough
road in many ways to get to what I would define as success.
The last five years have been purposeful when it comes to
my career, as some of the best advice I received about then
was from the Chair of the Board at SilverStripe [where I
had been since 2010] when he told me the fastest way of
getting where I wanted was a straight line. I made a plan
of what I wanted to do and be, and I have been true to that
path since then.”
Minnee explains what delivery means to her and
how this can be considered from a personal perspective –
particularly if you’re going through a period of change
or making intentional decisions that are aimed at leading
you somewhere.
“People often wonder what delivery means – my
seven-year-old niece asked if I was responsible for
delivering all of the things that were sold on Trade
Me to the people who bought them, and she was very
disappointed with my real job when I explained.
"Delivery is about how we do our best work together
in a safe way, smooth our flow through the end-to-end
delivery life cycle, and consistently measure our results
to know what’s adding value. This may be looking at
processes, tools, team psychology, motivating factors,
organisational structure or culture, and how it all
relates to optimising our environment to create great
things efficiently.”
Finding the right balance is something she has
strived for and practiced daily after remarrying and having
another child not long after turning 40, something she
believes comes down to compromises and disclaimers.
“Both my husband and I are in senior careers that
neither of us wanted to pause. It was not something I had
considered very seriously until that moment, so we had to
come to some very specific terms around how we could still
sustain my career growth expectations while growing our
family,” Minnee says.
“It’s been a hard road, one that takes discipline to do
in a way that keeps everyone happy and healthy. I don’t
know if I would recommend it to everyone, but luckily our
personality types and lifestyle makes it work somehow.
“It’s difficult to do without someone compromising
something fundamental to them, but we manage. All of
this ‘women can have a career, and a family’ messaging
should at least come with a disclaimer. It’s challenging, it’s
constant, it’s expensive, but at least for us, it’s worth it.” ■Diana Minnee,
head of delivery at Trade Me
All of this
‘women can
have a career,
and a family’
messaging
should at least
come with a
disclaimer. It’s
challenging,
it’s constant,
it’s expensive,
but at least
for us, it’s
worth it.