Please describe your current role.
My official title at Code for Australia is Chief Operating Officer. My unofficial title is Chief of Getting Things Done.
When someone in government says yes to partnering with us, through any of our three programmes (Fellowship, Sandpit, Tech for Non Tech), I turn up and make it so. Once we have a particular programme up and running, I make sure things are humming along well for all involved.
How did you get where you are?
I’ve had more of a career the verb – defined as “to move swiftly and in an uncontrolled way” – rather than career the noun – defined as “an occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person's life and with opportunities for progress”.
I cut my teeth in professional services and discovered my niche in financial services. Perhaps more accurately, I cut my baby teeth in IT advisory / tech risk management when I joined KPMG straight after high school, through their cadetship programme. After nine years, I suspected there was more to life than what I’d experienced in the firm and wandered out into financial services – ostensibly in search of work/life balance. It was at NAB that I found myself incapable of being in a business-as-usual role and had a rich career in process and business change programmes of all sizes and scales.
What sparked your interest in tech?
I was very familiar with computers from an early age and was never discouraged from messing around on them. It’s something I’ve had around me since a young age.
I was born into a privileged life in Kenya and my family was quite well off which meant that we could afford the latest tech. In the early 80s my dad brought a Commodore 64 home and we could play and experiment with it. After we moved to Australia, my mum remarried and our step-dad was an Atari reseller who ran a computer store in our neighbourhood. From the early 90s I was surrounded by Ataris in various states of disrepair and again, wasn’t discouraged from pulling them apart or playing with them.
Why is it so important to have women in the technology sector?
At Code for Australia, our work is based on the belief that the problems we face cannot be solved unless a greater number and diversity of people become involved.
We believe that collaboration and openness are key to designing, developing and deploying solutions that meet everyone’s needs.
As a woman who has grown up working in and around technology, I believe there would be less harassment and discrimination experienced by women in the tech sector, if there were more women around (especially in leadership) – it’s a no-brainer.
Lastly, so we don’t end up with products like the first release of Apple’s HealthKit app which didn’t ship with a period (ie menstrual cycle) tracker, despite this being relevant to the majority of women who use their product. Or Carmat’s fully artificial heart implant which fits 86 per cent of men and is only suitable for about 20 per cent of women.
Why are women so under-represented in the field and how do we change that?
Because leaders of technology companies are not doing enough to address the systemic barriers to the full participation of women in the industry.
The responsibility falls fair and square at the doorstep of the industry - if tech firms don’t create work environments and teams where women feel welcome and want to be part of, they will never be able to attract and retain more women in the field.
At Code for Australia, in the four-and-a-half years we’ve been around, we have employed ~60 people. Roughly half have been women or non-binary and also roughly half have been migrants, ie people not born in Australia. If we, as a relatively small organisation, can achieve these stellar stats, I question how larger, better resourced tech organisations have failed.
How does human-centred design fit in with your philosophy?
It is the core of how we work.
What is Tech for Non-Tech?
We are passionate about digital fluency for decision makers. At Code for Australia we believe that great things happen when innovative leaders are digitally fluent.
Tech for Non Tech is a one-day workshop that demystifies the internet — how it works and how things are built to work online — and empowers leaders to make better decisions around investing or directing digital projects or endeavours, on behalf of their organisations and in service to the humans using their service.
In the words of Karen Spencer of Netsafe: “Being ‘digitally literate’ means acquiring the skills to make and create meaning and select technologies to do so. Being fluent requires competencies and capabilities that go beyond the skill level.
"Someone who is digitally fluent not only selects tools and knows what to do with them, but can explain why they work in the way they do and how they might adapt what they do if the context were to change.”
– By Lina Patel and Grace O’Hara
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Lina Patel
Chief Operating Officer
Code for Australia