Latest / The Starfish Storytellers / Episode 3: Women’s Stories of Success and Empowerment with Rachel McLean

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Episode 3: Women’s Stories of Success and Empowerment with Rachel McLean · The Starfish Storytellers

• 0:00
  Welcome to the Starfish Storytellers, the podcast that makes a difference one story at a time by bringing storytelling to life.
• 0:13
  He really partnered with me and let me shadow him on a couple of things that he was working on and let me learn a lot about product management.
• 0:20
  And the other thing that was really influential for me when I worked at Bose is I was part of the women's group there, the women's ERG, and I was part of their mentorship program as a mentee.
• 0:31
  And my mentor, who I was matched with randomly, they did it a blind matching where you saw each other's bios.
• 0:38
  She was a product manager and she was honestly, she still is one of my mentors today and one of the best mentors.
• 0:45
  And the product that she worked on at Bose was really cool. And honestly, I think one of the coolest products is the micro speaker, a little waterproof speaker that fit in the palm of her hand.
• 0:54
  So in talking to her about what she worked on in her journey set me on this path for product management.
• 1:00
  Pandemic hit and I was laid off from my role at Bose before I had the chance to really fully explore that opportunity.
• 1:07
  And I came to PTC two months later. And in my interview for the marketing role that I started out with at PTC, I told my manager when he asked me where I saw myself in five years, I said I want to be a product manager.
• 1:18
  That is what I want to do. And he was like, okay, all right, well, you're starting in product marketing first.
• 1:25
  I started in product marketing. And one of the first things that I did at PTC was get involved with our women's ERG. And that's how I made most of my friends and my connections here.
• 1:33
  And I got involved in the mentorship program again, because that gave me a lot of success when I was at Bose.
• 1:39
  And I was matched with one of our VPs of product management who was a woman and another mentee.
• 1:47
  So we were in a circle who had interned for product manager. And she was like, you should talk to the person that I rotated with and I interned with.
• 1:55
  She's she'd be a really great manager for you.
• 1:58
  I don't know. I feel like I have some work to do before I get to product management. I felt a bit of the imposter syndrome.
• 2:04
  If I have a marketing background and I had that voice in my head, if you don't have a typical background.
• 2:08
  And she told me that I should still talk to this manager. While I was thinking on it, a week or two later, that manager opened up a product management role underneath her.
• 2:18
  And the other mentee in my circle, she sent me the rec and was like, you should apply for this.
• 2:24
  You should you've been talking about product management. You said you were interested in it. You should apply for it.
• 2:28
  And I applied for it. And honestly, everything really aligned.
• 2:32
  The manager was a really great and encouraging manager. I had some great conversations with her and she was willing to take the risk on me and and teach me the ropes of product management.
• 2:40
  And then my marketing manager, who I was working for, he knew that this is what I wanted to do. And he knew this was my dream.
• 2:46
  So he prepped me for the interviews. I practiced my interviews with him and he really helped me get into the product management role.
• 2:52
  And now two years later, here I am, a product manager at PTC and fairly successful, I think, for where my background, where I started.
• 3:00
  And one of the things that I really want to carry forward from that experience of how I got to product management is encouraging other women and young women, especially to pursue this type of career.
• 3:11
  Because oftentimes, like I mentioned at the beginning, we start out in careers or roles that we kind of fall into.
• 3:18
  Somebody advises us or somebody tells us, OK, you'd be a good fit for this and that's where you start.
• 3:22
  I didn't even know what product management was when I was in school. And I didn't know what it was until I started my career and just happened to start working with those people.
• 3:29
  And now I'm in a role that is a really great fit for me. And I use all my skills and I'm continuing to grow skills and learn so much.
• 3:35
  And it's it's a really fun challenge, which is what I think your career should be. So I feel like I really landed in the right place.
• 3:43
  And I'm very fortunate that I had a really supportive group of people around me here at PTC that helped me get to where I am today.
• 4:06
  Hello, my name is Liana Henry and welcome to Starfish Storytellers.
• 4:11
  I'm the CEO of the Black Dog Group, a Markham and project management firm headquartered on the East Coast of the U.S. in quaint colonial Bedford, Massachusetts.
• 4:20
  I'm your host and I'm passionate about storytelling. I'm actually on a mission to raise up the next generation of storytellers.
• 4:27
  We named ourselves the Starfish Storytellers after the Starfish Story.
• 4:32
  The moral of the Starfish Story is based on the power of one.
• 4:36
  No matter how big the challenge, each action we take makes a difference, has an impact.
• 4:41
  One step, one starfish and one story at a time.
• 4:45
  Every episode, we welcome a new storyteller who will share their story, which is meant to inspire and connect with our listeners.
• 4:52
  Then we'll break it down and we'll offer some tips to listeners who are ready to tell their own stories.
• 4:56
  So thanks for tuning in. So let's get started.
• 5:00
  Today's episode is about women's stories of success and empowerment. And with me today is my friend and my prior colleague, Rachel McLean.
• 5:09
  Rachel is a product manager, a very proud product manager and a member of a women's employee resource group that mentors other professional women.
• 5:18
  Welcome to the show. Thank you. I'm really happy to be here.
• 5:22
  So you just shared with us your story, your journey of empowerment and how with your drive and you knew what you wanted to do.
• 5:32
  You knew that product management was your goal and you started at one company.
• 5:37
  Then you went to another company and you were very clear about your goals and you found value in being in a group with other women who were empowering each other.
• 5:47
  So could you tell our listeners maybe a little bit, maybe introduce yourself specifically, who you are and your role and then maybe talk a little bit about being part of this women's group?
• 6:01
  Sure. So I'm Rachel McLean. I'm a product manager at PTC, which is a company that provides software solutions for industrial companies end to end.
• 6:11
  So we are the digital side of physical businesses. We help customers design their product, build their product, monitor it out in the field and even service it once it's out and working in the world.
• 6:25
  What I work on right now is a solution called ThingWorx Navigate, which is a solution that takes product lifecycle management data and information and brings it to other people in your business that may not be super technical users.
• 6:37
  So for example, if you have somebody who is working on a shop floor and they're building a lawnmower, they need to know where the blade on the lawnmower goes.
• 6:46
  So they would go into Navigate and click on an application, be able to view the part and where it goes. And that's what I work on is that solution.
• 6:55
  When I first started at PTC, so I've had quite a journey here at this company where I have held three different roles in three different years. So I've kind of made my own rotational program and been able to really grow my career here at this company.
• 7:10
  And I attribute a lot of that growth to the Women of PTC employee resource group. When I joined, it was during the pandemic and I was looking around my home office.
• 7:23
  And I'm just like, I'm pretty alone here. I have my dog and I have my team that I worked with every day, but I was like, how do people make friends here? How do you get to know people, especially in a virtual setting?
• 7:32
  So one of the first things that I did when I came to PTC was join our Women's Employee Resource Group. And I joined two of our committees. So the way the employee resource group is set up here, at least at PTC, a lot of other companies set it up in similar ways.
• 7:45
  But here at PTC, we set it up based around four, technically five different pillars. So the first is career, so professional development, and that is the committee that I actually currently lead.
• 7:56
  The second is culture. So that's social activities, meeting other people.
• 8:01
  Then third is community. So getting involved for our local community and volunteering and supporting other women who are out there in the world. And then the fourth is commerce. So that is aligning with our business values.
• 8:15
  The fifth one, which is not a formal pillar and kind of overlaps all of them is global engagement.
• 8:21
  We have chapters all over the world that we work with. So that is the makeup of the women at PTC ERG. When I first started and I reached out to the lead of the ERG at the time, I actually didn't realize I was reaching out to the person chairing the ERG.
• 8:37
  When I worked at my previous company at Bose, I was involved in the ERG, but I wasn't an active member, like planning the events and more on the planning and execution side. I was more on the general member side.
• 8:51
  So I participated in the events that they hosted and the mentorship program, but I wasn't on the part of actually planning the events.
• 8:58
  So when I reached out to the chair, I thought I was reaching out just to get on the mailing list and learn about the events. And she gave me a presentation of all the different committees that make up women of PTC and what they worked on and what they did.
• 9:12
  And she was like, are you interested? Do any of these sound interesting to you? And I was like, yeah, actually, the culture side of things sounds really interesting and the career side of things sound really interesting.
• 9:22
  I'm really passionate about professional development. So I got involved with both committees and that's how I made most of my connections here and most of my strongest relationships here as well.
• 9:34
  I leaned more towards the professional development side of things is something I'm really passionate about. And actually, a few months after I joined the ERG, the lead of that committee left PTC.
• 9:45
  So I actually took over that role and I'm still leading the professional development group for our women's ERG. And one of the programs that women's ERG leads and has now for six years is a mentorship program.
• 10:01
  So that was something that I worked on and was involved in myself. And both at my previous company and at my current company, the women's mentorship program was so influential on my career. And it was how I made really strong connections with women who are further in their career and were able to advise me on the next steps that I should be taking and also help advocate for me in my career because advocacy is so, so important.
• 10:27
  In my opinion, and I think maybe more so than mentorship because oftentimes, especially when you're early in your career, you need someone to advocate for you because if you, a lot of women and young women have a really strong sense of imposter syndrome or have really strong imposter syndrome.
• 10:44
  And sometimes it takes someone advocating for you and believing in you and speaking for you to get you to believe in yourself and get you to where you want to be.
• 10:53
  So I was very fortunate that I was able to meet a lot of advocates through that group.
• 10:58
  And it's nice that the group is, I mean, I was reading an article recently about how so many times women have been sort of trained or raised up to be more competitive.
• 11:15
  And really in the professional arena, that doesn't work. That, you know, kind of aligning and being collaborative and working together and supporting each other is really how women are going to advance in their careers and they're going to grow.
• 11:38
  And so you talked about the mentorship program.
• 11:45
  How like, how is that working out now at PTC? Like, you know, is it, are there a lot of mentors? Is it, you know, like, how does that, how does that work?
• 11:56
  So the mentorship program actually has transitioned to one of our other committees at this point. We moved over to commerce because it actually grew to be so large that a lot of people wanted to be involved in it.
• 12:08
  And the company overall, the diversity, equity, inclusion team and our HR team actually wanted to play a role to be able to broaden it and make it more formalized so that it could benefit a larger community here at PTC.
• 12:20
  So something that I'm really proud of and I know Paloma who leads the mentorship program is really proud of is that it's grown to be so large that we had to expand it and it had to take on a little bit more of the company involvement, I guess.
• 12:36
  I found a lot of benefit to being in a group. And that's, I mean, that's how I got into product management was being part of the mentoring circle.
• 12:43
  But I know sometimes if you're randomly matched with a group, it can be a little bit more difficult to open up and to share your experiences if you're not as familiar with the other mentee versus a one on one relationship is a little bit more transparent and easier to navigate.
• 12:58
  So I think that's why they moved it in that direction.
• 13:02
  Was that what you were finding? Like, were you finding that, you know, because I mean, obviously, you didn't really have a choice. It had to be a group mentoring program because there weren't enough mentors. But were you finding that it was harder for some women in the group to kind of share their stories when they were in a group versus one on one?
• 13:22
  I think so. People have different reasons for entering a mentoring program. Some people enter it for that mentoring relationship of getting advice, getting guidance in your career, and have a specific goal when they go in. So me, I had a specific goal.
• 13:36
  I knew what I wanted to do. I knew where I wanted to go.
• 13:39
  Some people join mentoring programs to meet people and build their network. So two of the circles that I was in, the other mentees that I was paired with were more looking for that relationship building aspect of things. They didn't have a specific goal. They weren't looking to build a specific skill. They just wanted to meet people.
• 13:58
  Which I think is why they didn't speak up as much in some of those circles, I think, because they knew that I had something to talk about or I had a specific topic. So they kind of let me take the lead on some of those conversations. And then other people come into mentoring programs expecting the mentor to drive the conversation, which I think is, I think it's common when you're early in your career, because when you're early in your career, you're not really sure where you want to go. You're not really sure where what you're supposed to talk about what skills you're building.
• 14:24
  You don't know what questions to ask, right? You're not sure what questions to ask, right?
• 14:28
  Exactly. And you come in and say, okay, this person is supposed to lead me and guide me. So lead me and guide me. And that was something that we made an adaption to the program of you need to come in with a goal. Here are some resources to look at to help you form a goal or form topics to come into conversations with, because you can't expect mentors to just tell you what to do. You have to come in and bring your own topics and discussion points.
• 14:50
  Are there any stories that you remember? You know, obviously, it's just interesting what you're talking about. Did you find as you heard in the groups that you were in and the circles that you were, you know, assisting with, were the goals pretty similar? I mean, obviously, it's a professional group. You're obviously thinking about your profession, but I would imagine that people have different trajectories for where they want to go in their career.
• 15:12
  Are there any stories that sort of come to mind that you remember of times that you were in these groups? Like, what were some of the focus points for some of the different members and the mentees, I guess, more than mentors?
• 15:23
  I think that more of my story of goals and growth actually come from the committee that I'm part of, more so than the mentoring circles.
• 15:30
  Okay.
• 15:31
  Because of the mentoring program, you kind of, you set people up and they go. They do their thing and everyone's within their own circle. So most of my experiences came from my own personal circles. I didn't really hear much.
• 15:41
  Or as much about how people felt in their circles.
• 15:45
  But I do spend a lot of time with my committee members and then the other core team members of women at PTC. So the people that are on the planning and execution side of things.
• 15:56
  And that that group of people became my family here at PTC and is also the group of people that I feel most comfortable with to talk, have these open conversations.
• 16:07
  And I think that's more, that's the important piece of things.
• 16:12
  One of the most important things about ERGs is to find that safe space where you can have open conversations about careers and be able to share your story and to be able to grow your career and build upon your story.
• 16:25
  Some of the best conversations that I've had and most open conversations that I've had has been part of the ERG.
• 16:30
  For example, one skill that I think a lot of women struggle with is negotiation.
• 16:37
  Definitely. Especially early in a career, a lot of women don't know how much money they should be asking for. They don't even know a starting point.
• 16:46
  And then when you get into your career and you start going, you don't even know what to ask for and you don't know how to ask for it.
• 16:53
  So I've had a lot of really open conversations with women from women at PTC about how to have these conversations about salaries and benefits and what we should be asking for and what percentages we should be asking for in our merit increases, because it's not really something people teach you.
• 17:09
  And it's also something that we need to be talking about openly.
• 17:13
  Like you said before, if you're competitive and you're adjusting it for yourself, okay, maybe I'll get to a certain point. But if everyone has an open conversation using this example of negotiation, if you talk to the people that you're closest with and you trust about what your salary is, they can help you get to a further place in your career.
• 17:33
  Two of my closest friends, we had a really, really open conversation about what our salaries were.
• 17:39
  One of my friends was in the same role as me, similar salary.
• 17:43
  One of my other friends was in a role where she was actually higher up than me. She was managing more than me. She was further along in her career. She had her MBA and I was making 20k more than her.
• 17:54
  And we wouldn't have known that and she wouldn't have been able to advocate for herself and grow her career. Exactly. If we hadn't talked about it.
• 18:01
  So these conversations are really important and to have a safe space where you can have conversations openly. That's why ERGs are really important and those communities are really important as well.
• 18:12
  Yep. Yep. And, you know, I think obviously that's, those are key topics that I would imagine, especially in a women's ERG, in the professional development committee.
• 18:26
  Those are going to be the focus points that you're going to be there because there, I can tell you right now, even from my time at PTC, like there was no other place to go and talk about that.
• 18:35
  Nobody else was going to discuss that with me. And, you know, some of the, some of the best companies, you know, you've had the opportunity to sort of climb the ladder where you are.
• 18:47
  There is, there's not always as high a percentage of women to men. The ratio is, you know, is not the same. And so to have sort of that safe space where you can go and tell your story and talk about what it is that you need in a, you know, collaborative way is really, you know, is really where people are going to advance.
• 19:09
  So you're, you said, you said, it was interesting. You said that when, when people come to mentors or they come to the group, you know, they might be looking for other people to drive the conversation.
• 19:20
  And you then went on to say, it's better for you to come with a goal in mind.
• 19:27
  And so, you know, what, what are the steps that a woman, you know, wanting to come and grow and, you know, what, what steps should she take in order to be successful? You know, what are, what are some key goals that maybe she should focus on?
• 19:43
  Everyone's long-term goal, I think is going to be unique, but there are a few different areas where I would focus on.
• 19:49
  The first is building connections, your connections, your loose ties. If anyone, I don't know if you've ever read the defining decade, they talk about loose ties in the section about work or your weak, weak ties.
• 20:04
  Sorry, they talk about weak ties in the section about work and your weak ties are how you make connections and grow within your career.
• 20:10
  The people that you have some semblance of a relationship with, they know how you work, they know a little bit about you, they know your professionalism. Building connections is kind of the first step of figuring out how to progress in your career.
• 20:24
  The next is to figure out who your allies are. So once you make those connections and you've built your community and you've told people your story, you find out, okay, these are the people that are my allies and can advocate for me.
• 20:37
  One of my advocates and one of my allies was my manager in marketing that helped me make the step into product management and helped me prep my presentations.
• 20:45
  Another one of my allies was my first manager in product management. He is such an incredible ally, such an incredible mentor and advocate, and he's somebody I still go to today and talk to about things that I am unsure about or not feeling confident about.
• 21:01
  Having an ally is really important, especially when you're sorting through what your goals are and where you want to end up. If you're trying to figure out, okay, I could go this direction, I could go this direction, and I need someone to help me get there, your allies will be the people that will be that next level up from your baseline connections.
• 21:19
  And then the other thing for me, this is a little bit of an extreme word, but finding your idols, so the people to look up to. Like you mentioned, a lot of tech companies and tech in general, there aren't as many women.
• 21:32
  And then the next level up, there aren't as many women in leadership. So there are not as many women for younger women and people who are earlier in their career to look up to.
• 21:42
  So finding those women that you admire and you want to be like someday or today that you want to emulate. Exactly. That's really important. And that also will help you set your goal. So if you're starting out and you're not sure where you want to end up, looking for those women and those idols to emulate, that's a good place to start as well of saying, okay, like my manager right now is a director of product management, and she's somebody that I always look to and really admired and want to be like.
• 22:11
  And I want to be in her position, hopefully soon, not too soon though. I don't want to push her out, but she's somebody that I look up to, and I want to be in her position. So she's an idol or somebody that I emulate.
• 22:22
  And then once you've kind of figured out those groups of who are your weak ties, who are your connections that know who you are and know your skills, who are your allies that will advocate for you, and then your idols, who do you want to be like, make sure you're modeling those behaviors.
• 22:36
  So putting those behaviors that you admire into action. So, making sure that you're professional and you're building those skills. And then the other thing that's really important is asking questions.
• 22:47
  I wouldn't be where I am today if I didn't ask questions and ask good questions and thoughtful questions. So that's another skill to build. And I think also that will get you to your goals. So by asking questions, you learn more, you learn more every day, the more questions you ask, the more you learn.
• 23:03
  And the more information you have, the better decisions you can make and the better goals you can set for yourself. So I think about this, I've been thinking about this recently. In fourth grade, we used to get these awards that were kind of like superlative awards.
• 23:18
  And I won the most inquisitive superlative in the fourth grade, and I didn't know really what that word meant. It's so funny, I was thinking about that recently, I was like, it's funny that I won that silly award and I didn't think anything of it and I really didn't know what the word meant when I won that award.
• 23:36
  And now my job is pretty much asking questions. That's how I get to solutions is by asking questions. So I think that's really important in your career as well of getting you to where you need to be and setting those goals is learning as much as you can and figuring out where you fit in that puzzle and in all those pieces.
• 23:54
  Oh, that's great. That's great. Well, thank you so much, Rachel, for your time today. That's really all the time we have but I really just loved hearing about your story and sort of your advice to women who want to advance and how important it is to, you know, find your tribe and get
• 24:17
  connected to other women and don't be afraid to ask the right questions, but really be able to do it in a safe space, so that you can just really be open to talk about it. So, definitely.
• 24:30
  That's so thank you again. And so to our listeners, whether you're hearing us locally from the BTV studios in Bedford, Massachusetts or across the globe on podcast channels such as Spotify, Apple podcasts or Amazon Prime. We just want to thank you for listening.
• 24:47
  I hope you enjoyed the episode and we'll see you next time.