- Cliff Oguzie, Delivery Principal, AND Digital.

Anushka was raised in India and once had an early career as a child cinema actor. As an adult she held a passion for marketing, citing Steve Jobs as a key influence. She has since held numerous related roles, which have helped to hone her marketing craft over time.

The early part of our discussion majored on the qualities that define successful leaders. Anushka made it clear that beyond technical expertise, effective leadership hinges on the ability to empower and guide team members. Leaders who trust their teams, delegate responsibilities, offer constructive feedback, and share knowledge to create a culture of ownership and accountability tend to see extraordinary success.

By “leading from behind” and empowering others to take centre stage, leaders can unlock the full potential of their teams and drive collective success. This style of leadership is empowering to recipients, but is not easy to follow as it requires an amount of integrity and humility to let others take credit and visibility.

Our conversation touched on the importance of cultivating a team culture rooted in commitment and alignment with organisational values and vision. While a cohesive team is essential, diversity of thought is equally crucial. Anushka highlighted how project delivery leaders must strike a balance between assembling a team with shared goals and ensuring a diverse range of perspectives. By creating an environment where ideas are freely exchanged, and constructive debate is encouraged, teams can innovate and adapt more effectively to challenges.

On the topic of team dynamics, Anushka gave the following thoughtful insights:

Empowerment and Open Communication: Encouraging team members to share ideas openly without fear of judgment is a key to a productive and user-centred team. Every idea has the potential to contribute to innovation and growth. By creating an environment where creativity flourishes, you can unlock new possibilities and drive success.

Understanding Audience Needs: Prioritise understanding your audience's needs and preferences. A successful product is one that adds value and resonates with its intended users. Test your ideas and gather feedback early in the development process to ensure alignment with audience expectations.

Balancing Innovation with Practicality: While innovation is important, it's essential to balance creativity with practicality. Don't get caught up in adding unnecessary features or complexities to your product. Focus on delivering tangible value to your audience in a way that is feasible and sustainable.

Iterative Development and Testing: Embrace an iterative approach to product development. Where possible, start with a minimum viable product (MVP) and iterate based on user feedback and testing. This allows you to refine your product over time, ensuring that it evolves to meet changing needs and preferences. In my own experience as a project leader in tech, MVPs have often been overlooked or diluted to the point where the initial launch is weighted with features that have taken time and effort to develop, but may not be important to users. The benefits of starting small and building on it cannot be overstated.

Courage to Let Go: Sometimes, you need to let go of ideas or strategies that aren't delivering the desired results. Have the courage to pivot or abandon initiatives that aren't adding value to your users or achieving your objectives. This willingness to adapt and iterate is essential for long-term success.

Anushka articulated passionately that marketing is crucial for creating awareness, generating interest, and ultimately driving sales for a product or service. It's about crafting compelling messages, identifying the right channels to reach your audience, and engaging with them effectively. Without effective marketing, even the most useful products may struggle to gain traction in the market. Whilst this point was true, it was also very apparent that a successful marketing campaign alone does not make a successful business or product. The quality of the product itself needs to be compelling enough, to make marketing it about increasing visibility of something that already has mass appeal.

Another often overlooked aspect is the relationship between product delivery professionals and Marketing teams which is a relationship that is pivotal to the successful launch of a user-centric product. Unsurprisingly, Anushka spoke passionately about this relationship, underscoring that marketing efforts should align with the product's features, benefits, and target audience to maximise impact and drive sales.

Continuous communication between marketing and product teams is essential for ensuring that marketing messages accurately reflect the product's capabilities and value. Knowing your users and working with them along the journey makes it easier to relate to them more effectively during marketing.

We draw the discussion to a close by discussing upcoming key events for TechWM. If you regularly review the website or subscribe to events, you will know that there are many local events taking place led by a range of businesses and organisations.

Tech West Midlands is actively promoting innovation and growth in the region's tech sector through initiatives like special interest groups, investments in projects, and events like Birmingham Tech Week, which as the name suggests, is a whole week of events for networking, knowledge sharing, and celebrating the achievements of the tech community. I have been involved in previous Tech Weeks and certainly support this as an event not to be missed.

You can listen to the full episode with Anushka on Spotify, Apple, Audible.