Girlstart’s Women in STEM weekly series highlights various women who are making a difference in STEM. Be inspired as these incredible women describe how they became interested in their field, provide insight into a day in the life, and share learnings from their experiences.
Megan Lueders
Chief Marketing Officer @ Silicon Labs
Megan is a vital part of Girlstart’s board of directors, where she is dedicated to increasing the number of women in STEM. We are so excited to have her on the blog today, where she can extend her knowledge and advice to a much wider audience.
What sparked your interest and made you want to volunteer with Girlstart?
Girlstart is that perfect blend of educating others in a STEM in a fun, creative environment and utilize those skills in their future education and profession. Being able to cultivate this next generation, so more women will pursue careers in STEM roles is imperative to communities and the diversity of how technology evolves.
Do you have any advice you would like to share with our audience?
Forge ahead and don’t look back. The world needs girls in STEM…it’s the only way we innovate differently, discover faster, analyze rigorously, and more. From engineering cars and building houses to providing medical care and researching data – without girls in STEM roles our society is void of insights, desires and intelligence that half the population craves. So please continue down the STEM path. We need you.
Marketing is not traditionally seen as a STEM role, what led to your interest in STEM?
The role of Marketing has changed over the years. In the past, it was all about big advertising – billboard, radio, print and of course product. But was less about digital and data science. In the last ten years, it became apparent was the need for data – facts, math, analysis, science was critical to a marketer’s success and the people who would succeed would be those who embraced STEM. I realized I had to learn, educate and evangelize the role of analytics, math, and science in Marketing and within my team if we were going to influence the business and enrich the customer’s journey.
Can you briefly describe what your job entails?
Marketing comes in many shapes and sizes and I’ve experienced nearly all of them over the last two decades. Our #1 job is to perform activities, written, physical, virtual, digitally, or support that result in revenue. In completing that, our other primary objective is to serve as the voice of the customer and ensure their experience with our brand (i.e. the company) is brilliant at all times. The result of those two big objectives is that I get work with nearly every function in the company and come to every discussion with data and insights that can make a significant impact to the business through enhancing products, servicing more effectively or growing accounts.
What are your favorite things about your career?
There are so many aspects of Marketing that I love – the creativity, the diversity, the collaboration, and the impact it can have on a business. One of my favorite aspects of Marketing is the technology and analytics that can be derived about the customer. From engineering how technology should be implemented to calculating data to understand trends and signals that may trigger different business decisions. It’s fascinating to know how small changes to a website or content can influence a customer’s journey and it’s all backed by data.
What would you consider to be your greatest accomplishment?
On a personal level, it’s my children but on the professional side, I am proud of the many transformations my teams have undergone over the years and the successful outcomes we’ve had at every turn. Whether it was transitioning from an in-person conference to a virtual digital event due to Covid restrictions or revamping our entire brand, it was always a big team and collaborative effort that made the accomplishment at that moment, all our greatest achievements.
Why is confidence in STEM important for girls?
It is not a mystery that STEM roles and disciplines are dominated by men. With programs like Girlstart, we can continue to move that needle, however it is critical for every girl to have the confidence, determination, desire and true grit to forge ahead.
Confidence allows a girl to walk into an all-male classroom and say “Here I Am” and not be intimated by the ratios and head to the back of the class looking for any empty seat. Confidence provides girls the power to show a different mindset, a different way of thinking, a different approach that can result in a new product, a solution, a discovery or more.
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