Three Women from Atlassian's Design Team on Finding Candor, Belonging, and Confidence at Every Career Stage

As women continue to prioritize their professional goals along with their desires to put energy toward relationships and family, their careers may look different at distinct points. In a recent Forbes article, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox outlines these stages for women as ambition in their 20s, culture shock in their 30s, a re-focusing in their 40s, and a long-deferred “peak” in their 50s and beyond. And at every stage, women have to work harder to get ahead. Wittenberg-Cox says it’s important to know where you are on your journey so you can choose a company that pushes you to grow personally and professionally.

At Atlassian, we encourage the women who work with us in every aspect—and career stage—of their lives. Junior Designer Agrata Patel, Lead Researcher Utpala Wandhare, and Design Manager Madhumita Gupta, are three women at different places in their careers, but they share a common experience: living Atlassian values every day. Guided by these values, Atlassian creates a collaborative working environment and opportunities for learning and growth, supports its employees in their professional and personal lives, and strives to be a company where women at any moment of their career can thrive. 

Finding Inspiration and Belonging

When she arrived straight out of undergrad this past spring, Agrata was amazed at how many women held top roles here. “That happens so rarely in the male-dominated tech industry,” says Agrata. “A lot of these women are juggling families and these big jobs without seeming to break a sweat. I’m thrilled to be in a place where I have inspiring women to look up to.” Madhumita is the kind of leader who inspires. A true polymath, Madhumita studied Physics and Computer Science before joining Atlassian as a designer two years ago. She explains that Atlassian employees actually live up to the high standards the company sets. “Our values are not just words on a poster or a T-shirt,” says Madhumita. “We apply them to how we work and interact with each other. If there is a problem, we talk about it and find a solution, together.”

Utpala joined Atlassian in early 2020 after working for more than a decade in market research, and she says she appreciates the emphasis on teamwork as opposed to individual achievement. “Triads are powerful structures that allow sharing of knowledge and ideas on any given project,” Utpala says. “Understanding the different thought processes of all these creative people—the ones who just arrived and the ones who are in charge—accelerates our growth. Constantly learning from each other also makes sure that the product we put out is the best it can be.”

“We don’t celebrate heroes,” Madhumita adds. “And that’s why we feel like we’re on one team where we all belong.”

Leading with Good Intent

That sense of belonging starts with Atlassian’s open culture—our belief that trust follows from transparency—and our emphasis on teamwork. Atlassian's know that someone will always have their back. As Agrata says, this means that things like group critiques provide the right kind of challenge. “Going into design critiques is scary but exciting,” she says. “Naturally, you attach a lot of pride to the design you’ve come up with. But because of the open environment, I’ve learned to not get too precious about my work and to use others’ feedback to create the best product possible.”

“Design should solve a customer problem and create delight,” adds Madhumita. “But all the decisions that go into a design are subjective, and we make the best choices when we iterate with customers and colleagues.”

Of course, openness isn’t just about design ideas—and it’s not just designers who are open to feedback. We want to make sure all our workers are satisfied in their careers; often, that just means listening.

“It’s important to reflect on how you’re feeling and to verbalize any concerns you have early on,” says Madhumita. “I tell my team to be mindful of their body and mind. If you need rest, take rest. A short break can recharge the mind.”

Agrata learned this early on in her career at Atlassian. “I was feeling disheartened about my work, and it was scary and lonely because I kept my concerns to myself. I thought things would just get better. After a while, I had no other option but to tell my manager and mentor. Turns out, they had no idea of my situation because I hadn’t said anything earlier. At Atlassian, we’re encouraged to over-communicate.” It takes guts, Agrata says, but as she sees others around her voicing their opinions, she feels empowered to do the same.

Utpala is among the leaders who make sure people know that if you love your work and are striving for excellence, you’re going to feel overwhelmed sometimes—and that’s OK. “You have to keep tabs on how you’re feeling and share it with the people you’re working with.”

And, as Madhumita says, everyone on the team follows the principle of “good intent.” “It helps us to critique, co-create, and trade ideas without any friction, because we all know underneath we have good intent to make things better for our customers—and for all of us.”

People First, Purpose-Driven Work Second

That’s why Atlassaian has such a strong focus on work-life balance, says Madhumita: When people feel well, they’re more able to succeed. And Atlassian’s focus on emotional health became even clearer when the pandemic first hit, she says. “The first thing we focused on was well-being. Team leaders were particularly empathetic towards family challenges as we learned to work asynchronously. They took steps to make sure that we were successful, at home and at work.”

In the short time she’s been at Atlassian, Agrata also noticed our people-first culture. “We have this great ritual called ‘Get Sh*t Done Mondays,’ where we don’t have mandatory meetings and everyone can focus on heads-down work,” she says. “And when COVID-19 hit and our stress levels increased, our founders addressed that, too. The team created virtual unwinding moments like cooking together as a team — the Great Indian Food Platter — where each of us cooked at our own homes, shared recipes, and some of us were able to share the food via delivery partners. It was a great virtual bonding event and also taking. Along with providing access to the Modern Health app to all its employees, in the wake of COVID-19, Atlassian also introduced Resilience Week, where we ran webinars and activities focused on mindfulness and coping with stress.

Giving people the resources and support to be themselves also gives them the space to do their best work, as Utpala can attest. She’s found that her passion for design and her self-confidence is welcome in every project. “When I started studying design, all I knew was that I loved it, but I hadn’t really figured it out,” she says. “I had to work in the industry for a couple of years to discover that problem-solving and empathy are the keys to design research; once I knew I had those, I wasn’t afraid to use them as strengths.”

Every day, women at Atlassian are finding the support they need to do their best work and take on challenges without having to choose between the careers and lives they’ve worked hard to build.

“People keep saying that we need to venture towards a world where men and women contribute equally,” Agrata says. “At Atlassian, we’re living in that world.”

About Atlassian

Atlassian unleashes the potential of every team. Our collaboration software helps teams organize, discuss and complete shared work. Teams at more than 182,000 customers, across large and small organizations - including General Motors, Walmart Labs, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Lyft, Verizon, Spotify and NASA - use Atlassian’s project tracking, content creation and sharing, and service management products to work better together and deliver quality results on time. Learn more about products including Jira Software, Confluence, Trello, Bitbucket, Opsgenie, Jira Service Desk, and Jira Align at https://atlassian.com.