(energetic electronic music) >> From Phoenix, Arizona, the Cube, at Catalyst Conference. Here's your host, Jeff Frick. >> Hey, welcome back everybody, Jeff Frick here, with the Cube. We are on the ground in Phoenix Arizona at the Girls In Tech Catalyst Conference. We're really excited to return to Phoenix, ironically, it was two years ago, about this same time, we went to our first Grace Hopper conference that was here in Phoenix, and I don't know what it is with Phoenix, but it seems to be a great place for women in tech conferences. So, we're back, and we wanted to come down and talk to some of the people here that are giving keynotes, presentations, give you a flavor for what's going on, so if you got an opportunity to go next year, it'll be back in the Bay Area. You certainly want to sign up for that. So we're really excited, our first guest Yvonne Wassenaar, the CIO of New Relic, welcome. >> Thank you so much, it's great to be here, I love the Cube. >> Oh, thank you very much, that's right, you were at VMworld, or VMware, I always say world not ware, for years. And we've been doing, I think, the VMworld show for something like six years, or seven years. >> Yeah, super long time, and I watch you guys at reinvents, and a lot of other places. >> Oh great, well thank you for watching. So now you're at New Relic, so for the people that aren't familiar with New Relic, why don't you give them the quick 411. >> Yeah, so New Relic is is a software analytics company, and in the simplest terms, you don't bank in your retail branch, you bank on your phone. What matters is how your software's performing. Both from an application perspective, and a business perspective. So we help you understand what's going on. We're the best, first place to look to understand your digital business. >> It's really interesting, because we've got a premise that we're, at Wikibon, that it's all about, really, your digital engagement model. And you think about banking, how many times do you go into the bank, and actually interact with a teller? It's really moved to this electronic interface, in terms of your relationship. >> Exactly, it's not how warm the coffee is, or how long the teller line is, it's how performant is your application, and do you have the right feature functionality? >> Okay, so you're here, you had a keynote earlier in the week. >> This is the third day of the conference. So first of all, give us kind of what's the vibe been here for the last three days? >> It's phenomenal, and what I love about the Girl In Tech Conference, is that it brings together women of all types. I was speaking yesterday to a student at Stanford, who's here, who has her own non-profit, who's getting her degree to go out and change the world as an enterpreneur, to very, very seasoned executives who sit on boards. And everybody's here to understand what's the change going on, and how do I drive relevancy. And it's just phenomenal. >> Excellent, so your keynote was on how to stay relevant, and how to avoid extinction. >> Yeah. >> So why don't you give us some of the, I'm sure that was a well received one. >> Yeah, well, what's interesting is, change is the new constant. And it's actually riskier to not do something, than do something, today, but what do you do? And everybody says, "Oh, go out and be bold." and being bold's great, but fundamentally, it's hard. And it's easy to say, it's hard to do in practice. And so what my talk was really on, is, how do you address the unconscious fears? How do you say "Yeah, those bad things could happen, but you know what, if nothing bad happened, here's how I could change the world." And then just go after that vision. Free yourself from those kind of unconscious constraints, and really go after it wholeheartedly. >> And so is it more of a willingness to fail? Is it more of a willingness to, you know, look silly, if you feel? I mean, what are some of these unconscious fears, that if you consciously just address them, that will help you kind of overcome them, and be more proactive in your experimentation? >> Yeah, so for me it was very personal. It was some challenges that I had in my childhood, that really made me risk-averse, in ways that I didn't understand. And it's one of the things that they say, "Hey, women should lean in more." And I actually believe the reason that women don't lean in, is that they're trying to aim for a level of perfection, and don't realize it's a numbers game. Failure is not a reflection on you personally, failure is step towards your future successes. And so really it's a mindset change. >> Right, right, and I fundamentally feel too, as we try to innovate on the Cube, and do things different, if we're not failing sometimes, we're not really pushing the envelope enough, right? Everything shouldn't be successful. It's like the old economics newsboy model, right? If you come home with no newspapers, that means you could have sold a couple more probably, so it's not about perfection, it's about trying, and not being afraid to, "Mm, that didn't work out." >> You're spot on, and I led a workshop yesterday as well, on increasing your return on investment. And I literally told the women, I said, "If you are not failing, if everybody on your team's performing perfectly, you're a failed leader. You have to stumble, it's like skiing, if you don't fall, when you're skiing, you're not pushing yourself hard enough, you're not really doing it, so you need to let your team members fall, you have to fall yourself, and that's how you you're pushing the boundaries. >> So how is the reception then, of that message that you're trying to convey? Is it "You know, I know it, I just can't do it", is it, just, "Oh, there's just so many hurdles in the way"? How do you get over the, you know, here's this unconscious thing that you need to be thinking about, okay, now it's conscious, but to actually start to change behavior? What are some of the little behavioral changes and tips and tricks you give people? Because at the end of the day, a lot of times, it's do the behavior, not think about it too much. >> Exactly, I'd say it's a couple things, first off, you need role models, that can help prove to you and your subconcious, that, "My gosh, if those five amazingly successful people did this, and they're telling me, very specifically, the failures they had, and they're still that successful, maybe they're not lying."(laughs) The other thing is, I try to give really specific tips, so one of my favorites is, I'm an ex-consultant, so two by two, what's the business impact? What's your unique value? Throw all the things you're working on in there, you should have one to two that are high impact that you're uniquely skilled to do, hit those balls out of the park. You can get 20 guys to third base, doesn't matter. You got to get one person home. >> Got to get him home, that's great. I'm just curious, because you spent a long time at Accenture, before you jumped into the tech company world, so you probably saw a lot of different companies. What's your perspective at a macro view, of how this environment has changed over the years? I mean, do you see positive change? I know we have a long way to go, but what's your perspective from some of those early Accenture days? >> You know, it's never been a more exciting time. I mean, in some regards, I wish I was that Stanford student, just starting my career, because technology is changing how we do everything, in absolutely amazing ways. But, we need to bring the right level of social consciousness to how we apply it. And we need to figure out new engagement models. And I think those engagement models actually play to the strength of a lot of women we have in the room. You have to figure out how to fuse across different industries. So, the Apple Watch, it's designer, it's technology, like how do you bring those competencies together? You get better stuff done with partners than all internally. VCs are the new R&D innovation engines, so I think the change is really exciting. But you have to be open to new operating models, and new engagement styles, to take advantage of it. >> Right, okay I want to shift gears a little bit, because our audience might not know, but you're actually a very rare breed. >> (laughs) >> You're a woman on boards, and we hear over and over, I'm teasing you, because we hear over and over, there's just not near enough representation of women on corporate boards. You're on a couple of boards. So I'd like to get your perspective on, how did you get on the boards, how do we get more women on the boards? There's always a conversation, is it a pipeline problem? Are there just not enough, are they dropping out mid-career? What are some of the things you can see from your seat on a couple of boards? >> Yeah, so I'm on three boards, I'm on the board of Harvey Mudd, I'm on the board of Idiom, which is the series B start-up, and I'm on the board of the Athena Alliance. And the Athena Alliance is actually an organization, a non-profit focused on getting more women on boards, because I fundamentally believe it is not a pipeline problem, and I say that because there's many senior executive level women like myself, who just are waiting to check off the ten things on the list they think they need to be on a board. And it's studied time and time again, women set really high bars for themselves. So I don't think enough women are putting themselves forward. and I don't think that they're known well enough. We're not unicorns, we're really not. Like there are valleys where we all congregate, (laughs) and so what we need to do, is really help the men, who I think have amazing intention, and want to have greater diversity on their boards, understand how to make the connections, and find the right women with the right profiles to round out the organizations. >> So you think it's really more of a matching issue, the desire is there, but really just making the match when the timing is right, and it's a good fit. >> Yeah, exactly. >> All right, so I'm going to shift gears on you one more time, and talk about education, and specifically Harvey Mudd, because as I'd mentioned, two years ago, we were here interviewing Maria Klawe, still one of my all-time favorite interviews. She's got such phenomenal energy, she's the President at Harvey Mudd College, who are the Athenas, I don't know if you knew the Harvey Mudd gals' teams are the Athenas, boys are the Stags, but talk about education, and what Maria has done, I mean her thing in our interview, is she wants the intro CS, to be the best class you've ever taken. >> Yeah. >> Bar none, not the best computer science class, not the best science class, the best class ever, and I can tell you, my son's at Claremont, it's a really hard class to get into. Your perspective on education, and what somebody like Maria, with her kind of energy, point of view, enthusiasm, does to expanding computer science breadth in women specifically. >> Oh, it's phenomenal, I actually had the opportunity to sit in the intro CS class. And there's a couple really key things they've done. First off, is they've expanded and energized the CS team with new amazing talent, many women, but not just women, other diversity, to just round out perspective, so keeping it fresh. The second thing they've done, is they've realized that CS theory is interesting to some, but not to all, and a lot of women tend to be more purpose driven, so they've created classes like CS biology. Same core concepts, but now solving the problems in a field where they have questions. So they learn the same thing, but in a way that's more interesting. And the final thing is, they've restructured how they run the class. So they don't say, "Hey, here's a question," everybody goes, "Oh, I'll get that!" They say, "Here's a question I want you to think about. And talk to your partner, scribble some notes, and in a minute, let's discuss what you've come up with." and that allows people of all types to be more thoughtful and to get better, well-rounded answers coming out. So they've changed it on all dimensions, and it's just, it's an amazing place to go and be, and see the energy, and really see transformation in work in our education system, because that's where it all starts. >> That's really interesting, the way you say it, to phrase the question so people are forced to think a minute, because I have two daughters, they went to all-girls middle schools, and that's one of the classic plugs for going to all-girls, because the boys, they don't wait, right? >> (laughs) "Okay if I have the right answer, I'm going to get picked! >> "Pick me, I love the teacher, pick me, pick me!" >> You picked me, I win!" >> Right, "and then I'll figure it out," versus people that want to think about it a little bit, and contemplate, and noodle, and maybe try to get the right answer before they raise their hand, so great strategy. So before we let you go, unfortunately we're out of time, how do people get involved with the Athena Foundation, what are you up to, in terms of priorities for the next six months? >> Yeah, so it's the Athenaalliance.org, we're on the web, we're just starting, DLA Piper is one of our sponsors, getting our 501c3 status, there's information there in terms of membership, who we're working to connect with. If any of you listening have board seats and you want women, come to us. If you're a qualified woman, and you're looking to get on a board, reach out, we'd love to hear you, we know you're there, and we know that men want to put you on boards, so let's make it happen. >> What a great service really, doing that matching game, because it's always about the matching game. Well, Yvonne, thanks for taking a few minutes out of your busy day, and we look forward to seeing you again sometime in the Bay Area. >> Great, thank you so much, great stuff. >> Jeff Frick here at the Girls In Tech Catalyst Conference in Phoenix Arizona, we'll be back after this short break. Thanks for watching. (energetic electronic music)