Julie Hanell's Journey

A world traveler with a lifelong passion for learning and exploring, Julie Hanell’s journey into tech began with a web app for an online clothing business and has now brought her to LookBack, a cutting-edge testing and UX research platform for websites and apps. We sat down with Julie for Logitech MX’s #WomenWhoMaster series to find out what she’s learned along the way and what she would share with women following in her footsteps.

The Journey Begins 

Early on, Julie felt drawn to distant places and new experiences. She wanted to see the world as a diplomat. A modeling career allowed her to realize her dreams of international travel, before she moved to South Africa and discovered a vibrant hub of tech innovation in Cape Town.

Q: What was your dream job as a child?

Early on, I wasn't really interested in STEM. I wanted to become a diplomat and travel the world, so that I could find out what other cultures had to offer. But it all worked out in the end, because tech has given me the opportunity to work in so many different cities, countries, and companies.

Q: When did you first become interested in STEM?

I’ve had quite a few career changes. STEM became a major part of my life after I moved to South Africa at 19. Before that, I was living in Paris and modeling full-time. I never studied STEM. Cape Town at that time was a hotbed of innovation — a lot of people around me were building startups and apps. I hired a team and worked closely with them to build an app for an online business I launched called ClosetClique.

Building Skills and Confidence

To make her switch to STEM, Julie needed a new knowledge base, but she also found that her previous experiences helped her in unexpected ways. Now, she wants other women to understand that they can forge paths for themselves and make valuable contributions no matter what their background is.

Q: How did you overcome any obstacles or learning curves as you moved into the tech field?

The challenge I faced was gaining the knowledge and experience necessary to succeed as a latecomer to STEM, and feeling like I didn’t belong. I gained technical skills through working very closely with a web dev team which I hired to build ClosetClique at age 22. They taught me about SEO, about the basics of coding which later on, motivated me to take some classes in android and iOS app coding.

If they have a background in a different field, that may feel like an obstacle, but nowadays there are so many courses and boot camps for learning new skills that it’s not. Women who come to STEM from other fields actually add a lot of value, because fresh perspectives are needed to improve any type of product or company.

Celebrating Wins and Opening Doors for Others

Today, as a tech leader, Julie is in a position to survey her career and offer hard-earned insights to women who are on their way up. The keys to success, she says, are staying curious and taking time to celebrate your achievements.

Q: As the Head of Growth at LookBack, what do you do on a day-to-day basis?

Day to day, I'm very involved in designing strategies around acquisition of new enterprise customers, and also making sure that they're happy once they become customers. I would say it's very sales-oriented, but without understanding the product deeply and knowing how users engage with the product and what they like about it, it would be really hard to do the rest of the job.

Q: What advice can you share for girls and women who are studying to work in STEM today?

Two things. First, you always have to nurture your curiosity. I think curiosity helps you move forward, because it allows you to gather useful advice, question the status quo around you, and find new solutions. If you want to disrupt an industry, there is no other choice but to create or innovate. Second — and this is something I wish I had known when I was younger — learn to enjoy the process.