It's been busy the last few months. 

I've been quiet on this blog and I'm not going to lie, finding time to write between an expanded job role and a now 10-month old still at home has been tough. Juggling is challenging, as I'm sure you'll agree. 

In fact, the whole world would agree that what makes life today truly unprecedented is the pace of change.

Everything is moving fast. There's always something new. And Covid-19 has made it even more challenging. The new normal is different. Juggling is the new normal it seems. 

That's both for individuals and for companies, especially with regards to technology and IT. 

Personal and business mobility, the Internet of Things, the bring-your-own device and working from home revolution, everything in the cloud are fundamentally changing the way we live and work.

And the pace of change continues to accelerate. 

Let me show you today some IT stats to prove this. 

9 Stats About the Unprecedented Pace of IT Change Today

Lately, quite a few people from my network reached out to seek my advice on getting a job in tech, given my close to 5 years at HubSpot and now almost 2 at Cisco and the fact that I started my career in a very different area - PR. 

Tech and IT are hot industries right now especially with the whole Coronavirus situation that's pushing us to 100% work remotely. 

You don't have to be an engineer to work in tech. In fact, tech companies are hiring for different types of talent. They seek people in Customer Success, Sales, Operations, Marketing and many more. Just like any other company, tech companies have different functions that ensure the business can run daily. It's not just about the engineers who make the product. It's also about those who market it, sell it and then ensure that customers use it plus all of the behind the scenes teams such as finance, HR and so on. 

So if you want to transition into tech but are not an engineer, this post is for you. (Even if you're an engineer, this post will provide some useful tips.)

3 Tips How to Get a Job in Tech [For Non-Tech People]

Two big concepts in project management are waterfall and agile. 

Both are methodologies for executing projects with waterfall being the traditional one and agile the newer, more modern one. 

This is another post in my project management fundamental series and we'll look at the two  approaches, their differences, advantages and disadvantages.  

Let's describe briefly the two concepts first. 

Waterfall project management is about chunking the project into linear sequential phases, with each new phase beginning only when the prior phase has been completed. It's often used in construction. 

Agile, on the other hand, is an iterative approach with less initial planning focusing on continuous releases and incorporating customer feedback with every iteration. It's often used in software development.

What Waterfall and Agile Look Like

I returned from maternity leave about two weeks ago and stepped into a new role as a Program Manager in the Chief of Staff office for CX EMEAR at Cisco. 

It's an exciting move for me and so far it's been super interesting. Lots to do, lots of new people to work with, lots of opportunities to make an impact. 

Since I started my career, I've held about 10 different positions and switched four industries - I began in PR, moved into Marketing, then Customer Success, then Project and Program Management. I've worked in agencies, SaaS and IT companies. 

So it's safe to say that I've had experience switching roles and industries.

At this stage, I think I've figured out how to make it work so I want to share with you some tips on how you can approach stepping into a new role. 

Top 7 Tips for Stepping Into a New Role

Consider it a buzzword or not, ROI is still important. 

Executives care about it. They want to know that company investments are worth it. 

When it comes to building or growing a new department such as Customer Success, especially if you don't have experience in it, ROI is equally important. 

It's normal to ask if it's worth it and to wonder how to measure the success of the investment. 

I've always advised channel partners to ensure that they have a way to measure Customer Success and how their CSMs are doing from the very start. You don't want to start a new division or a new initiative and have your boss drop it a few months down the line because you forgot to measure its success. 

With Customer Success still being a relatively new and sexy job, how to measure it is not as clear cut as it is in Sales for example.

Customer Success is also a lot more about relationships than it is about numbers. but even though it can be subjective, there are still certain activities and outcomes you can track. 

I recently spotted two infographics about metrics to measure Customer Success ROI that I want to go over today. 

8 Ways to Measure Customer Success ROI