What's the Company Culture Like at SRAM, LLC?

What source of community have you created or sought out as a woman in tech?

I recently established a quarterly event to bring SRAM women together in a casual setting. Our first meet-up was Bring-Your-Own-Lunch, and we provided dessert and conversation starters. I challenged everyone to schedule a coffee date with someone new as their “party favor.” The initiative has been met with a lot of enthusiasm and great participation — 75 percent attendance rate! There’s power in building out a local network, especially across job functions. Organized social events create space to make new introductions, often leading to surprising connections and a sense of community. It will be exciting to see this group of women engineers collaborate in the future!

I think it’s important to also stay in touch with remarkable, inspiring peers and mentors from the past. Every year or so, I make the effort to drop a friendly note to check in, catch up on life events and celebrate their current adventure. The tech industry is so vast, and it’s really cool to see where it can take women in different directions. Maintaining these connections has shed light on different companies and industries from trusted sources, and I always return the favor.

How have you benefited from mentorship and networking opportunities? Provide an example of an impactful professional relationship you’ve built.

Finding the right mentor takes time and vulnerability, but it is totally worth the effort. I’ve had multiple mentors throughout my career in different capacities: They include technical upskilling, corporate acumen, career strategy and leadership excellence. Finding someone you trust is paramount, but I would also encourage people to seek mentors who vary in background, personality and experience — people who are more likely to challenge your way of thinking. I believe it’s healthy to hear diverse perspectives; take what resonates and reflect on what doesn’t.

Mentors can be great sounding boards and advice generators, but I’ve benefited most when mentors organically turn into sponsors — people who will advocate for you behind closed doors. It takes time to invest in these relationships, but my advice is to be bold. Share what you’re working on, explain short and long-term goals, show your passion and expertise and ask great questions. People are attracted to positivity and doers. You’ll be surprised at how many colleagues want to help you succeed.

What are the benefits of fostering a community of women in tech, and how does it contribute to individual and collective success?

Women in tech can take many paths to a variety of inspiring opportunities. SRAM has a blend of engineering stripes, those being in mechanical, industrial design, electrical hardware, software, technical writing, test automation functions and more. 

But it’s easy to get siloed into your respective function and miss out on what’s happening externally, sometimes even being left behind. We have to fight feelings of isolation and provide avenues for professional and emotional support. 

It is inspiring and empowering to witness the career paths and epic accomplishments of fellow women tech professionals. Whether we’re seeking C-suite status, contributing to academia, thriving as an individual contributor, leading teams of any size, raising a family, investing in side hustles or startups — or all of the above — we all are part of the community of women in tech, and we need a supportive environment to thrive.

At SRAM, the bicycle is more than a product. It is a promise of freedom, connection, and possibility. Through its people, programs, and purpose, SRAM continues to build a culture where cycling can open doors, create belonging, and move communities forward.

“At SRAM, one of our most foundational beliefs is that the bicycle represents freedom. And today, I want to be clear: we remain steadfast in that promise. Not just through our products, but through our people, our programs, and our purpose.”

What kind of communication channels or collaborative strategies does your company use to facilitate communication between your design and engineering teams? 

First and foremost, designers and engineers are allocated to "Pods," which are teams charged with ownership of specific products they work on week-over-week. This creates a concrete sense of roles and responsibilities and keeps the communication loop low in complexity. What helps make this team structure successful is the operating system the team works under, which is a scrum agile methodology. Work is tightly scoped and communication loops are frequent and low friction. Being in-person helps, but we also have communication software like Slack and Teams to help facilitate conversations as they pop up.

How does SRAM’s culture foster the kind of collaborative relationship required to make the two teams successful? 

SRAM has an open-door style of work where teams interact on a daily basis. We’re not overly meeting-heavy with individual contributors, which allows for ad hoc communications to happen early and often. Daily rituals like standup are effective at putting the right people together to work on that day’s issues. It’s up to leaders to support this collaboration and advocate for teamwork and communication. As a leader, carve out ample time for teams to collaboratively incept and perform discovery around a given body of work. With much of the understanding of a space out of the way, design and engineering efforts easily fall into place.

What advice would you offer to other companies looking to build alignment between the two teams?

Your company has to have a clear operating system for conducting product development whether it be scrum, kanban or whatever. Without strong opinions about process and an understanding of and adherence to that process, chaos will ensue, and it will be hard to onboard people, change direction and most notably, produce results. 

Make sure you have people on the team who can facilitate conversations by being intentional about the type of communication they’re seeking. Are you making decisions? Solving problems? Building a team? Brainstorming? Checking in? Leaders who know how to frame the context for a meeting and what types of meetings need to happen will create a better experience for participants and negotiate effective alignment.

Check the egos at the door. Product development is a team sport, and it’s time to retire the notion that good tech or UX revolves around geniuses and ideologues. The more people can leverage the collective talent of their team within a clearly defined process and meeting culture, the more they will win at alignment.