The Women of Hudl’s Product Team

Hudl sits at the intersection of sports and tech, two historically male-dominated fields. Two fields that naturally attract men to our open job opportunities. Two fields that can sometimes make increasing the diversity of our teams feel like an uphill battle — especially for our product team. But we’re working on it.

I’m just one of many in a cross-functional group of product team members that’s taking a critical look at how we can change the narrative. Currently, our main goal is to hire and retain more women on the product team.

However, in taking steps towards the goal we’ve outlined, we realized it would be remiss of us not to highlight the incredible women we have on the team today. Each day they bring new perspectives, new ideas and new solutions to their teams. They’re already changing the narrative, and we’re lucky to have them.

I set out to learn more about these women* and what brought them to their current roles in Design, Product Management, Engineering, QA Engineering and as ScrumMasters.

I started my professional career with an art degree, but something higher called me to technology and graphic design. I took on a lot of advertisement projects, working with many different clients, goods, brands and team structures. By 2016, I decided I wanted to focus more on the actual product design and less on website design. I took courses to expand my knowledge, focusing on user experience and usability.

After meeting Hudl’s VP of Product Design, I decided to take my chance at an interview. The ideas and philosophy of the design team immediately clicked, and I knew Hudl was the company I was looking for. — Zeljka H. in Design

During my undergrad, most of my computer science major friends pursued software engineering internships, but through Hudl I found out about software QA and I loved it. I tried looking at other companies, but Hudl’s culture and exciting projects had such a strong pull. I interned here three times and now I’m working full time! — Audrey C. in QA Engineering

Going into my senior year at Stanford, my software engineering internship was canceled due to COVID and a lack of funds for an internship program. Even though most internship programs were no longer hiring or were canceled altogether, Hudl responded to me promptly and helped line up a new job opportunity as an intern. Even though Hudl was in a hiring freeze, my manager helped me find a place that would work best, both for me and the company. That’s how I landed in my current role as an engineer at Hudl. I’m still so grateful for Hudl investing in me and even more grateful for my manager who helped me search for job opportunities within Hudl that fit my long-term goals and interests. — Gabby D. in Engineering

I was born in Mexico and got my degree in automotive engineering. While working in manufacturing, I thought it was cool that large pieces of metal would become products, like cars or washing machines, but was never truly happy on the assembly line.

After moving to a different part of Mexico, the thing that stuck with me was working with the real people in the assembly line to hear their concerns and listen to the customers. My next job was more user-oriented, working on a quality experience team that had a great work environment. I realized I was good with people and wanted to make sure their concerns were heard and taken seriously.

The engineering field is male-dominated — trying to be heard as a woman, and as a quality engineer hasn’t been easy. But I’ve found my own approach by being friendly and open, without having to enforce rules. I’ve found the happy balance here at Hudl between engineering and quality. — Belit R. in QA Engineering

I always knew I wanted to program because I love solving logic puzzles. My first job out of college was at a big, corporate tech company. However, I wasn’t happy because I didn’t have ownership over what I built or how I built it, and I never got to hear user feedback. So I came to Hudl. Almost immediately, I had the amazing experience of building automatically generated highlights for athletes and watching them get thousands of views and tweets. In the six years since, I haven’t built anything else that’s gotten so many tweets, but I have been able to design and build several other impactful projects. — Amanda C. in Engineering

As a student, I was always strong in math so I started my working career as a financial analyst and statistician — I quickly learned I needed more interaction with people. There was a significant teacher shortage in the early 2000s, which created an opportunity for me to teach math to middle school students while obtaining my teaching certification. I loved the challenge of helping students through topics they were convinced they couldn’t do. This was the human connection I was searching for in my work. After teaching at the college level, I eventually made my way back to the business world and found a similar connection with helping software development teams learn how to work better together to deliver the value their customers wanted. I get the pleasure of working with so many smart, passionate people today, and I get to help them break down challenges while maintaining a good work-life balance. — Julie K., ScrumMaster

I actually did Computer Science at university, thinking I would one day become a developer! That plan changed pretty quickly when I started my first role and fell in love with the “business” — the interaction, collaboration and problem-solving for customers. I “accidentally” fell into product management when the discipline started forming in the industry, almost 15 years ago.

I truly believe skills are portable and I have worked in many different industries. Coming to Hudl was super exciting, as it was a completely new industry for me, and quite daunting as I had no domain knowledge. But I managed to ramp up quickly because there is such a supportive atmosphere around me. I am still learning every day and that’s what keeps getting me out of bed every morning! — Pooja N. in Product Management

I’ve worked across the entertainment and technology industries in marketing, business development and now product management. Joining Hudl came full circle for me by combining my love for solving customer problems with my passion for sports as a former collegiate athlete. There’s no more satisfying feeling than helping other people reach their goals, especially ones that are so important to me on a personal level. — Blaire T. in Product Management

*It should be noted that this is not a full representation of the women on our product team. There are many others who also shared their stories and sentiments, but whose responses have been edited for length.