Simone Chin, people manager at RealDecoy, has been in the industry for 10 years. She reminisced on having her start at RealDecoy eight years ago as a technical consultant and working through the ranks of the company to become one of the people managers of the organisation.

Chin recounts being fascinated by technology in her early years and eager to learn and interact first with a Gateway 2000 computer running on Windows 95.

Driven by her passion, curiosity and love for problem-solving and efficiency, she believes that everything is “figure-out-able”, and once a problem is solved there needs to be an evaluation of how technology solutions can improve efficiency.

Her first role at RealDecoy had her specialising in front-end and back-end application development. Shortly afterwards, Chin led technical projects, nurturing her people management skills. She then became scrum master-certified, furthering her expertise in product and project delivery and team development to promote cohesive teamwork. Armed with scrum master certification and specialised training, she gained promotion to people manager. She now focuses on coaching to unlock people’s hidden potential by having deep, thought-provoking conversations with her team. She gets a level of satisfaction from guiding them to unlock their potential and argues that one of the pivotal points of coaching is that the coachees already have the answers; however, they need guidance.

Chin combines her experiences, technical background, Scrum Master certification, and coaching background to develop her style of managing and practising servant leadership. Coaching plays a significant role in how she leads her team, and she sees it as a daily process of growing and learning by having empathetic conversations with her team.

Driven by RealDecoy’s core principles of “We Lead, We Learn, We Care”, a typical day as the people manager is a balance of the strategic and operational tasks. From an operational level, Chin engages her team in touch-base meetings, while on the strategic side she focuses on supporting her team to deliver positive outcomes from projects. Chin balances her workday by ensuring that she is helping her team to do and be their best selves.

As someone invested in tech as well as the growth and development of people, she advises that one should follow their passion and pursue their calling. “Tech today has more resources, potential, and diversity as it spans all industries. The ability to create one’s own path into the tech world is possible, there is hardly anything to lose, “Chin said.

As a tech advocate, coach and mentor, Chin partnered with The University of the West Indies’ mentorship programme to help guide students on their journey to choose careers. She also joined the YCDI: Youth Can Do It mentorship programme targeted at aspiring women in tech looking for role models.

Ultimately, she wants to empower people to be the best version of themselves daily. For her, “It’s about progress, not perfection. Some days we can make a change that makes us 5 per cent better, which is 5 per cent better than we were the day before. We also need to learn how to be compassionate with ourselves, especially on our bad days,” Chin concludes.