Amanda Scacchetti Innovation Director and Yorkshire mum of two, Amanda Scacchetti, has spent her career designing, developing and innovating new products and services for new parents at Mamas & Papas.
She spends much of her non-innovating time picking up the trail of destruction that her son creates during playtime, and trying to match her daughter’s speed on her new bike. But Amanda’s true happy place is on an airplane bound for a new adventure where she can watch her two kids stretching their own boundaries somewhere new. Guilty pleasures include The Good Wife, saying no to heels and obsessively reorganizing the toy boxes. There is also tea in her life. Much tea. www.mamasandpapas.com
What were or are the biggest challenges you faced going back into the workplace after children?
Work has always been a major part of my life and self-fulfilment, so I knew that after kids I wanted to go back. Having dedicated a lot of my spare time to work, I knew the biggest challenge for me was how and where I would focus my time after maternity leave. Naturally with kids comes less flexibility to work late nights, so I knew I had to prioritise my time, it took me a while but I did get better at it, you just have to say no to the less important things and perfect your delegation skills!
Perhaps the hardest time was when I first went back to work because I found the trips to and from nursery, and the impending supper, bath and bed routine were always more stressful than I had imagined. Because I picked our children up at 6pm, the saddest bit about it was I felt like I was always rushing my kids, rather than being able to enjoy the evening time with them. Now they are older it is much easier, and rather than needing to get them into bed at 7pm, they luckily want to stay up that bit longer so we can hang out together.
How do you achieve your work life balance of career woman and mother?
My children are now 4 and 6, but this year I have only just started to get close to cracking the work, life balance. And the secret is just that…balance. For you to feel balanced, it cannot be just about your work or the kids, you have to have a little something in there for yourself too. So now, each morning, I get up a little earlier, and spend 30 minutes doing some exercise, and then once I get home and have tucked the kids up in bed, I spend 10 minutes focusing on mindfulness. I cannot tell you the difference it makes when you carve out a little bit of me-time every day.
If you could give your past self-one piece of advice about being a working mother what would it be?
Life as a parent is all about two things; confidence and balance. To become a confident parent, just know it takes some time to hone your instincts, don’t be impatient about it, it will come. With regards to balance, don’t feel guilty about having some time to yourself every day, and don’t feel bad about asking others for help. In the early years I felt really guilty about being away from the kids at work, so then in the evenings and weekends I spent all my time with our children, and didn’t carve out any time for me as an individual. That really isn’t healthy, because to be a great parent, you need to look after yourself too.
Have your career goals and aspirations altered since becoming a working mother from that prior to your children?
Having kids gave me a greater perspective about what life is really all about. Before kids I ploughed myself into work, and felt progression for my own self-worth was important to me. However I feel a more rounded individual having had children, with more patience and greater empathy, and as long as I am enjoying what I am doing, and feel like I am progressing myself in what I do, I am happy with that. Still, I have always had a strong work ethic, it is something I learned from both my parents, and I’d like to think I can pass that onto our children.
What are your future goals in your career path in the next few years, what do you hope to achieve?
At some point I would love to start my own business, with a small team, who are passionate about making a positive difference to other people’s lives.
If you had the power to change one thing in the business market for working mothers, what would you change?
Women should feel that they can be transparent about what it is we need to help us create that work-life blend, without feeling judged for it. To be able to have a great career and be a great mum rests in being able to manage a unique combination of talent, determination, flexibility and collaboration. For those mothers who want to work but cannot afford to due to childcare costs, better subsidies should be available as it is harder to get back into work both practically and mentally with a bigger time gap. For those who do go back to work, business’ and the government should consider how they can support working women with more flexibility so those mothers are able to work, but also to go out and do things that are important to them for their family life.
What is the best piece of business advice you have been given?
The advice I had was less about business and is more about people. So whether you are thinking about your teams, your customers, or your suppliers, the best thing is to bring empathy into the equation. The more you can get out of your head and get into theirs, the better you will see why they do the things they do, and make the choices they make. So whether you are trying to create a new innovation, product or service, spend time with your customers, go where they go, see where they live and how they carry out their daily lives, and you will uncover new opportunities about how you can better serve them.
If you could recommend one book to our readers leisure or business what would it be?
The Lean Startup by Eric Ries is a really interesting read, especially for those who are considering starting out a new business. It is really simple; it uses the Design Thinking Principles and low cost agile methodology to help you set up a new business in a quick and minimally resourced way.
Question from previous interviewee Caprice Bourret: I would love to ask, how has having children impacted your profession?
Having children taught me two critical things.
Firstly, it taught me the power of vulnerability and that it’s actually a core strength, not a weakness. To be able to say that you cannot do something, that you don’t know, and to be able to build a team with the best people you can who in many aspects may be better than you are, takes conviction and confidence that some find hard to do.
Secondly from a more practical sense, that was actually when my passion for the customer was born. Once I had children, I became a user of our products and I realised how we could design them to be easier to use. During that time, we designed a whole series of award winning products. Using our products on a daily basis, in real life, helped me see how we could change the design to make them hassle free and to save time for parents. Since then our customers are now central to the design and development process, and we have ensured that those designers that do not have children, get to spend time with new parents and children so they can design with real parents in mind.
What question would you wish to ask our next working mother who takes this short interview?
‘If you could pick ONE THING that would make your life as a working parent better, what would it be?