Alisha Bailey, Head of Digital Product and Experience in AGL’s Future Business and Technology team was recently awarded Digital Experience Leader of the Year in the 2020 Women in Digital Awards. Here she shares her story.

I have spent the last seven or so years of my career working in digital and have been fortunate to have held roles spanning a range of areas, including digital sales and E-commerce, digital marketing, self-service and adoption, strategy, delivery, product and experience. Throughout my career I have always taken up roles that have required a strong customer focus, which I think is critical to success – particularly in digital. It’s about asking: Does what you are delivering meet the needs and solve the problem for the end user?

The Digital Product and Experience team I lead at AGL comprises Experience Designers, Researchers, Product Managers, Digital Product Owners and Delivery Leads who come together in cross-functional Scrum teams to design and deliver digital experiences for our customers – both internal and external. I am extremely fortunate to have a talented, diverse team.

Some of the digital assets we are accountable for include the AGL website, mobile app and My Account as well as a new mobile app ‘AGL One’ we’ve just released for employees that brings together our core people tools and systems. I’m particularly proud of the work we’ve done on AGL’s customer facing mobile app. We listened to our customers and have delivered a raft of new capability over the past year that customers have really engaged with – driving AGL’s app store rating up from 1.6 in FY19 to 4.6. It’s currently ranked the #1 Australian energy utility app in both the Apple iOS and Android app stores.

I am really passionate about digital technology– I love the creativity, the innovation, the people and the user centric approach that comes with working in digital. There is always something new to experiment with and explore. I like to problem solve and I love the idea of making something really easy and convenient for people who choose to interact with us in our digital channels. I am very actioned oriented and results driven so I love seeing things being delivered that drive value for the customer and business.

I am a big digital adopter in my own life and am always drawing on those experiences and feelings about my interactions with the companies I have a relationship with in thinking about what we do at AGL. I know how great it is when companies deliver a positive or unique experience – you appreciate it, you remember it and you talk about it. I want to create that for other people. Conversely a poor experience can be really damaging to the ongoing relationship with the brand.

For those considering a career in digital, go for it! The industry is fun and rewarding and because it so fast past paced and always advancing, it allows for continuous learning and growth opportunities.

Unfortunately, woman are still really underrepresented in fields of technology. We need that diversity to ensure we continue to have unique and different perspectives at the table – critical to fostering a culture of innovation.