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Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1494678
MARCH/APRIL 2023 BCBUSINESS.CA 35 education dictated your profession—such as doctors or lawyers. "I think people feel like they need to have a path, like they need to know where they're going and what they're going to be in 20 years. And in my experi- ence, it's just not like that," she contends. Dunlea didn't even know what product management was when she was in post- secondary school in County Cork, Ireland. At one point, she considered being a doc- tor just because her initials are M.D., but when she found herself torn between studying law or design, she chose graphic design. "I don't think my mom ever fully forgave me, but it's kind of come full circle now that I'm building products for lawyers," she says. When she arrived in Vancouver in 2006, she fell into a recruiter role that she describes as a "thank- less job." She soon moved to Gastown startup called Strutta, where she served as the director of operations for a number of years. One day, she read an article about product management, a pro- fession that she hadn't heard of before, and realized that she'd already been performing this role for some time now, "purely based off of intuition." That led her to spend five years at social media management platform Hootsuite, where she climbed the ranks from interme- diate manager to senior director of product, responsible for running the company's flag- ship offering and leading multiple teams. Zeroing in on her interest in working for a product company where her role is a central part of the business, she came onboard with Clio, possibly in a subconscious effort to tie a loose end from her past. Dunlea points out that while lawyers are trained to practice law, many unintentionally end up as small business owners who don't know too much about running a business. It was these kinds of "human problems" that drew her to Clio's product management division, which now consists of Dunlea and her team of 15 product managers. Together, they work to evolve existing products as well as develop new ones to address problems in the legal industry. In terms of a typical day, there's no suc h t h i ng. W h e t h e r s h e 's attending meetings, conte x t s w itc h- ing between tasks or catching up on Slack, every day comes with its own set of challenges for someone in Dunlea's posi- tion. At the end of the day, her approach is to just to show up as herself. "I probably swear slightly less at work than I do in my personal life, but other than that, I'm the same," she says matter-of-factly. But as a highly empathetic person showing up as yourself at work, managing people can start to weigh heavily on the mind. "Over the last few years, some of the most difficult challenges that I faced have been on the people leadership side of the job," she maintains. An overnight move to remote work, and then coping with a global pandemic and all of the loss associated with it, was one of the most difficult things she's had to do in her career as a people leader. There were times when she questioned her efficacy as a manager because she took on the responsibility of her team's happiness beyond the realm of work. "It almost resulted in burnout," she admits. "And it also meant that I didn't challenge my team, or give all of them con- structive feedback, which is a prerequisite for building a high-performing team." Over time, she's developed a new mantra to show up as a better leader for herself and her colleagues: "To lis- ten, to be clear, and to be kind." She now sees her role as one where she needs to be clear in her communication and feedback and kind in her moti- vations behind it, and accept that any resulting emotion that the recipient experiences is their own responsibility. In January 2023, Dunlea received the MVP award at Clio's annual company kick- off. She now spends much of her days working with both designers and lawyers, seemingly busting the myth of the linear career path just by being herself. And although she's not one for having a road map, she does see herself as a consul- tant in the future. "There are so many ques- tions that people have, especially at smaller companies where they haven't established the discipline yet, and I think that there's a lot I could do to help them," she says. "But I think that's a ways away yet." —R.R. " I probably swear slightly less at work than I do in my personal life, but other than that, I'm the same. "