00:00 - Intro
Hey, Hello, welcome to the Women in Big Data Podcast, where we talk about Big Data, Analytics, and Career topics. We do this to connect, engage, grow, and champion the success of Women in Big Data.
00:12 - Nahia
"I met Slavik, who is one of my colleagues. And we thought: okay, what's going to happen with our job? How is it going to evolve? And out of curiosity, we started interviewing people, imagining how the future of a tech role as a Solutions Architect is going to look like. And the outcome of those conversations is the book."
00:30 - Desiree
In this episode, we talk with Nahia Orduña about her book: The Solutions Architect of the Future -Conversations about the Tech Roles in Gen AI Times. She co-authored the book with Slavik Dimitrovich. Nahia works at Amazon Web Services as Technical Leader Strategic Accounts. She often shares her insights in the field of Big Data, AI, and the Future of Work. And, she believes: the world would be a better place if we all make the best use of our talents.
Let's start.
01:01 - Desiree
Nahia, welcome to the podcast. It's great to have you as our guest.
01:05 - Nahia
And I'm super excited to be in your podcast, Desiree.
01:08 - Desiree
That's good to hear.
01:09 - Desiree
You wrote a book, Nahia, together with a co-author, Slavik Dimitrovich. It's about The Solutions Architects of the Future - Conversations about Tech Roles in GenAI times. Why is it important to have conversations about Tech Roles in GenAI times, and particularly about the Solutions Architects role?
01:31 - Nahia
Basically, we see that Generative AI is transforming a lot of works because it's very creative. It can do a lot of things. And then, I met Slavik, who is one of my colleagues. And we thought: okay, what's going to happen with our job? How is it going to evolve? And out of curiosity, we started interviewing people, imagining how the future of a tech role as a Solutions Architect is going to look like. And the outcome of those conversations is the book.
And it's not only us who say that. So, the World Economic Forum has this report, The Future of Jobs of 2023. And actually, it confirms that what's going to be a critical driver of business transformation is going to be technology.
02:13 - Desiree
Sure.
02:14 - Nahia
And the skills that the companies are looking for include Cloud Computing, Big Data, AI, which are the skills that the Solutions Architects have. So then we thought: Okay, let's see - because our job is going to be so much needed in the next years - let's see how it's going to be affected with GenAI.
02:30 - Desiree
Okay. And can you tell us a bit more about the book? What's it about? What's in it?
02:35 - Nahia
It has first an introduction of what it is a Solutions Architect role to start. We work at Amazon Web Services, we work in Cloud Computing area, and there are multiple roles. Solutions Architect is one of them. Basically, a Solutions Architect is the technical advisor that talks to the customers and advises them, like: what kind of solution in the cloud they could build, right? We work very close with the customers, and we're also very close with the service teams.
The service teams are those that are creating the services that are for the customer. The services can be like around artificial intelligence. So, the Solutions Architect, I see it like in between, is getting feedback from the customer to give that feedback to the service teams to shape the future of the services. And at the same time we advise them. So, we just listen always to the customer what they want. We looked for them what is best: what is more cost-efficient? And we also have other dimension of the role, that is, we scale our knowledge. So it's very easy to find Solutions Architects at conferences, events, and meetups because we want also to help to develop others.
03:39 - Desiree
And what makes your job as a Solutions Architect unique?
03:43 - Nahia
So, we are part of Amazon. We have our leadership principles: We are like very customer-obsessed; we focus on hiring and developing others; we insist on the highest standards. One of the examples I took in the book is how we are customer obsessed: always trying putting ourselves in the shoes of the customer, not just going and trying to sell them something.
04:02 - Desiree
And I saw in the book you also interviewed some of your colleagues within AWS. So, what did you learn from these interviews with them?
04:10 - Nahia
Oh, I learned a lot. We were asking questions about what can you do now and what do you think is going to change with Generative AI? Because Generative AI is very creative, right? Like it can be fed with a lot of solutions that could be very useful at some point because it can reduce a lot of overwork. But I learned a lot of situations of my colleagues that they were giving me examples.
One of the interviews is with one Solutions Architect manager, Giselle. They were creating a solution with Generative AI for the customer. And then they were like going to present it. And the customer, when she was talking to the CTO, there was something that was not convincing him, but he was not speaking up about it. So there was the CTO, his team, and they were presenting the solution. And she could read him that there was something that they didn't know. So they just went outside and said: Ah, let's go have a coffee and a break. And then he was like: Look, there's something that my team doesn't know; there is going to be a kind of a reorganization, and what you are proposing me it will not fit that way. And then she was like: Okay, no worries, we can come back to you with another solution that is more flexible for how your organization is going to look like. And Generative AI will never know this because it will never like read the room or understand this person and that something is missing. In the end, the value, even in the technical area, is about human interactions.
05:40 - Desiree
So, if I understand well, then one of the skills that's really important for Solutions Architects is relationship management.
05:48 - Nahia
Exactly. We talk to the customers, and many times GenAI can give us a lot of information. But what we bring is the value of asking the right questions.
05:57 - Desiree
And how do you do that?
05:59 - Nahia
Well, it's part of our experience. Usually, a customer can think: Oh, I want to use GenAI for this solution. But the questions are more: what do you really want to use; what do you really want as outcome? I see architecture as a kind of a balance, a trade-off: how much you want to go in imagining higher availability, like putting a lot of redundancy, but at the same time, how much do you want to risk, how much do you want the cost to be? So, we have to ask the right questions to understand what the customer really wants and what is going to help their customers. And that's how we ask. And what is really important comes even in an informal conversation. So it's not something that, you know, you can put a list of things you need and then boom, comes the perfect solution.
06:45 - Desiree
Okay. So it's very important to understand what is the business problem, then understand what kind of solutions are available to this, and then based on that, the third thing is then you can look what kind of technology solution can help solve this problem of the customer or at least support it to become better.
07:08 - Nahia
Exactly. And I will give you some links, like, if you go now to this re:Invent in YouTube, you have so many customers explaining the different problems from all the different industries, and then how they could be solved with artificial intelligence or other technology.
07:23 - Desiree
And how is Generative AI helping you as a Solutions Architect?
07:28 - Nahia
There are a lot of ways that can help you. So, for example, a new experience also with coding. We have solutions like Code Whisperer or Amazon Q, but there are many others that can actually help give you recommendations and create code for you. So there, I think we should all embrace all the new things that are happening because it's making us so much more productive. The large language models can help us to write better - to be more consistent. I also used GenAI when I was writing the book to collect the information and the conclusions.
So my advice would be to the audience of this podcast to look at what tasks you are doing in your daily job and think which ones can be automated or augmented. So, automated are usually routine tasks, but I also will encourage the audience to see which one can be augmented. For example, a quick app to brainstorm and get more ideas to solve a problem.
08:25 - Desiree
And, was there one specific task where you thought; Oh, I'm so happy that I can now use Generative AI?
08:33 - Nahia
Well, I'm not a fan of the repetitive tasks. Everything that helps me do things faster, I get very happy. Even when I was writing the book, I was using some tools to check the format and so on. It was helping me write the book much faster. But also in my daily job, like creating documents for coding, all this is helping me. I'm sure, in six months, there will be even more apps and more things that we can do.
08:57 - Nahia
If I have to choose one thing that I will encourage the audience, it is PartyRock.aws: you can create your own app. So what I was telling you - brainstorming and whatever you need in your job - you can create an app just by saying: I want to create an app that helps me brainstorm. I put the input, the problem, the stakeholders, and then I have some outcomes. So I would encourage everybody here in the audience to try the multiple apps that are created because this is also the way to be ahead of the game and also to save time for yourself.
09:30 - Desiree
So, PartyRock is a kind of personal assistant?
09:33 - Nahia
Yeah, you can create your own app. So, you can use your own GenAI app. You can create it very easy: just put in a sentence. So there are a lot of these kind of applications right now, and they are coming new every week. I think the call out of the book is to say in the end: Embrace it to augment your capabilities and to be more efficient.
But there is also something very important: you cannot just assume that everything GenAI tells you is correct. In the end, GenAI is telling us what is the most likely outcome. It always needs our own supervision. It's like, as you said, an assistant. Or if you have somebody sitting next to you, helping you with ideas and doing things, but in the end, you are the person accountable, and you are the person who has to look into it.
10:21 - Desiree
So, Generative AI is a tool that helps us to be more productive, but it doesn't mean that our jobs will go away because we still need people who talk with customers and all kinds of other things.
10:35 - Nahia
Exactly. So, there are a lot of jobs that didn't exist years and years ago, even 10 years or 15 years ago. I think what is important is that everybody is looking to upskill, is curious, and is trying out. Now, you don't need to be like the super coder to try out a new app. There are even apps that you don't need to know how to code. They say the new coding language is English. So I really encourage everybody to try out.
11:00 - Desiree
And I also understood that one of the key roles of a Solutions Architect is helping others to develop. So, be a kind of career mentor. How do you do that within AWS?
11:11 - Nahia
Well, yes, one of our leadership principles at Amazon is to hire and develop the best. And everybody is expected to invest time in developing others: we grow together. In practice, many times, it is about having mentees, no matter how senior or junior you are. I have seen Solutions Architects who were just arriving and were, for example, mentoring some people in universities.
We also have a lot of events where we promote diversity or help others in society. So it's very clear that you are not only just working with a customer but also you are helping others. And this is when I had a conversation in the book with Ralitsa, who created a community about the imposter syndrome. And that was very interesting because we were getting to the conclusion that when you are looking for some advice, many times you just need empathy, right? And a person who is listening to you, who can share their own failures with you, and you learn from them. And we got to the conclusion that this part will stay very human. We cannot just welcome somebody to the company and tell them: Oh, you need help?; Login to this page, and you talk to a chatbot, and it helps you.
12:22 - Desiree
And helping others develop or being a mentor it's based on a relationship between the mentor and the mentee. And if you look at that, then trust is really important. How do you build trust?
12:33 - Nahia
I think, for me, it's the most important thing. Trust is something that you build with time. You have to take care of it because it can be very easy gone. What do you think of this?
12:44 - Desiree
I think the same as you: trust is really important in all relationships. And, I think, it requires of us a lot of communication skills, which is not easy. You can think that you say something to someone, but then the other one hears something completely different than what you mean. So building trust also means: do you feel that you're on the same wave? If that's not the case, then I think you sometimes have to say: it's not that I don't want to mentor you, but I think it's better if this person helps you further because it's not what I can do for you.
13:24 - Nahia
Oh, I love this. I have already, I think, like 10 mentees, so I cannot have more. The way I scale is writing things because, you know, I have written a lot of articles, books. It's like: read all this, and if you have some questions, you tell me. I want to help everybody, but I don't have time. It will not be fair.
And I'm also a manager. I have people reporting to me. And I think communication is super important all the way. We communicate a lot in written form, so we create some documents many times. For example, when we start the meeting, we put like a document: one page with the purpose of what we want because we want everybody to read it. And then we start the conversation. What do you think of this
14:05 - Desiree
I think we have a lot of things available that will help us. And some people like to read, so it's better to recommend them a book or a kind of article. Other people, they are more visible; they like more, for instance, videos. So then you can see what kind of videos are available. And I think it's important to understand the person well. If you are a mentor, what are the wants and needs of this mentee? And how can I help to the best I can do? So it's also about active listening. And I think you need to be patient to really understand somebody.
14:44 - Nahia
It's very good. It's asking the right questions. That's not going to be automated. So we need to ask the right questions, whether we are talking to the customers, but also talking with each other. And I also think the miscommunications are often creating so many problems.
14:59 - Desiree
Yeah. And if you work in a company, the bottom line is that you add to the revenue. And most of the time, what I saw was that there were a lot of communication misunderstandings. So that's why I started Help to Grow Talk because that's the first thing you need to do: make sure that you're on the right page and have good communication.
15:23 - Nahia
Exactly. It's very linked to what I was saying that, for us, as Solutions Architects, we are not quota-driven. We are not there to sell, it's more to help to understand.
15:31 - Desiree
Okay. And the future is always near. So, if we look at the role of Solutions Architect, what will the future look like for them?
15:40 - Nahia
It's going to be very exciting because it's a role that is going to help businesses and customers to go into the next stage thanks to new technologies. So I think it will look like we will have less routine tasks, and we could focus more on inventing and creating new solutions, but the human part will stay.
16:03 - Desiree
I understand. And suppose I would like to become a Solutions Architect. What would you advise me? Or can I maybe use Generative AI to create a learning path for myself?
16:14 - Nahia
Well, there are some certifications. AWS has the Solutions Architect Certification, which I would always encourage you to take. There is the Associate and the Professional. With the Associate, you already see what it is about, right? So I would encourage you to look at that to see what technology is like. There are a lot of YouTube videos on what it is to be a Solutions Architect at AWS. So I would encourage you first to do a bit of research. And that's it: we are always welcoming great talent.
16:40 - Desiree
We are coming already to the end of the podcast, but is there anything you would like to share?
16:46 - Nahia
Yes. I encourage the audience to look into technical roles because a lot are coming, and it's going to be the innovation. And be curious to learn new things.
16:59 - Nahia
And if you are not technical, for example, if you are from Finance, HR, or Marketing, you should also look at how artificial intelligence is actually impacting your area of business. It's going to help you to become more like an augmented employee. You are going to be able to deliver more and be more creative at the same time.
And, of course, if you're looking to be a Solutions Architect, I encourage you to have a look at this book about what it is to be a Solutions Architect. They can have a better picture with this book. So, any other person in the tech industry who has another technical role, I'm sure they could also get some inspiration for what is going to happen to their job.
17:37 - Desiree
I absolutely agree with you. The book is great if you want to become a Solutions Architect, but also in general for tech roles in the GenAI time.
17:46 - Nahia
Yes.
17:47 - Desiree
Well, thank you very much for this podcast. I learned a lot.
17:51 - Nahia
Yes, exactly. It was good to talk to you.
Thank you.
17:55 - Outro
Thanks for listening to the Women in Big Data Podcast. For more information and episodes, subscribe to the show or contact us via datawomen@protonmail.com.
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