Tamanna Haque joined Jaguar Land Rover in 2019 as an original team member of the Vehicle Connected Data Science team. Tamanna was promoted to Lead Data Scientist, leading a cross-country team called AI-PACE who deliver customer-facing AI products at a pace for the end-to-end vehicle experience.
Tamanna’s constantly engaging in a wealth of activities outside her role which ‘give back’ whilst helping her to find new limits to serve her clients better; she feels personally committed to them, having originated as one.
In this post, Tamanna Haque tells us how she balances motherhood with her career in the fast-paced world of AI — from planning roadmaps for maternity leave to applying the transferable skills she’s acquired as a new parent. Tamanna explains how she’s optimised her work-life balance, while caring for her daughter has made her even more effective as a data science leader:
Were there any tools, technologies, or strategies that helped you stay organised and connected during your maternity leave?
‘Keeping in touch’ time was valuable in helping me maintain contact with work and ease the transition back.
A lot of routine was gone initially, so I had to be smart and effective about the little ‘keeping in touch’ time I wanted to give my work life. A lot of preplanning and deciding what was worth that small fraction of time helped me to stay on top of things. Otherwise, nearly all of my time was spent on growing my baby… it is quite something getting to grips with parenting for the first time! My daughter is my top priority and I also made sure to focus on myself and my recovery.
To give a clearer picture of what I had to plan for and organise around, I’ll provide some insight into my role. I am constantly balancing line management, idea generation, stakeholder buyin, project to product delivery, technical advisory and more for my AI work, with a passionate, as an original team member of the Vehicle Connected Data Science team. She enjoyed the unexpected challenge of shaping a new AI team (now nearly 40-strong across multiple countries) and jumping into the world of the connected vehicle, which creates interesting data and futuristic data science work. customer-first focus. I am in ‘Jaguar’ mode all the time! I often have a multitude of projects on the go and enjoy the pace.
Tamanna was soon promoted to lead data scientist, leading a cross-country team called ‘AI-PACE’ who are delivering customer-facing AI products at pace for the end-to-end vehicle experience. She is constantly engaging in a wealth of activities outside her role which ‘give back’ whilst helping her to find new limits to serve her clients better; she feels personally committed to them, having originated as one.
Before leaving for maternity, I agreed roadmaps with my key stakeholders and had work planned to a fine detail. I occasionally checked in to field new ideas or step in if there were any impediments to delivery. For my team, I created an idea bank, reserved for them to explore in case their bandwidth allowed it. The roadmaps, explorations and skill-building tasks were carefully considered and tied into their development whilst adding value to the business.
There were personal activities (outside of my role, some outside my capacity at JLR) which I lined up to pick up, such as the Women in AI network (which I founded and chair at JLR), guest lecturing, patent filings, events I’d be speaking at, and more. The world of AI is more fast-paced than ever, and I kept up with this and with my industry (automotive), to keep on the ball creatively. These activities kept my soft skills, network and technical knowledge fresh, and I’m now much more selective about events I support or learning I embark on. Time is precious!
Staying connected in a very lightweight but purposeful manner worked for me, but I appreciated having the choice to totally switch off (as this can be less of a choice for others).
What was the most rewarding aspect of navigating motherhood alongside your career?
The most rewarding aspect is that each side enriches the other! As a new mum I have picked up a lot of new skills which help me to be a better data science leader. For instance, handling new or unexpected situations at home has made me more adaptable –much like the essence of machine learning. I’m constantly improving, thinking more critically and faster on my feet in any setting.
Things have been quite full-on at times, especially in the initial weeks. Unpredictability and added responsibilities meant I needed to refine my time management and prioritisation skills, which reflects at work where I’m much more value-driven and efficient. Something has to be great to get my attention! The AI products we’re delivering are more innovative, appealing and valuable for the business and for our clients than ever before. Back to my personal life, I’m adopting the use of more AI to increase productivity; a simple example is voice dictation of messages. Generally, AI has helped me to capitalise on my time, and better keep up to date with my family, friends and network.
I also have a perspective about our luxurious vehicles as a parent now! I always stay up to date with our products, as this gives me a baseline on the vehicle experiences we offer today, and feeds into inspiration for how we can use AI to offer even better experiences tomorrow. With my personal perspective now broadened, I’m seeing some of our cars a bit differently and I’m loving some of them more than ever. My daughter and I are appreciating the Defender at the minute: we’re getting around with lots of space and capability from the iconic 4×4.
My previous car, the Jaguar F-TYPE, was a two-seater sports car. Very different, and enjoyed during a different phase of my life. The more product and personal perspectives I gain myself – or learn from our customers – helps me to create AI with ‘customer love’ and ultimately better their experiences.
I couldn’t have navigated motherhood and my career together without my amazing husband and family. I had lots of valuable support (which felt like training at times!) and daily personal time which helped me to show up as my best self in every setting, despite being a new mum.
Did you discover anything about yourself during this time that surprised you, either as a mother or as a data science leader?
Yes, the fact there are parallels in my approach to being a mum and being a data science lead. I now see how my approach to people and leadership probably touched on some natural maternal instincts I had already – the high attention I put on my team’s development, and skills such as teaching, emotional intelligence, compassion, time management, adaptability, planning and more. All of these qualities are exaggerated during parenting and I’m really enjoying growing a mini-me!
Has becoming a mother changed the way you lead your team?
Yes, it’s reinforced my beliefs about modern ways of working and also made me a better leader.
I lead with a great deal of energy, commitment and passion for our products, customers and business, always thinking about new ways
The more product and personal perspectives I gain myself – or learn from our customers – helps me to create AI with ‘customer love’ and ultimately better their experiences.
I can add value to the business, keeping up with trends in AI to support. This maintains a great feeling of pace and purpose in my squad and I strive to provide a working environment that I would have wanted for myself, serving up motivation to deliver quality results just like our SVs (Special Vehicles)!
Data science is quite demanding, so I support working in a way which optimises for what really matters – real, tangible value-add. Working in and now leading a cross-country team in tech and data science, I promote flexiblity, trust and productivity-led working to get lots of great things done! We are constantly delivering and creating use cases alongside building up our capabilities to deliver cutting-edge AI. Our working style therefore needs to be just as dynamic, helping to promote more success with our AI products, as well as more diversity and inclusion. Meetings or facetime are scheduled meaningfully. This way I’m saving energy which is channelled back into my brain and I’m more healthy, happy and productive than ever.
I’m saving time which I can give to my daughter. Flexibility helps both sides, since some of my best thoughts have come up after-hours. Overall, I have the best work-life balance I’ve ever had, doing the best work I’ve ever done, and I’m obviously going to keep pursuing this to support myself and others around me.
What advice would you give to women planning their maternity leave in similarly fast-paced industries?
It’s really important to plan thoroughly before you leave for maternity; every baby, birth and postpartum experience is unique, and these are obviously your top priorities, so it’s hard to predict your ability or desire to ‘keep in touch’.
I would plan as if you were hoping to completely step away during your maternity leave. A roadmap with project goals and agreements, key contacts, areas of support needed etc., will help your team and stakeholders to stay on track with deliverables. Providing personalised guidance to each team member about what you want them to learn over the period – as well as deliver – means you can help their development to keep progressing. Centralising all of this information is useful, so that relevant colleagues are empowered to know what you’re thinking and expecting, even when you’re not present!
There are ways to keep up with people and movements without opening your laptop and it’s also great to catch up socially sometimes.
Remember, there’s no need to stay connected with anything other than your baby, so plan really well to give yourself reassurance and to keep things moving (and moving the way you want them to). It’s true you won’t get the time back!
