Girl Guides: Facebook's product manager Fidji Simo advises young women to 'dream big' when it comes to digital careers

The story of her journey to becoming a prominent contributor to the social network’s mobile proposition highlights how attitude, enthusiasm and, of course, brains can overcome experience in the digital landscape.

“Growing up in a family of fishermen showed me what it was like to work in an industry where nothing changes. My dad did exactly the same work as my grandfather and great grandfather. That made me realise I wanted to go into a totally different industry where applying the same techniques over and over again is not effective, but where the rules are questioned, where we are redefining what we know to create a better future, and this is the best industry in which to do that,” she says.

Her desire to understand how emerging technologies were being shaped to cater for changes in human behaviours led her to pursue an internship at eBay in her native France, but it didn’t take her long to realise the heart and pulse of digital innovation was at the time being spearheaded in California’s Silicon Valley.

“I was pretty inexperienced and fresh out of school, so I really begged them [eBay] for a job in Silicon Valley and to take a chance on me. They did and it worked out.”

Her thirst for fast-paced environments and the desire to continue challenging herself then took Simo to Facebook, a company she admits has brought her fast up against the toughest challenges she has ever faced.

“Part of the reason I wanted to join Facebook is so I could work for a company that had a mission which was still very much being defined and in the process of evolving.

“Also, if you do really good work you can get amazing opportunities really fast, as they don’t care as much about how many years’ experience you have, for example – which is a change compared to France and one of the main reasons why I moved to the US.

“Facebook was a brilliant way for me to stretch myself and take on big challenges that looked really scary, and a lot of the time I didn’t understand why people were trusting me with these challenges, but I didn’t say anything and just got on with it and then I realised actually I could do it. I think working for a company that places you in this kind of position is such a gift,” she says.

Facebook’s chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg is known for her campaigning for women to be granted equal rights in the workplace, having also published a book on the topic called ‘Lean In’.

Simo believes having a strong female role model at the helm of a company is a great motivator, and one which other, younger women, including herself, can look to for inspiration.

“She is incredibly insightful and creates a workplace that makes it easier for women to develop their full potential. That is something that is obviously so important. I get exposure to her leadership style too, which is amazing to experience as she has a very unique style – she has a great recipe of being open but incredibly effective, which is the sweet spot everybody should aspire to,” she adds.

That said, Simo is often still the only female to attend company meetings – a factor she rarely notices anymore but which continues to astonish her mother, she jokes. Yet she believes having a more equal balance of females in the workplace, and at all levels of seniority, is vital for any company to remain competitive.

Currently in charge of developing Facebook’s mobile ad format portfolio, particularly for News Feed, Simo’s team must hone and refine the experience until it can provide the right balance between great user experience and delivering value for marketers.

Ensuring marketers can get a decent return for spending their marketing budgets with Facebook, while ensuring users are not repulsed by the results, is challenging and not without its pressure points, especially for a company with such a high profile.

Fortunately, although it is continuously in the spotlight, Facebook cultivates an internal mantra of rewarding bold decisions, according to Simo.

“Facebook is a company where you are constantly pushed to take risks, and failures are completely accepted as long as you learn from it and don’t do it again, so I really felt I was allowed to be bold. But that said, with mobile there is a real cost with getting it wrong, as putting ads in the mobile feed, which is such a big part of the consumers’ mobile Facebook experience, was a huge deal.

So I felt the pressure to ensure we found the right experience and locked into that slowly and safely, taking a measured approach,” she says.

Ensuring that the team is not distracted by constantly evolving digital technologies, but is aware of developments while sticking to core product strategies, is paramount to staying focused and on track with new product formats, according to Simo.

“Priorities for me now are refining the ad experience by understanding what users want to see and how that differs with different cultures. Understanding that deeply is a major focus, and out of that will come the building of new products that align better with advertisers’ objectives,” she says.

“We have operated a pretty big shift; instead of just releasing ad units that are Facebook-specific we are realigning them to meet advertiser objectives, so formats that achieve online sales and brand awareness will be a big focus for the next six months.”

Simo believes the digital industry can offer the most exciting and rewarding careers for women today, and when asked what advice she would arm young women with as they consider taking a job in digital, she says they should “dream big”.

“Don’t be afraid of failing. In the digital industry in particular, the barriers to entry to testing new ideas are so low that there is really no reason not to try. And when you dream big you are more likely to inspire people who will support you and are less likely to fail in the end anyway,” she adds.