Power of Acceptance: Chandrala Malkood on Navigating Her Technology Career, Creative Projects, and Health Challenges
“The biggest joy of planning and executing your own art project is that you can generate your own repeatable joy factory.” Today’s woman dreamer, Chandrala Malkood, is the Vice President of Product at Integral Ad Science, with a strong passion for the arts. She shares the key lessons that shaped her career in product, and how she embraces the power of acceptance in her life, something she learned during a challenging personal health journey. A relatable and inspiring woman, we are excited to share her story.
You are the VP of Product at Integral Ad Science, and have had an exciting career in tech/product management. Tell us more about your journey and what made you the woman you are today?
I have always been fascinated by what is possible with computers and programming. It started while at school, and I’d made a digital Tajmahal with logo programming and thought that was the coolest thing ever. So, when I came to the US for my Masters in computer science degree, it was my first flight in my life, and the first time I was ever away from my home. Just two suitcases to call mine, zero bank balance, but a truckload of dreams to keep me going.
I want to start with an incident that I remember so vividly like it happened yesterday. I had been pregnant with my daughter, and the boss that I had at that time did not give me any considerations. We used to have these morning meetings exactly at the time I had to go to the clinic for check ups, and this person would not move meetings and many other such behaviors. Frustrated, I went to my mentor at that time asking her for advice on what to do. She listened intently and expressed how awful and wrong that is, but then said, “As your mentor, I will tell you this. Stop complaining, you will never be able to control every experience you will have, but with time and consistent effort you can change the game the way you want it, that should always be your long term goal. Be the change you want to see in the world.” I could not completely grasp the entirety of that advice at that time but I think about that advice a lot and it has shaped the journey of my career.
Uptill this incident, I was very happy as an individual contributor, but when I saw the challenges that I was facing and projected it to future generations of women who will face these similar situations, I felt I needed to contribute to the solution. But in order to be that change , you need to make yourself capable of it. So, I took on the task of doing an MBA while my daughter was 2 years old and while I was working full time. It was a very hectic couple years, to keep working at it with very little help since we did not have any family in Boston to rely on.
While I was doing my MBA , it also occurred to me that I enjoyed Product management more than Engineering management. In my projects I always loved the “Why” of the projects just as much as the “How” of the projects. Although product management orgs in many companies have very different job descriptions, I liked the fact that product management allows one to wear multiple hats at once. You want all your stakeholders whether it is Business development, sales, operations, marketing , engineering, UX and data science represented in your product. Most of all being customer centric or customer obsessed is another quality of product management that I also love.
I worked my way up in product to being VP of Product at Integral Add ls. In my teams there have always been a big population of female employees. I love seeing them succeed and supporting them throughout their journey, both life and careers. My products comprise a huge percentage of the revenue of the company and the women in my team make it happen. We are driven, we are passionate , we wear multiple hats and we support each other setting an example that being flexible actually means better productivity and better looking bottom lines. I am helping build teams that are able to change the game and today I can say I am the change I want to see in the world.
2. You are also passionate about the concept of the power of acceptance. Tell us more about your thoughts and life lessons here.
For a lot of people who are type A go getters, who are used to changing the norm, acceptance is the hardest lesson in life. In 2020, I noticed a bump in my salivary gland. Multiple biopsies were done and all came back negative for cancer. The doctor suggested that I remove it anyways to be on the safer side and so I had an operation for it to be removed scheduled for 30 mins. The operation went on for two and a half hours cause they found that the tumor was cancerous wrapped around a facial nerve. MEC, the kind of tumor I had and in the position it was in,was more likely to happen in men over 60 who smoke and I was neither of those things. Being a positive person all my life this hit me so hard , I could not find any meaning in anything I did . “Why me?” such a simple question to ask yourself but quite simply the most cruel thing you can ask yourself. “Why me?” nullifies every joy and blessing you have in life, narrows your life down to one incident and tells you that there is no way out. The more you ask “Why me?” it will lead to depression because you have reinforced multiple times to your brain that your situation is hopeless and it did to me. There were days when I could only say “I love you” to my daughter because if I talked about anything else I would cry uncontrollably.
Acceptance is like the very first rays of sunrise, a harbinger of the beautiful bright morning to come. Throughout childhood, at home and in school we are taught the importance of changing the world, but acceptance as a life lesson, we are least prepared for and yet one of the most powerful tools. Acceptance is letting go of things that are not in our control and shifting our attention to things that are in our control. Practicing acceptance involves watching the mind and observing the conversations there and challenging perceived hopelessness. Once I was able to accept my situation for what it is, it was much easier to deal with the treatment. Since it was Covid times, we decided to not tell our families or friends so as not to worry them when they cannot help the situation. My husband said “It is going to be me and you and we are going to get through it” and we did. I did radiation for almost two months. I had good recovery and few side effects. It has been a year now since the surgery and I have been clear.
A lot of times we have no control over what situation we will be put in life but we have absolute control over how we react to our situations. Can you be kind despite your own struggles? life asks you time and again. Through your own pain and suffering you can understand the suffering of all people. From this you learn if you want peace, love,prosperity,health and joy so does everybody in life and if you do not want to suffer in life so does everyone else not want to suffer. I support multiple non profits that are geared towards children including Vibha where I have helped organize multiple fundraising activities in the Boston area. Charity done with love and affection and expecting nothing in return can lift your spirits more than anything in life.
3. Would you say you are a creative person? How do you aim to cultivate creativity in your life?
I have done theater, dancing, painting, jewelry making, embroidery, cooking and sewing and I want to learn more things and more forms of art. Ever since I was a child , I have been fascinated with multiple forms of art and I love the fusion and confluence of them even more. Finding ideas from different art forms and applying that in projects is something I love doing. In painting I have experimented with a project where I combined dotting with pichwai and lippon art forms and the result was even more beautiful than any one form of art. Another project that I am proud of is polymer clay jewelry where I combined jewelry making with clay sculpting. I believe that creativity is a process and just like we can maintain our muscles by exercising weekly we can maintain creativity by learning new things and working on projects. I always have an art project that I am working on. Through projects I always focus on a new skill I want to acquire or a new way I want to bring together ideas. This ability to always be thinking of skill and newness helps me immensely in building very creative products at work as well. Theater and being part of SETU has helped me understand empathy on a whole new level. Being in someone’s shoes , understanding their core values and their reactions to things helps me enact a role as well as take that back to user personas and value creation in my job.
If products were made just by listening to customers we would never have the iPhone. It is the culmination of art and business that lead to differentiated products that wow customers. Creativity is not just in the UI/UX of a product which is where most people think of art. Art is throughout , what kind of KPIs you set , how you interpret customer requests and the process of building the product itself and how you facilitate interaction between different teams. When you create a very elegant solution for a problem which is unique it has more stickiness and will have a longer life. I have built products while at Yahoo that garnered over $300 million dollars in revenue and continue to soar higher just because of the elegance of the solution to the customers.
With art projects I have learnt that consistent efforts can lead to better execution whether or not you are already talented or not. This has taught me the single reason why not to be jealous of anyone in life. Because no matter how talented someone is , anyone with good attention and consistent effort can develop the same skill over time, the real competition is always with oneself.
The biggest joy of planning and executing your own art project is that you can generate your own repeatable joy factory. Whether it is family, friends or work when your happiness is dependant externally you can only derive your sense of accomplishment from what others value in you. Art projects, especially those geared towards learning, force you to find joy internally. Planning and creating your own projects give you a sense of accomplishment and joy that is very personal to you and is easily repeatable.
4. As the platform for women dreamers, what is your next big dream?
As I have grown older and wiser, I talk of my dreams more freely, I recognize that hard work combined with creativity and a positive outlook can conquer mountains, at the same time I know that all situations will not be under my control and I will have to accept things I cannot change. But between this seesaw of change and acceptance I can find my own joy, peace and satisfaction in life which is the ultimate goal in life.
I want to see where product takes me, I want to build a legacy of elegant products and build teams that are very successful. I want to support and promote women in every way I can. I want to be creative and explore multiple art forms and collaborate with people to find gems of art. I want to get to know people and learn about their hopes and dreams and find ways in which I can contribute to society. So many hopes and dreams and one life to accomplish it all , I am thrilled for the ride of life and all it has to offer.