I've had 2 kids in the past 4 years and returned to work each time with expanded scope.

I have always been in male-dominated fields. I was a Math and Statistics major in college, studied Finance in grad school, went to work in Investment Banking, and then made my way into Tech. I was often the only female in a room and found myself fighting against gender norms the entire way.

One of those norms was that I saw how people often pigeon-hole women who are becoming moms and assume they want to lean out. They are passed over for opportunities at work because it’s assumed that they’ll want to coast.

It’s fine and great if you do want to lean out at this time! But for me, that wasn’t the plan.

I approached this coming change (baby!) and maternity leave the same way I approached my product role.

The first step was sharing my vision with my manager. When I was ready to share that I was pregnant, I did so in a 1x1 with my manager. I used this conversation not just to share the news and the timing, but I also shared how I was thinking about my personal roadmap - both the personal life and work-life swimlanes were being prioritized. I explicitly shared that I did not want to lean out at work and I wanted to be considered for opportunities to return to after leave, such as expanded team scope and leading new initiatives.

Once the news and vision were set, I started a living document that could serve as my knowledge share while I was out. I used this as a status doc so that if I went out on leave unexpectedly (babies are unpredictable!), all knowledge was readily available. But, I didn’t stop there. I used this document also as a way to demonstrate my strategic thinking even when I couldn’t be in the room to advocate for myself and my product. I wrote 1-2 pages on the direction for the product to guide the next quarterly OKR process and any other strategic conversations that were happening while I was on leave.

Finally, I tried not to stress. I had controlled what I could control. It was definitely a learning curve to figure out how to lean in both at home and at work post-baby each time; however, my planning and verbalizing set me up for success. My manager advocated for me, my strategic thinking was tangible even while I was out, and I came back to broader opportunities.

Do you have any tips and tricks for leaning in before and after parental leave?