Zone apprentice software developer Cheyenne Clark shares the knowledge she gained from a panel discussing Leadership for Women in Tech…

Has it happened to you too? The nagging self-doubt when you think about being a female leader? The feeling that no one will listen to you? Or the worry that you might build up tension around unconscious gender bias in the workplace?

We know those thoughts shouldn’t exist. But they do.

Women continue to be largely under-represented in decision-making in the tech world. The industry is still dominated by men in terms of numbers, and it’s proven that women face…

Zone’s Martha Green handpicks and shares the five best new stories on digital trends, experiences and technologies…

1. New regulator to curb tech giants’ dominance

There is a new tech regulator in town and it’s coming for Google, Facebook and Amazon. The Digital Markets Unit (DMU) has been set up to create new codes of conduct for the UK’s tech giants and their relationship with content providers and advertisers. Digital secretary Oliver Dowden has described it as “a major milestone for the industry on the path to creating the world’s most competitive online markets”.

Set up to be “pro-competition”, the DMU hopes to help curb the dominance of…

Zone’s senior content designer Florence Buswell shares her tips on how to win your audience over…

Have you ever spent ages working on a piece of work only to have it sort of… bomb? All your carefully curated research goes to pot and you don’t understand why your audience won’t just do what you’re suggesting? It’s clear to you, so why isn’t it clear to them?

Don’t worry, we’ve all been there, and it’s incredibly frustrating. But there is a way to change behaviours that’s based on scientific evidence, has universal applicability, allows you to test and learn to see…

Zone’s Martha Green handpicks and shares the five best new stories on digital trends, experiences and technologies…

1. TUC warns of algorithm ‘hire and fire’ culture

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has called for new legal protections regarding theuse of AI in the workplace. In what the TUC is calling “huge gaps” in UK employment law, it says workers could be “hired and fired by algorithm” and wants to make it a legal right for workers to have any high-risk decisions reviewed by a human.

As AI becomes more sophisticated the fear is it will be entrusted with decisions such as analysing performance metrics — or deciding who should…

Zone delivery director Zara Powell loves a good retro: here she explains how to make the most of your team’s time together…

As a self-confessed agile nerd, a question I like to ask my peers is: “What is your favourite ceremony?” For me, the one that always wins is the retrospective.

A retrospective is a great opportunity for teams to come together, in a safe space, to inspect and adapt. They can celebrate their successes and reflect on what could be improved, with no finger pointing or blame.

“But we have so many meetings” or “We just talk about the…

Zone’s Ross Basham handpicks and shares the five best new stories on digital trends, experiences and technologies…

1. BT set for full-fibre ‘fury’ after Ofcom ruling

BT says it will “build like fury” to roll out full-fibre internet connections after Ofcom ruled it would not impose price caps on full-fibre connections provided by Openreach, BT’s subsidiary. Openreach lays down and maintains the fibre-optic cables and then sells use of these services to individual internet service providers.

The decision not to impose price caps gives BT the certainty it wanted ahead of a planned £12bn investment that aims to build fibre-to-the-premises connections to 20 million homes by the late 2020s…

In the final instalment of our Magic of Mentoring series, our marketing executive Martha Green asks some of our women at Zone to share inspiring anecdotes from their careers…

This week we’ve been celebrating the female mentees and mentors of Zone and the power of sharing knowledge. We’ve heard from Lucy Griffiths and Jess Carver, the pioneers of our mentorship scheme. And we listened to experiences of mentoring from Rebecca Glassby, Cheyenne Clarke and Florence Buswell at our Roundtable on Wednesday.

As the digital and technology sectors strive to become more inclusive, we aim to champion this through representation. …

Zone’s Ross Basham handpicks and shares the five best new stories on digital trends, experiences and technologies…

1. Lego building digital empire brick by brick

Lego is planning to recruit hundreds of digital experts in the UK, Denmark and China to expand its online games and sales operation. Lego had a bumper 2020, partly due to locked-down families buying big Lego sets to build together, but also because of products like its Super Mario set, which blends physical bricks with online games.

And now the company is accelerating its digital transformation to support initiatives such as Lego VIDIYO, which allows children to make their own music videos with…