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⚡ #4: February 25 Issue

⚡ #4: February 25 Issue

Meet Paula, front-end engineer who switched from visual design to software engineering after dedicating 10+ years in the design field.

Beatriz Cunha
February 02, 2025

Welcome to the London Tech Bear ✨: A monthly newsletter with the best London can offer for those who work with tech - industry guests, upcoming tech events, and some London fun tips. Brought to you by Beatriz, techie based in London.

In This Tech Bear:

Meet Paula, front-end engineer at Medtronic
3 amazing tech events this month
Hack: a great café spot with free wifi in Kings Cross
Another app to try and help you reduce time spent on social media
My favourite barefoot pair of boots of the moment

Read time: 7-10 minutes.

This Month’s Guest

I have many friends in the tech industry in London, and Paula Lima is one of those friends who is super inspiring on her career journey. She went from 10+ years of experience in Visual Design to becoming a self-taught Front-End Engineer, now working at Medtronic.

5 years ago, she set herself the goal of completing a 300-hour Web Development course in 7 months while still having a full-time job. That's 10 hours a week, which is no easy feat. And she did it! But just when she finished it, the pandemic hit, and hirings froze everywhere. So she still had to wait another year to switch jobs, but she saw this period as a good exercise in patience and acceptance - as well as an opportunity to further develop her technical skills.

Paula is Brazilian, and despite missing the sun, she absolutely loves living in London. She believes it’s the best city in the world because of its unmatched level of diversity. It was only after moving here, a place with an eye-opening multitude of identities, that she could finally discover herself as pansexual and polyamorous. It has been such a transformative journey that it drove her to want to share some of what she learned along the way about self-love. So today, she has a passion project to praise vulva diversity, honor sexualities, and spark societal liberation - it's called Free Your Vulva, and I actually had the pleasure of helping create it!

She's deeply passionate about helping others in any way she can, which has led her to a wide variety of volunteering experiences. She has been the chair of a Women's Network and a CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) Committee, helped animal shelters and elderly care centres, and was a WWOOFer (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) for 3 months.

Find Paula on Linkedin

Paula on working life 🤓

What’s your go-to productivity hack?

Leaving my phone offline and following the 25-min. focus time of the Pomodoro technique, but taking a proper break after three slots instead of four. I do that because there's so much scientific evidence that our brains cannot focus for more than 90min (this isn’t a random amount - it comes from the ultradian cycles in which human bodies operate).

Dr Huberman has short video explaining this, as well as the importance of deliberate defocus time and how to actually decompress. Unsurprisingly, it cannot involve doing anything on your phone.

Since I WFH, I love using these breaks to do simple house chores or take a power nap. But my most productive days by far are when I manage to just meditate during these periods.

P.S. When you really can’t take a break, at least follow the 20-20-20 technique to reduce eye strain (look at something 20 feet away for 20 sec. every 20 min.).

What’s the hardest lesson you've learned that no one warned you about?

How non-inclusive most apps and websites actually are. You may not notice it if you’re not visually impaired or don’t have physical or cognitive impairments. I only learned this when I built my first app last year.

It was a Travel Packing Checklist that I decided to make as a Progressive Web App, so it works offline and is compatible with any device (mobile or web). I ensured it followed the highest standards of accessibility because I believe any system should be inclusive.

However, I had to invest significant time to properly learn about accessibility, as all the courses I had taken in the past just brushed over this topic. Discovering how much more work it takes to make an app fully accessible made it clear why it’s so rarely done. But I was still astonished to find out how widely accepted it is that online information is not accessible to everyone, especially given that 15% of the global population (around 1 billion people) experience some form of disability that restricts their access.

Paula on getting the most out of London 💂‍♀️

If you could teleport anywhere in London for an hour of peace, where would you go?

Kew Gardens without a doubt.

Did you know it’s the botanical garden with the largest biodiversity in the world and also a charity? I’ve been a member for a couple of years to push myself to go more often because it’s on the complete opposite side of where I live. No matter how many times I go, I always find a new hidden gem. In a single visit, I walked for four hours non-stop and there was still more to see. Highly recommend walking barefoot there, by the way!

How do you commute around the city? Any tips?

Except during winter, I mainly commute with my push scooter—it’s cheaper and lighter than electric scooters, a great workout, and obviously, you don’t need to charge it! You’d be surprised how fast (7miles/hour) and how far you can get on them in London, where it’s mostly flat.

And if I need to go uphill, Lime bikes are my saviours. A tip: even if you’re going to cycle for just 10 minutes, it’s already cheaper to get a 30-min. pass in their app. Otherwise, it’s ridiculously expensive. (I found out the hard way, by cycling for two hours on my first ride and being charged £35!)

Paula on self & wellbeing 🧘‍♂️

What’s one routine that makes your life better?

Daily meditation, even if it’s just five minutes to not lose the habit. It was a huge challenge for me in the beginning - I honestly thought I could never meditate because my brain wouldn’t stop for a second. It took me several months on the Headspace app to learn how to stand still for just a few breaths. But after years practising it, it’s undeniable the positive effect it’s had on my life. It significantly improved my capacity to think more clearly, and it allowed me to have a healthier and lighter relationship with my emotions. It’s the single most powerful skill I’ve ever learned.

What’s your favorite book or podcast for self-improvement?

A podcast called The Happiness Lab with Dr Laurie Santos. She is a Yale professor who decided to teach a new class on the science of happiness, and it became the most popular class in the university’s 300-year history!

In her own words, she created this podcast to share:

Simple but evidence-based tips to improve your own well-being. You’ll learn about the science of the mind, but you’ll also learn how to put this science into practice. Plus, you’ll pretty much get an entire Ivy League class, for free!

Dr Laurie Santos

Paula’s recommendations:

Tell us your favourite…

…podcast?
Ram Dass Here and Now. I had never come across someone who can explain the most complex concepts in such a clear and relatable way as Ram Dass. Probably because he was a psychology professor at Harvard before embarking on his spiritual journey. So if you’re interested in learning more about meditation, Buddhism, and spiritual practices, I cannot think of a better teacher.

…Youtube channel?
Hacks. It can be rented on YouTube, and it’s worth every penny! Don’t just take my word for it - it has won four Golden Globes, including two years in a row for Best Comedy Series.

…music to cheer up?
Sunday brunch at The Muddy Puddle. It’s a lovely small restaurant in Stoke Newington, with a mind-blowing and mouth-watering Argentinian re-invention of an English breakfast.

Hot February Events & Meetups

Colab Take Over: Growing Your Product Career

When: Monday, 10th/Feb
Organised by: Dead Product Society x Colab
Price: Free (🆓)
About: ProductCon highlights Product Leaders from diverse backgrounds and leaders of color. You’ll learn from inspirational founders, CPOs and COO's from global brands such as Paypal, Mastercard, BT, The Financial Times, Motorway, Tide, and more.
You’ll learn the best practices behind the most successful products, and have the opportunity to interact with all our sponsor companies interested in recruiting PMs. Get ready to level up your product skills, network with a global community of fellow product leaders, and have a ball!
Speaker: Adam Davis, Co-Founder & CEO of Colab and former Director of Product Management at Productboard

#ProductCon: The Largest Product Conference

When: Wednesday, 19th/Feb
Organised by: Product School
Price: Free online pass (🆓) or up to £700 in person (💸💸💸)
About: ProductCon highlights Product Leaders from diverse backgrounds and leaders of color. You’ll learn from inspirational founders, CPOs and COO's from global brands such as Paypal, Mastercard, BT, The Financial Times, Motorway, Tide, and more.
You’ll learn the best practices behind the most successful products, and have the opportunity to interact with all our sponsor companies interested in recruiting PMs. Get ready to level up your product skills, network with a global community of fellow product leaders, and have a ball!
Speaker: Debbie McMahon, CPO at Financial Times; Vinay Ramani, CPO at Tide; Tanya Cordrey, CPO at Motorway; Simone Paul Tamussin, CPO at Mastercard Gateway; Sam Hancock, VP of Product at Deliveroo; Penelope Carlier, VP of Product at Dott.; Kerry Small, COO at BT Group; Carlos Gonzales de Villaumbrosia, Founder & CEO at Product School.

AI Product Management Meetup London #2

When: Thursday, 20th/Feb
Organised by: Ivan Trufanov
Price: Free (🆓)
About: Meetup for product leaders in the AI sphere. Case studies about real problems solved with data and a lot of time for curated Q&A. The topic for this meetup is generative AI use cases in fintech.