ANTHONY MAYS: Welcome to "Engineering Everyday Equity."
My name is Anthony D. Mays, and I'm
a software engineer on the data visualization team
here at Google.
Today we have Lea Coligado.
So nice to have you here today, Lea.
LEA COLIGADO: Thanks so much for having me, Anthony.
ANTHONY MAYS: In today's episode,
we're going to talk about how to build
inclusive practices into your product development process.
And we're going to talk over the next few episodes specifically
about the design process and the design sprint,
and how you can think about inclusion at that stage.
And today we're specifically going
to talk about the planning phase and about how
to think about equity, diversity,
and inclusion from day one.
So Lea, it's so great to have you here to talk about this,
and to share your knowledge and expertise with us today.
If you can just take a moment to tell me a little
bit about your background.
LEA COLIGADO: So I actually just came back
from giving a speech to Google Women Engineers Summit
on intersectional feminism.
I am a software engineer on Google's local search team.
I'm also the founder of a diversity blog called
"Women in Silicon Valley."
I do a lot of diversity inclusion
work because I'm the daughter of Vietnamese and Filipino
refugees.
And actually, for a long time, I didn't
want that to identify me, because I felt
like I was punished for it.
But now I see my diversity as essential to bringing
my cultural identity to work and making sure
that the people who are like me and look like me
are being included into product decisions.
And so I'd like to learn more about your background, what
motivates you to do this work.
ANTHONY MAYS: Sure.
And thanks for sharing that with me.
As a black man and as a Christian,
I could really identify with some
of the things that you were talking about,
diversity inclusion every day, both in terms
of the products that I help to build,
and in the interactions that I have within the tech space.
Sometimes it can be difficult as a black man when
I, for instance, need to proactively think
about how visible my badge is to ensure that I'm not
more aggressively badge checked than other people are
for being on campus.
And then there are times when I need
to worry about or think about maybe disparaging jokes
that someone might make about my faith as a Christian,
or about religion in general.
And so as I think about those things,
it drives me to want to think about these topics
and how to make sure that tech is
more diverse and inclusive in terms of,
again, how we build our products,
and how we work with each other as colleagues.
LEA COLIGADO: I think before we talk
a more about equity diversity inclusion,
we should probably try setting up and defining our parameters.
ANTHONY MAYS: Yeah, that's a good idea.
So first, let's talk about equity.
Equity denotes fairness, and makes
sure everyone has access to the same opportunities.
In that fairness, equity recognizes
that because advantages and obstacles exist,
everyone doesn't start from the same place.
Pursuing equity begins by acknowledging
that unequal playing field and continues to course
correct and address the imbalance.
The next is diversity.
Diversity, by definition, is about variety,
the presence of difference within a given setting.
Studies show that a team that hails
from a diversity of backgrounds, beliefs, and experiences
can approach the same issue from many different angles.
So by building diversity into your organization and dog food
process, it will help guarantee a wider base is
considered for your product.
And the last is inclusion.
Inclusion isn't just about the presence of diversity.
It goes farther to ensure everyone
feels valued and welcomed.
As Verna Myers, a thought leader in the inclusion strategy
space, puts it, "Diversity is being invited to the party.
Inclusion is being asked to dance."
LEA COLIGADO: So would you say that means equity
is about switching who takes the lead?
ANTHONY MAYS: Well, I'd say it's more
about ensuring that everyone feels
empowered to do the asking.
So now that we've laid the groundwork
for these fundamental concepts, let's
talk about the design process.
And as I think about the design process,
there's a story that comes to mind
about this app that was in the process of being developed.
And it involved allowing people to silence
their phones by tapping on it while it was in their pocket.
Now as a guy, I don't see any problem with this, but as
a woman, do you see any issues?
LEA COLIGADO: Yeah, very few of my pants have pockets sewn in.
ANTHONY MAYS: All it took was one woman in the room
to identify an issue that could have potentially impacted
50% of their potential user base.
And so as you think about the design process,
are there things that you've encountered
in your past experience?
LEA COLIGADO: Yeah, I've seen a lot of the effects,
positive and negative, of design thinking.
For example, when I was a student at Stanford,
I took this awesome senior project class
where all the teams were commissioned to build apps.
ANTHONY MAYS: OK.
LEA COLIGADO: And so because most of the engineers,
if not all, were Stanford students, a lot of the apps
we produced were social media or marketplace
apps, which assume things like leisure, time for leisure,
or disposable income.
ANTHONY MAYS: Right.
LEA COLIGADO: So these apps fizzled,
while the teams that tried to represent the community
outside of Stanford and do field studies actually
addressed real community needs.
Another example I can think of in the real world
is when I joined Google full-time, a startup popped up
in San Francisco that claimed to replace the mom
and pop corner shops that we often see on street corners.
Clearly, little design thinking was infused into this app,
because otherwise they would have
known that San Francisco has a really
long, controversial relationship with gentrification,
and by claiming to gentrify these mom and pop stores that
were often run and founded by people of color,
this app crashed and burned, because it got a lot of uproar.
ANTHONY MAYS: Ow!
Yeah, I can totally imagine that happening.
All right.
So we've talked about a few examples.
Obviously, we don't want to repeat those same mistakes.
So how about we talk about building inclusiveness
into our own hypothetical app and getting that started?
LEA COLIGADO: It sounds good.
Tell me more about this app.
ANTHONY MAYS: I have an app idea for something called Scholar.
And it's an app that connects matriculating high school
students with colleges and scholarship opportunities
based upon campus size, preferences, study programs,
things of that nature.
So for me, I care about this a lot
because, as confusing as it was for me,
I'd like to take that confusion out
of the process for the next generation of technologists who
are looking to get into tech and pursue
their educational dreams.
How can I start thinking about inclusion
from the very beginning of designing this app
that I want to build?
LEA COLIGADO: Well, one thing we want to do,
Anthony, is create a challenge statement
to build the inclusivity into our app.
What do we have currently for our statement?
ANTHONY MAYS: OK.
So in 2018, I want to build an app that
connects college students with colleges
and demystifies the application process.
LEA COLIGADO: That's a really good start.
How about let's take it further and say something like,
in 2018, we want to launch an app that
matches colleges and demystifies the college search process
for first generation students.
ANTHONY MAYS: Sure.
Cool.
All right.
So now that I think we have a good working challenge
statement, how can I ensure that the team
stays focused on executing?
LEA COLIGADO: Well, there are a couple of things.
Let's make sure that stakeholders and execs
are all on board to build inclusivity into our project.
ANTHONY MAYS: OK.
LEA COLIGADO: Have them reiterate to the team
that it's a value that they share.
The challenge statement is actually not enough.
So we're going to need team members
to reinforce each other, reiterate each other,
and keep each other accountable.
One thing to note, make sure we're not
putting the burden of representing
a certain marginalized group on someone
on your team who represents that marginalized background.
So for example, as a woman of color who's often
been the only woman of color in many teams
I've worked on in tech, I was usually
the go-to for all questions pertaining to either women
or to Asian people.
So while I'm happy to help, it can be difficult
bearing the brunt of representing all women
or all Asian people.
ANTHONY MAYS: How do you personally
advocate for people who are perhaps different than you are?
LEA COLIGADO: Everyone should just
care about diversity inclusion at face value.
But unfortunately, that's not always the case.
So as a woman of color, what's helped
me is when an ally steps up to the plate
and explains the benefits of including my demographic, when
it was too emotionally burdensome
or draining for me to explain why my demographic should
be included when it wasn't at face value.
ANTHONY MAYS: OK.
So there's ally-ship.
Are there are some other things that I
can do for the team to make sure that we're
continuing to think on this?
LEA COLIGADO: One thing is lightning talks.
We want to make sure that everyone
who is present at the sprint is diverse.
And so how are some ways that we can
ensure the building of your app and that the people
in the room building it reflect our user base.
ANTHONY MAYS: That's a good question.
Well, the first thing that comes off the top of my head
is the fact that--
well, the challenge statement, where I want to build this
app for first generation college students.
So it probably would help if I had one or two first generation
college students talking about their experience
and about how they were able to connect
with schools and scholarships.
So sound good to you?
LEA COLIGADO: Precisely.
That's a great idea.
ANTHONY MAYS: So let's just summarize real quickly.
We talked about the meaning of equity, diversity,
and inclusion.
We also talked about what it means to have a great challenge
statement.
We talked about executive buy-in and the importance of support
from leadership.
We talked about ally-ship, which is really important.
And lastly, we talked about how to hold inclusive lightning
talks and about having people from diverse backgrounds who
can share their perspectives and experiences.
Thank you for watching.
If you'd like to continue the work of building equity,
diversity, and inclusion into your company or product,
check out the link in the description below.
If you have questions, leave those in the comments as well.
And lastly, make sure to stay tuned
for our next episode, where we're
going to talk about the understanding
phase of the design process.
And let me leave you with this last thing.
If you do not intentionally include,
you will unintentionally exclude.
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