Vectors Livestream – SF Design Week 2017
Google Design2017-06-16
Google Design#Vectors#AIGA SF#AIGA#SF Design Week
5K views|7 years ago
💫 Short Summary
The video segments cover a wide range of topics, including the importance of diversity and inclusion in design, personal stories of overcoming struggles, and the impact of bias in decision-making. Speakers emphasize the need for representation, embracing vulnerability and uniqueness, and challenging stereotypes in various industries. The video highlights the significance of diversity in team collaboration, product development, and societal change. Overall, the segments aim to inspire individuals to share their perspectives, embrace their identities, and advocate for inclusivity and equity in all aspects of life.
✨ Highlights
📊 Transcript
✦
Empowering attendees to share valuable perspectives at the event.
05:04Organizers provide free admission to ensure student involvement.
Emphasis on representation for the next generation of designers.
Inspiring attendees to see themselves in speakers and strive for their unique voice.
✦
Importance of identity in shaping design and work.
06:29Speaker expresses gratitude for speaking opportunity and emphasizes personal experiences' impact on creativity.
Transition from creative confidence to exploring fear and design, highlighting personal and emotional aspects.
Speaker humorously mentions getting 'naked' metaphorically to share vulnerable moments.
Speaker introduces themselves as a designer, acknowledges Latino heritage, creating a connection through cultural identity.
✦
Mexico vs US football rivalry during the 2002 FIFA World Cup.
11:35Despite not being a football fan, the entire nation was glued to the TV for the crucial game.
The US scored early causing anxiety among Mexican fans.
Tensions rose within the Mexican team leading to disorganization and ultimately their elimination from the tournament.
✦
The impact of fear of failure and self-doubt on creativity and design.
14:45Balancing analytical and emotional elements is crucial for designers, similar to artists.
Designers often distance themselves from emotional aspects of their work to avoid being associated with artists.
Embracing vulnerability and emotions is key to achieving success in creativity and design.
✦
Embrace your unique background and experiences to stand out in your field.
18:51Do not let self-doubt and fear of others' opinions hold you back from valuing your work.
Accept that you are a real designer and stop questioning your abilities.
Focus on doing the work and riding the bike, rather than worrying about being the best or fastest.
By embracing your vulnerabilities and unique qualities, you can harness your superpowers.
✦
Embrace uncertainty and fear as part of the creative process.
21:55Acknowledge and invite feelings of fear and self-doubt rather than suppressing them.
Be comfortable with discomfort and uncertainty to improve as a designer.
Take small steps, open up, and be vulnerable for personal and professional growth.
✦
Embracing self-discovery and growth through mentorship and authenticity.
25:41Importance of kindness, vulnerability, and empathy in personal development.
Seeking support and treating oneself with self-compassion.
✦
Creation of 'My Trans Health' Resource for Trans Individuals.
27:51The girl faced challenges with revealing her gender identity and developed unhealthy coping mechanisms like drinking and drug use.
Seeking guidance online, she decided to create a resource for trans individuals to access quality healthcare.
'My Trans Health' aims to provide culturally competent healthcare for trans and gender non-conforming people.
The initiative was launched through a Kickstarter campaign and YouTube video, emphasizing the importance of inclusive healthcare for all individuals.
✦
Challenges in obtaining resources for the project and launching it during the same week as Caitlyn Jenner's public transition.
30:09Highlighting the struggles faced by the trans community, such as high rates of abuse and suicide attempts.
Feeling exploited by the media for personal stories despite positive press received.
Emphasizing the importance of cultural conversations around trans healthcare beyond high-profile individuals like Caitlyn Jenner.
✦
Personal struggles and experiences of the speaker in the trans community.
32:47Frustration with trivial issues and need for more substantial support and resources.
Volunteering for a suicide hotline and helping a distressed 14-year-old trans girl.
Emphasis on creating a calm and supportive environment for trans individuals.
Financial struggles and engaging in cam work to make ends meet while working on a project.
✦
Importance of user research for product development.
35:49Insights gained from trans girls in the community led to success.
Expansion to multiple locations and providers due to focus on creating a fast and efficient website.
Challenges with government regulations caused setbacks and self-reflection.
Determination and excitement about the future of the project despite obstacles faced.
✦
The lasting impact of cultural conversations on transitioning children.
37:35Introduction of a five-part 'how to show up' segment advocating for community support.
Importance of being a micro designer by offering resources, time, and money to assist others.
Significance of contacting elected officials to voice concerns and utilize voting power for effecting change.
✦
Advocacy for supporting trans individuals in leadership roles.
39:58Emphasis on historical significance of trans women of color in resistance movements.
Calls for financial support for marginalized communities, including Latina, brown, and black trans women.
Importance of diverse representation in tech and leadership meetings to amplify marginalized voices.
Recognition of Figma as a sponsor for an independent design event, highlighting accessibility and democratization of design tools.
✦
Embracing chaos and style in design.
44:40Alex Valdivia grew up in communist Cuba with strict rules, challenging the notion of designers not having a style.
He highlights the blurred lines between different creative roles and expresses his identity as a designer, musician, illustrator, and artist.
Despite societal constraints, Alex's journey reflects the importance of embracing individuality and creativity in design.
✦
Speaker reflects on the impact of societal expectations and values on their identity and sense of belonging.
48:07The speaker's family moved to Costa Rica when they were ten, exposing them to a different capitalistic society.
Becoming an immigrant in Costa Rica led the speaker to navigate a chaotic world, shaping their creativity and perspective.
The experience in Costa Rica taught the speaker to see problems from multiple angles, fostering a deeper understanding and peace with the world.
Despite conflicting values with Costa Rica, the speaker's upbringing instilled core values that challenged societal norms.
✦
Reflections on leaving Cuba and adapting to a new society.
51:57Feeling like a foreigner in their own country, losing possessions and status.
Developing an identity influenced by journey, pursuing music, literature, and art.
Struggling with conflicting desires for a hefty paycheck and artistic fulfillment.
Impact on family, with the speaker's father also facing chaos in finding his path.
✦
Embracing Chaos and Finding Passion in Graphic Design.
55:06The speaker discusses transitioning from being a doctor in communist Cuba to navigating privatized medicine in the U.S.
He shares his journey of self-discovery through various career paths, ultimately finding passion in graphic design.
Inspired by designers like David Carson and James Victoria, he sees design as a blend of aesthetics, altruism, and problem-solving.
The speaker encourages individuals to embrace their own chaos and find their unique path.
✦
Embrace Uniqueness and Personal Stories as Superpowers.
56:57Step outside predefined boxes and own your style.
Take pride in choices, upbringing, and lessons learned as they shape identity and creativity.
Value authenticity and self-acceptance in a world demanding constant excellence.
Embrace chaos and be unapologetically true to oneself.
✦
Panelists share professional backgrounds and experiences in product design, venture firms, and graphic design to grad school.
01:01:36Unique food experiences mentioned include mayo and fries, kale, and a mystery Mother's Day breakfast.
One panelist runs a design education business and chairs the AIGA diversity and inclusion task force.
Insights shared on design, consumer behavior, and career transitions by the diverse panel.
✦
Importance of Challenging Archetypes and Stereotypes in Industries.
01:05:25Story shared about a man pretending to be an interior designer to highlight the negative impact of stereotypes, particularly related to race.
Emphasis on the need for diversity in industries like Hollywood and tech.
Acknowledgment of the lack of diversity in the tech industry and advocacy for addressing this issue across various sectors.
✦
Importance of diversity in problem-solving and decision-making.
01:07:57Lack of diversity in teams can lead to repetitive mistakes due to homogenous decision-making.
Fear often prevents people from embracing diverse perspectives and sticking to the familiar.
Representation is crucial in breaking down barriers and encouraging non-traditional paths.
Diversity at all levels of decision-making is essential for fostering innovation and inclusivity in the industry.
✦
The lack of diversity in design disciplines dates back to the beginning of John F. Kennedy's presidency, leading to segregation and racial inequalities.
01:12:05JFK initiated conversations with leaders to address issues of diversity and representation in the design industry.
Visibility and representation are crucial in addressing feelings of insecurity and lack of confidence among designers.
Conferences play a key role in sharing experiences and fostering a sense of community and support within the design industry.
✦
President JFK's groundbreaking request for civil rights legislation.
01:14:37JFK faced challenges and criticism but ultimately pushed for desegregation, leading to the passing of the bill after his assassination.
Lyndon B. Johnson continued JFK's legacy with the help of leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Whitney Young.
The bill focused on race but also included religion and sex, highlighting the compromises made for its success.
✦
Institutionalized racism and lack of diversity in the design profession post-Civil Rights Act.
01:17:33Disproportionate incarceration rates among black and Latino men compared to white men highlighted.
Mention of Michelle Alexander's book 'The New Jim Crow' and its relevance to the discussion.
Exploration of discriminatory practices and minimal diversity initiatives in the design field due to institutionalized racism.
Call to action for individuals at all levels to address these issues and work towards change.
✦
Importance of Diversity in the Workplace.
01:21:00Lack of diversity can stem from issues related to access and exposure, opportunity, and value at different stages of one's journey.
Building a company culture that represents the voices of employees and product users is vital.
Empowering individuals to share their experiences and feel comfortable is crucial for fostering diversity.
Using posters as a communication tool can promote democracy and give individuals a voice, despite potential risks.
✦
Promoting Diversity and Inclusion in Company Culture through Empowering Voices.
01:23:32Emphasis on hiring and retaining a diverse team in the workplace.
Educating young children about opportunities in technology and design is essential.
Workshops with children have shown creativity and innovative thinking, highlighting the importance of early exposure to different career paths.
Addressing the pipeline problem in finding diverse talent and providing equal access to resources for all kids is crucial.
✦
Importance of diversity in teams for comfort and to prevent toxicity.
01:26:35Diverse team members should be given a voice and opportunities to grow.
Designers can enhance user journeys with diverse examples and perspectives.
Bevel, a grooming product company for black men and women, exemplifies the benefits of embracing diversity in building a narrative around it.
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Importance of diversity in product development.
01:28:37Lack of exposure in education contributes to diversity issues.
Significance of listening to employees' skills and passions.
Recognizing and supporting employees' talents beyond initial roles.
Providing confidence, access, and skills for career changes within companies like Google or Facebook.
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Importance of Hiring Globally for Diversity and Inclusivity in Leadership Positions.
01:31:01Emphasizes the need for companies to prioritize inclusivity by hiring individuals from diverse backgrounds and listening to grassroots voices.
Calls for open discussion on unconscious biases and highlights the value of diverse perspectives in product development.
Warns against focusing too much on internal perspectives and emphasizes the benefits of having a global team to create products that cater to a wide audience.
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Importance of Representation and Inclusivity in Product Design.
01:34:15Consider a wide spectrum of perspectives in product design to better serve a diverse range of users.
User journeys are highlighted as a powerful tool to visualize how different demographics may experience a product differently based on their background.
Prioritize understanding the needs and perspectives of all users to create more inclusive and impactful designs.
✦
Importance of Team Collaboration and Diverse Perspectives in Design.
01:37:36User feedback from real-world interactions is essential for product development, offering valuable insights into user needs and behaviors.
Dismissing feedback from certain user groups can result in overlooking important design considerations, such as accessibility for individuals with disabilities or older adults.
Startups often face challenges in recruiting diverse user groups for feedback, highlighting the need to understand and cater to the needs of various user demographics.
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Importance of diversity and purposeful inclusion in teams.
01:38:59Actively hiring diverse individuals is crucial for embracing diversity in the current minority-majority demographics.
Sponsorships, like Adobe's support, play a key role in supporting events.
Emotional reactions in design and the power of designers to drive positive change are highlighted, with a quote from Gandhi.
Audience is urged to actively contribute to creating the desired world.
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Using design and technology to address unconscious bias.
01:42:03Interactive exercise on bias perception.
Explanation of availability bias and its implications.
Warning against relying on stereotypes and quick judgments.
Personal examples illustrating the inaccuracy of assumptions based on limited information.
✦
The impact of bias on decision-making across various identities.
01:46:22Blind auditions in the music industry have increased women's representation in orchestras.
Biases in hiring practices based on names can lead to discriminatory perceptions.
Technology can help reduce bias and promote equality in decision-making processes.
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Startups addressing bias in recruitment and hiring processes.
01:49:24Blender hides information like name and alma mater to reduce unconscious bias in decision-making.
Airbnb faced bias in host acceptance, leading to the creation of D-bias yourself plugin for Google Chrome.
D-bias yourself plugin removes personal information, allowing hosts to focus on relevant content like messages and ratings.
The initiative emphasizes taking responsibility for bias and shows external teams challenging biased systems.
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Impact of bias in job descriptions and machine learning solutions.
01:51:00TextEO tool acts as a spell check for gender bias in job postings.
Another tool analyzes data to pinpoint bias within organizations, such as differences in promotion rates between genders.
Goal is to provide visibility into bias and help companies understand how it manifests in areas like pay, promotions, and employee turnover.
Focus on helping organizations take responsibility for identifying and addressing bias.
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Discussion on gender biases in voice recognition technology and the importance of addressing biases in product development.
01:54:00Showcasing underrepresented individuals in the tech industry through the Techies Project to disrupt harmful narratives.
Emphasis on understanding systemic challenges faced by communities, with redlining in Chicago in 1940 cited as an example of racial bias.
✦
Redlining practices by banks in America disproportionately affected people of color by denying investments based on racial demographics.
01:56:11Data visualizations show correlations between race, vacant properties, and unemployment rates in different neighborhoods, highlighting the impact of these policies.
Historical roots of present-day issues of unemployment and poverty in inner cities are attributed to systemic practices from decades ago.
Design is proposed as a potential solution to address these invisible forces and promote empathy among different groups.
✦
UNICEF-produced film follows 12-year-old Syrian refugee Sidra through a day in her life at a refugee camp.
01:58:39The video evokes empathy from viewers by highlighting Sidra's experience escaping war as a Syrian refugee.
Global leaders and diplomats join Sidra in the video, emphasizing the importance of policymakers understanding the perspectives of those affected by their decisions.
The speaker urges everyone to take small actions to mitigate bias and promote equity, emphasizing the impact of bias on marginalized communities like black and brown individuals in the criminal justice system and healthcare disparities.
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Economic disparities between white households and black/Latinx households are discussed, focusing on the impact of bias on diversity and inclusion efforts.
02:01:39Addressing unconscious bias in the workplace is crucial to combat economic inequality.
Dialogue is emphasized as a key tool for initiating change in organizations and friendships.
The speaker is a producer on the design team at Stripe, a company that focuses on building tools and infrastructure for online businesses.
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Challenges in scaling up team capacity and increasing diversity in skillsets.
02:06:16Importance of maintaining visibility into work and incorporating different perspectives for well-rounded work.
Engaged in a design team Roadshow to learn from other teams' approaches.
Conducted a skillset survey to identify the need for a wider range of skill sets.
Creation of nine different job roles, including new disciplines like copywriting and research.
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Emphasis on building a diverse team through sourcing parties and structured evaluation.
02:08:11Framework with set questions and rubric used to evaluate candidates and reduce unconscious biases.
Use of a physical wall for designers to share work, encourage collaboration, and provide feedback.
Utilization of digital tools like a digital wall and Slack for remote visibility.
Design pod with work table and TV used as a tool for impromptu meetings and reviews.
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Team implements weekly design reviews and smaller critiques to ensure diverse perspectives are considered.
02:10:44Mini workshops led by team members help in learning unique skill sets.
Tools combat scaling issues and promote intentional design decisions.
Team dedicated to improving collaboration and enhancing overall design quality through learning from each other.
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Interact Project aims to provide design opportunities to underserved communities and kids of color, as well as create pathways for people of color to enter the design industry.
02:14:07The speaker emphasizes the importance of diversity in design, highlighting how visual culture shapes perceptions and self-image.
Including diverse voices in design can lead to more accurate and impactful representation.
The project's goal extends beyond teaching design skills to fostering innovative thinking in the next generation.
The speaker expresses gratitude for the support and recognition of the project's mission.
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Speaker expresses gratitude to event supporters and emphasizes importance of continuing conversations and taking action.
02:17:11Various organizations are thanked for their contributions and support in providing opportunities for young people.
Encouragement is given to reach out to others to benefit from discussions and make a difference through conscious effort and action.
The audience is thanked for being part of the event, and the impact of education is reflected upon.
✦
Speaker expresses gratitude to audience.
02:19:58Audience thanked for hard work and support.
Thanks extended to everyone present.
Video concludes with message to see audience next time.
02:39[Applause]
02:48you
02:56hello hello everyone and and welcome I'm
03:07sure the about the portrait and beer
03:09opportunities will continue so we might
03:12as well get started
03:14my name is Malta I have the the pleasure
03:17of running design here at stripe and I
03:20have the honor of welcoming all of you
03:23you know space or part of our space and
03:27it's I also have the pleasure of you
03:31know having our space used for tonight's
03:34particular topic I'll go to a design
03:36conference about pretty much anything
03:37but but this particular topic seems more
03:41worthwhile than most you know giving
03:45everyone an opportunity to literally
03:48just be themselves and still have the
03:49same opportunities and chances to
03:52succeed and do well as as the person
03:55next to them seems like not too much to
03:57ask if you ask me so with that welcome
04:00to the real MVPs who are putting on the
04:04show and welcome to stripe alright
04:12alright guys so welcome to the first
04:15installment of vectors it's kind of
04:18crazy to say that three or four months
04:21ago that was just an idea and now we
04:23have you know a full group roomful
04:26people backed by some of the best design
04:28companies in the world so just get
04:31around the place for everything for make
04:32it possible
04:38so over the next couple of hours you're
04:42going to see some folks come up and talk
04:45and get on stage and talking because of
04:48that dynamic you might think that these
04:50people are more important than you for
04:52some reason because you know they're
04:54there in stage and you're not
04:56but this conference is exactly about
04:58that idea and challenging that idea and
05:02the truth is is that we all have
05:04perspectives that are valuable so we
05:08really hope that by the end of this
05:09event you feel empowered and confident
05:13to share your perspective with others
05:15and really use it as your superpower
05:18that's really the reason why we put this
05:20together so we're excited to share it
05:22with you guys
05:24hi a couple of words just in terms of
05:28context my name is Julio I am the
05:29diversity inclusion chair at the local
05:31chapter of a San Francisco one of the
05:34things that was really important for for
05:35the team from the very beginning is
05:38really in ensuring that students were a
05:41part of this event somehow so we did
05:42that in a couple of different ways we
05:43was important for us to have a fair
05:46amount of the admission be free for
05:47students but also I teach at San Jose
05:49State and basically enlisted a bunch of
05:51my students to just scalp out one sit in
05:54particular who I'm trying to find but I
05:56can't find I want to just give a shout
05:57out to Lillian Salazar who developed the
05:59branding for the conference in the end
06:01but that was really important to kind of
06:04make sure that the next generation of
06:05designers has a seat like where you are
06:07so that at some point a few years you
06:09see yourself in these people and then
06:11shoot for that shoot for like a I have a
06:12have a different voice of a new point of
06:15view I want to bring that to the table
06:16and that you see that as a student so
06:18that was really important for both AIGA
06:20as sounds of States has really been an
06:22honor to work with these guys and
06:23putting this together and we really hope
06:24you enjoy your show and the question
06:28we're here to answer today is how does
06:29identity shape design and that's
06:31something I want you to all hold with
06:33you as you take in these talks today as
06:35you experience the small business booths
06:37that we have out front techies the
06:40questions that we're asking how does who
06:42you are impact your work and the
06:45wonderful speaker lineup we have today
06:47is here to tell us their story so we ask
06:49that you welcome them warm
06:50and let's get started thanks everyone
06:53[Applause]
07:00okay oh oh damn
07:04uh yeah you kind of forget somehow that
07:06you can get this on hey hi oh I need to
07:09sorry ah ah no come on
07:13okay hola oh man I love this you cannot
07:17see this but I have my two monitors here
07:20and they're called confidence monitors
07:22and they pretty much are my notes I'm
07:24just gonna be reading this I I wish life
07:26had be this you know just like go around
07:29just like with a script so so high I
07:34need to get okay okay yeah sorry I just
07:39need to know what the hell is going on
07:40here okay so one of the organizers is a
07:43friend of with the people that were here
07:45and they told me about this this
07:48conference that they just hear and as
07:52soon as they were just like we're
07:53organizing it's just like I want to talk
07:55oh I don't know what I'm going to talk
07:57about but I just give me a spot and
07:59there were kind enough to do that and I
08:02just invited myself and then a month
08:05later obviously he asked me so what are
08:06you going to talk about it's like oh
08:08yeah so a grade of confidence I guess
08:11and then I found out that the CEO or not
08:14sorry the founder of I do actually has a
08:17talk called create a confidence
08:19sounds like ah I wasn't feeling as
08:21confident of my creative confidence
08:23thing so I decided to change it and I
08:26did a 180 turn and I change it to fear
08:29fear and design so totally opposite
08:35right and I have to warn you there there
08:38might be some difficult moments in this
08:40presentation I'm going to be talking
08:42about some very personal stuff because
08:45I'm here to get naked
08:49now that kind of naked though can you
08:51hear me yeah now that kind of naked
08:53don't get too excited it's going to be
08:56more of the emotional kind of naked the
08:58the boring kind and so hola hola soy
09:06Pablo Stanley so I only sing yell or
09:09that means I'm a designer
09:11it sounds more exotic than what it
09:13actually means
09:15just out of curiosity raise your hands
09:18all the Latinos here
09:19Latinos Hispanic okay cool yeah oh my my
09:23homeboys and my homegirls that's cool
09:26so I am from Mexico ah yeah okay so
09:33being from Mexico well you always see
09:37the United States as your neighbor you
09:40know we have always seen them as her
09:41neighbor and/or neighbor with the big
09:45house with the perfect lawn the
09:50expensive car the nuclear weapons
09:55and coming soon the giant shiny new wall
09:59you know so I didn't just I'm not just
10:05Mexican I also grew up in the border and
10:08growing up on the water well I was just
10:11right next to my neighbor and be it next
10:14to your neighbor you didn't get reminded
10:16of how cool your neighbor is and that if
10:20you are not as good as them and that
10:24you're not welcome oh crap sorry and you
10:32might be a bad hombre
10:33and being that filthy or rich is
10:38powerful friend you you cannot help but
10:41to feel inferior and the things that
10:45they're always better anything you know
10:48and but there's something that we feel a
10:53little a little bit better that and
10:57that's football so yeah and you probably
11:01mistakenly call it soccer but but no
11:05it's football and football is her thing
11:06you know it says it's the the thing that
11:08we're proud of that will finger good at
11:10and that's that thing we're good so
11:15there has always been a rivalry or at
11:17least we think there is and the rivalry
11:20between the United States and Mexico and
11:22the football and it we always remain
11:25better at that so we're really proud of
11:27that in them but then something changed
11:30I don't know in the 90s I suppose like
11:31an executive realize that there's money
11:33in football and then they started
11:35investing it so this rivalry culminated
11:38in one game this was in 2002 the FIFA
11:44World Cup in Seoul not say Seoul Seoul
11:47Korea in Spanish si will Seoul Korea and
11:50I remember I was at a friend's house and
11:53I'm pretty sure like everyone in Mexico
11:56was at a friend's house glued to the TV
11:59the whole nation was glued to the TV and
12:01the thing is I don't even like football
12:03to be honest but that's something that
12:05just brings us all together and
12:08and probably you probably don't care but
12:10we did care we care a lot and the thing
12:14is that the game this game was well was
12:18like whoever laws that game will was
12:20going to be kicked out of there and was
12:22going to be eliminated so the game
12:23starts and one minute two minutes
12:26everything's going well it's just the
12:28football game I guess and then on the
12:30eighth minute the United States scores a
12:33goal and obviously my heart sunk if you
12:39have seen full at football game you
12:40you're gonna you know that they're long
12:42as hell
12:43so getting scored on on the eighth
12:46minute is not a good sign but at the
12:49same time it's a long game right we can
12:51do this we got this still a long time
12:54and then realize that something happened
13:00something happened to the team you can
13:03see they were yelling at each other they
13:05were being disorganized they felt lost
13:07they looked defeated already and then on
13:11the second half well they scored again
13:14and dos acero 2 2 0 and the whole
13:19country will just check it here we have
13:22been beaten our own thing the thing that
13:26we thought we were better at the thing
13:29that we're proud of you know and
13:31obviously your spirits got broken and
13:33the thing is that the u.s. didn't score
13:37that goal you can see it in the team it
13:40was it was our fear or self-doubt that
13:43score that goal it was that feeling of
13:46being smaller and suddenly that
13:50inferiority complex
13:52like it was cemented you know it stopped
13:56being a complex it's only we were just
13:59inferior except at the food we're still
14:04very good at food and a thing that's our
14:07thing now
14:09seriously we're really good at it you
14:12guys cannot make a good taco or good
14:14burrito and if you want proof of that
14:17just go to any Italian Chinese Mexican
14:22restaurant and just take a look at the
14:24kitchen and see who's making your burger
14:29so yeah that's uh something that I carry
14:33with me the inferior switch in my UI is
14:37turned on by default and we we all carry
14:42something like that and we try so hard
14:45to burry those things right that fear
14:49and uncertainty because it's hard right
14:54and the thing is that that fear it plays
14:57a great role in the life of the designer
14:59exposing yourself and being vulnerable
15:01is kind of in the core of every creative
15:05and it's the cool thing too I think it's
15:10one of the coolest things too in the
15:11designer where we actually get to use
15:15our left and right brain it's kind of a
15:17requirement right that you have to use
15:20your analytical and your emotional side
15:23and the thing is well that it's hard the
15:28right brain is kind of hard it's it's
15:30it's it deals with a subjective right
15:33when you actually want your work to look
15:35objective it's it pushes for the
15:38emotional when you want your work to
15:41look rational and it's hard to defend
15:44it's really hard to defend the right
15:46brain because it's just like soft and
15:48airy and it's like personal and I see it
15:53like there's a parallel with the artists
15:55well the artist has to deal with this
15:57every day and as their thing right I
15:59said and I don't know if you notice this
16:02but we as designers kind of want to
16:04distance ourselves from the artists have
16:07you noticed that that uh we don't want
16:10people to confuse what we do with what
16:12the artist does you know no I'm not an
16:14artist the designer and why because the
16:18artist deals with the emotional and the
16:20personal
16:22and we view their work as a reflection
16:25of their souls and it's not just about
16:28the painting of the piece is the story
16:29behind it is the struggle of the artist
16:32right they're suffering so we kind of
16:36avoid that because well it requires us
16:39to be more open to embrace those
16:43emotions to be vulnerable and so what do
16:47we do we just we close down we suppress
16:51our intuition we give in to the left
16:53side and we follow the facts not our
16:58hunches and we use the analytical as
17:01armors you know the thing is that you
17:08use we use them as an armor because it's
17:10it's easy to defend yourself with them
17:13and it's easier to to use them because
17:17well like numbers don't lie right we
17:20have them it's just like it feels feel
17:21more real right and it's hard to the
17:25penetration it's difficult to convince
17:26people of the feeling you have to
17:28embrace the warm and fuzzy things inside
17:30you and it's scary to open up and it's
17:32just like it feels dangerous and we have
17:36two types of fear we created steel with
17:40those and that's the fear about
17:42ourselves and the fear about what others
17:45think of us and the thing is that the
17:48fear about ourselves can makes us make
17:51us create our best work while the fear
17:55about what others might think of us
17:57makes us create not or wrong work for me
18:03being Latino was for the longest time
18:05something that I will try to hide
18:07something there I didn't want to be put
18:10in that box I didn't want to I didn't
18:15want people to judge me because of that
18:16and my inferiority complex was which is
18:20bringing me down right obviously it's
18:23kind of hard please I mean I'm obviously
18:25Mexican and my accent is all over the
18:27place and probably for you it's
18:30something different you know it can be
18:32your gender your nationality your
18:34socioeconomic
18:35background the school you went to a
18:39disability the color of your skin but
18:44those things that make you different as
18:47cliche as it sounds - sir not your
18:50weaknesses
18:51they are you superpowers they give you a
18:55different perspective from others your
18:59culture your struggles that inner fight
19:05they make you one of a kind they give
19:07you an edge the game makes you special
19:11and in parallel with all these fears and
19:14all these things we we also carry the
19:16designers self-doubt and because we deal
19:20with vulnerability every day and we we
19:25start asking ourselves we doubt our work
19:27and we kind of say like am i real
19:30designer am I just pretending we start
19:33undervaluing or work because we worry
19:36too much about what others think and
19:38this could be probably driven by this
19:42illusion of that whatever we create has
19:46to be magnificent magnificent and
19:48extraordinary but we don't see this kind
19:52of irrational thinking in other things
19:55that we do like imagine if you were like
19:59riding a bike and then suddenly you were
20:02starting to question yourself like am i
20:05a real bike rider
20:07am i just pretending what people realize
20:11that I'm faking it don't do that right
20:15you are you hire a bike rider you're
20:18doing the work you're riding a freaking
20:20bike you might not be the fastest bike
20:24rider gonna be the best bike rider but
20:27you are riding the bike you're doing the
20:28work I mean I invite you to try
20:31pretending that you are a musician while
20:34you're playing the guitar I invite you
20:36to try pretending to be a writer while
20:40you're writing a story when you open
20:46Photoshop or sketch or figma or Adobe XD
20:52and you start drawing a box and you add
20:55a text layer and you put a color and you
20:57make a decision you are a designer
21:01there's no way to pretend it okay
21:04you are the signer when you are the
21:07signing you're doing the work now
21:10are you a good designer how do you
21:12become a give designer right by not
21:14quitting by not giving up you become
21:17good by opening up and continue creating
21:19you make good work by making lots of not
21:23very good work by removing the fears of
21:27what others might think by not
21:29surrending them to them and I invite you
21:36on the right we don't know exactly where
21:38we're going this right is called
21:39uncertainty and on this right
21:42I invite you to give fear a seat we let
21:47fear and self-doubt be part of your ride
21:49sitting next to us or in the back and we
21:54don't suppress them or push them out of
21:55the car which is give them a seat we
21:58acknowledge them for me my passengers
22:01are next to me just my Mexican
22:04insecurities just like screaming at me
22:06all the time and my designer self-doubt
22:08it's just like pulling me to sit in the
22:12back and see from the rearview mirror
22:15but you and I were in the driver's seat
22:19we don't let them take the wheel
22:21in oh my god they want to take the wheel
22:24but you know what they'll do right
22:27they'll just probably stop the car
22:30go back to the comb probably even crash
22:34the car but we don't give them control
22:38they might take the radio and that's ok
22:42it might put some sad songs that Joy
22:45Division sometimes they put like cumbia
22:50Selena Huang Gabrielle let's start
22:53crying with hunger yell you let them do
22:56that because you're you're in this right
22:58together you invite them and when you do
23:02that you open up to the possibility of
23:04growing but not letting them control you
23:08you're being okay with being
23:10uncomfortable and you're being okay with
23:12that uncertainty with that right okay
23:16got to grab this up and usually tell me
23:20that a you're gonna have an action plan
23:23at the end some steps how can I do this
23:27so have some really quick actions some
23:30things to do the first one is a little
23:35bit of what I did you don't have to
23:36exactly do except you don't have to come
23:39tomorrow the worries like oh my god I
23:41need to cry of all this but you do get
23:44naked if you do it a little bit you
23:46start putting your guard down you open
23:48yourself up you stop pretending and
23:50you stop you start knowing that is that
23:53it's okay now to know everything that
23:57the it's okay not to know the difference
24:00between a product designer and a UX
24:02designer and an interaction designer and
24:04the scientist ruptor which I don't know
24:08no we're all making it up you know right
24:12over here I'll fake it till make it and
24:16and I'm faking it yes that it will open
24:19some doors that will give you some
24:21opportunities but you you've got to stop
24:24faking it at some time right it is not
24:27only until you start opening yourself up
24:29when you give yourself the chance to
24:32learn and to grow
24:34next one is bring others to the party
24:37get naked together and if you did first
24:41the first one this one sometimes will
24:43just come naturally organically because
24:47others might empathize with what you're
24:50going through or what you're thinking or
24:52probably it's a mentor you know that is
24:54just sees you and probably wants to help
24:57and you also soon realize that these
25:01people have a lot of experience and
25:02their masters in the field you realize
25:04that there they have fears too and they
25:08have fear in the right - and the last
25:13last but not least just be kind to
25:16yourself you know and during this
25:20process it's really car is really easy
25:22to beat yourself up it's a little bit
25:26hard for me to be kind of to myself but
25:29uh you got to do it you know and you
25:31have to learn to come to peace with
25:33yourself and someone that is really
25:36important to me told me you got to treat
25:41yourself how you will treat a friend
25:44treat yourself that's it gracias thank
25:48[Applause]
26:01hi everyone I'm going to steal this
26:04little handheld thing from Pablo oh yes
26:07yeah cool hey how's everyone doing uh
26:14what's up so my name is Robin canner
26:20I've lived in a lot of different places
26:22but I'm from Fairfield Maine USA it's a
26:25cool little small little town if you're
26:27queer and cool with it want to raise
26:29your hand for a second yeah that rules
26:32what's up this talks for you and
26:33everybody else
26:35hi so I want to tell you a story about a
26:40girl that I knew who grew up on the
26:41Internet the internet was her favorite
26:44space in the entire world it's like
26:46where she like learned how to carve out
26:47her space as a human being and it's not
26:49like she wasn't able to do that in real
26:51life just like it was always removed a
26:53little bit so she found herself on the
26:54internet a ton and she actually learned
26:57the majority of her womanhood on the
26:58Internet right so like she learned how
27:00to like deal with weird like
27:02interactions in the supermarket on the
27:03Internet
27:04she learned how to like figure out what
27:05like hormones her body needed so how to
27:07take spiro or like what sticking an
27:10estrogen needle at her life would be
27:11like so she learned all this stuff on
27:13the Internet at a really young age of
27:15course there was like nothing wrong with
27:17her being a girl I'm sure like some of
27:19you are women here too and but like the
27:22problem is is when she told people that
27:23she was a girl wasn't really met with a
27:25ton of joy right and because of that she
27:28had to disassociate when she
27:30disassociated like it created a bunch of
27:32weird things in her life and she was
27:34like well if I can't be a girl then
27:36maybe I'll just drink or do drugs but
27:38just pretty young so it's a bad idea so
27:40she's like no no maybe like love will
27:42solve this right like I could just fall
27:44in love with somebody it would be so
27:45great to like have them cure all the
27:47stuff for me but then that didn't work
27:49either so she finally went back to the
27:51Internet and she was like what do I do
27:54and the internet was like no problem I
27:55answered this question before and they
27:57gave her two options the first option
27:59was that she could like just black out
28:02like kind of put it in the back burner
28:03deal with it at a later date right and
28:05the second option was as she could bail
28:07and go to like New York or San Francisco
28:09she was in rural America and she was
28:11like 15
28:12there was no way she was about to like
28:13leave her home and life right she
28:16blacked out um the thing about blacking
28:19out is like it can be not the healthiest
28:22decision right and as you like you know
28:24work you this you have to develop these
28:26things called coping mechanisms to work
28:27through your blackout so again she
28:30started drinking which she started doing
28:31drugs should working through all these
28:32really hard things and she was doing it
28:34all alone which like left her feeling
28:36really conflicted about the whole world
28:38eventually though she got stubborn and
28:41when she got stubborn she was able to
28:43get what she needed and the more
28:45stubborn she was able to be the more
28:47like she started taking like more risks
28:49as their identity the more like she
28:50wasn't willing to make compromises with
28:52herself she got access now the cool
28:55story thing about that story is it's
28:57about me and I'm here because I made
29:00this I called my trans self my trans
29:02health is a resource designed to help
29:04trans people get access to quality
29:05health care basically like our whole
29:08thing is that trans and gender
29:09non-conforming people deserve culturally
29:11competent health care as like all of you
29:13do who aren't trans here too right and
29:15so it was pretty basic like core human
29:18concept and we launched this site by
29:21basically doing like a Kickstarter slash
29:23YouTube video and it was just me talking
29:25about my own experience that I just
29:26shared with you and basically how I
29:28heard from therapists over and over
29:30again that like they didn't have the
29:31tools for me which is what it's sherry
29:33chitti therapist would tell you but we
29:36also put like nine other trans people
29:37and like a camera setting and like they
29:40said the similar thing so we kind of
29:42thought that we had like a concept that
29:43might be able to drive home we could
29:45figure out like how to get resources for
29:47this thing um and once we like got
29:49Kickstarter materials righted together
29:50we were like okay this is good but our
29:53designer is going to care about this do
29:54I give a what designers think like
29:56am I only care about like the people
29:58that I'm affecting and it but I wonder
29:59if you got a way to get like a cultural
30:01conversation around trans healthcare to
30:03happen and we decided to do something a
30:06pretty unique and that we launched the
30:09week Caitlyn Jenner came out now like I
30:12have the most complicated feelings about
30:14her in this entire world probably more
30:15than most folks here but there was
30:18something about it though like she gave
30:20us space to steal her spotlight and when
30:24it came to like so many DIY
30:26things happening in the trans world at
30:27that time like resources were so limited
30:30and it was so difficult to even get a
30:31seat at the table so with her sort of
30:33leverage we took this idea that TKE
30:35milan had and he gave this talk out like
30:37a filly trans health conference and he
30:39basically said like you got a kanye this
30:41moment and i was like holy dude
30:43you're right that's cool I love Kanye so
30:47he got on stage right and he was like
30:49Caitlin imma let you finish but 19 of us
30:5390% of us of experienced abuse for our
30:55own families like it can be weird to
30:57parse out data right but like 19% of an
31:00entire community had experienced mental
31:02and physical abuse from their own
31:03families that's up Caitlin I'm
31:06gonna let you finish but 41 percent of
31:08us have tried to kill ourselves also not
31:10a good stat like this is not like it's
31:12just a really complicated thing right
31:14and we're cool that Caitlin was able to
31:16transition and get her things that she
31:17needed like that's rad but there's a
31:19cultural conversation happening with
31:21entire community and it's not being met
31:23under this umbrella of just like a rich
31:25white old woman transitioning and then
31:28for us in particular Caitlin imma let
31:30you finish but we still need
31:31access quality health care
31:39the press ate this up that was cool
31:44right like I was just like holy
31:46this thing's working that's cool I was a
31:49freelancer at the time like barely
31:50getting by and I was like wow
31:52Business Insider just called me
31:53brilliant that's a weird feeling and
31:55with every sort of press came with like
31:58pieces being like well tell me about a
32:00story of your life right like they
32:01couldn't just cover the product like the
32:03you'd cover a weather app like they
32:04wanted to pry a piece out of me for it
32:06so I couldn't ever get press for free
32:08without them taking a piece of me and I
32:10gave it all to them right because I
32:11didn't know what I was doing I was just
32:12like well you can have all these stories
32:13like every single one of them you get
32:15them all but the problem with that was I
32:17wasn't like done working through any of
32:19them so my misery basically became a
32:21sight to see for people to consume and I
32:24was still working through it so what I'm
32:25going on like these interviews with
32:27publications and I'm talking about like
32:29the time that I tried to kill myself or
32:30the time that I was actually assaulted
32:31or the time that I couldn't get access
32:33to hormones and just like was barely
32:34getting by I was just giving those
32:36stories away for free and I hadn't even
32:38gone to therapy to deal with it and
32:40moreover like there's an entire
32:42population of designers and people who
32:44are like who are so obsessed
32:45with coming up with the most witty and
32:47inclusive restroom sign when I can't
32:49even think about a more useless problem
32:51to solve in the trans community and like
32:54let's be real about this it's going to
32:55take a lot more than a new icon to save
32:57trans lives and moreover like I feel so
33:00fragile about this entire community like
33:02the entire community built on trust it's
33:04built on like making sure you deliver
33:06the right thing in the right way it's
33:07making sure that like it's not too
33:09corporate there's all these like sort of
33:11breaks within the community right and I
33:13know no I know it's fragile right and
33:15I'm still dealing with my own I
33:16freaked out like there was no way for me
33:20to possibly design this thing as well as
33:22I wanted to knowing what was going on in
33:24my life and like as the press kind of
33:27died down as I calmed through I started
33:30to do two different things to help me
33:31work through it the first is I
33:32volunteered for a suicide hotline trans
33:34lifeline does fantastic work that great
33:37and I was able to talk to tons of trans
33:40people throughout the months that I
33:41worked on this product about the stuff
33:42that they were going through one night
33:44in particular I took a call from a 14
33:46year old in Iowa like rural Iowa it was
33:48like I'm a trans girl and I can't get
33:50anything and I could feel the panic
33:52their breath like I felt it so deep
33:54within me because it was a panic that I
33:55knew and I was like no no it's cool it's
33:57cool like I'll just Google some stuff
33:59for you and we'll figure out like a
34:00therapist that will talk to you and like
34:02it was like that was the site working
34:05just in a very analog way and I was like
34:06okay well that's working but like there
34:08was a panic in their voice so whatever I
34:10designed it has to be cool and calm I
34:12can't bum you out can't make you feel
34:13bad about being trans I kind of just
34:15like to make sure that you're
34:16comfortable and like maybe even a little
34:18excited about doing this thing the
34:20second thing is I told you guys I was
34:21broke um I was cam Gerling well I made
34:24this site like it was before I got
34:26scooped it by big tech I was just kind
34:28of like making it through so at nights I
34:31would basically cam and like hook up
34:33like with men and just get paid to do
34:35that while I was designing the site
34:38the cool thing about that experience is
34:40that like if you want to get like into
34:42user research for like this product this
34:44is where it's at like there are trans
34:48girls in this community and they're
34:49dealing with real-life they do not
34:51have a ton of resources and like they'll
34:53tell you exactly what's working what's
34:55not working in a very quick and clear
34:56way and it was like at the point where I
34:58had to get working prototype and I was
35:00just like I feel really smooth about
35:01this UI right like this thing looks cool
35:04and I sent it over to one of the cam
35:05girls I was like hey tell me what you
35:07think and she was like looks cool too
35:09slow gotta go by like she was looking to
35:12get paid and I was like yeah get
35:14yours but like in the process I was like
35:17whoa I need to make sure that this site
35:19is fast so I can like bog you down and a
35:21question into questioning question I had
35:23to get you in and get you out so you got
35:25what you needed you're able to go on
35:26with your life so coupling that idea of
35:29like delight with speed I got obsessed
35:32with the design and I stopped thinking
35:34about my own personal I just let it
35:36go and put it in the background and the
35:37more I let go the more I was able to do
35:39stuff like this so starting with user
35:41research just tackling that played with
35:43the UX cui the interface I figure out
35:45you know all the complicated bits that
35:47come with designing any product right
35:49and a cool thing happened a few months
35:52later we looked up what we had a site
35:53we're in six locations right now with
35:56450 providers including San Francisco by
35:59the end of like this month slash early
36:01next month we'll be with this new set
36:03design and we'll have a
36:05providers in 20 locations a good thing
36:07too is it won't be just coastal so like
36:09we went to Evansville Indiana we talked
36:11to people about how they do like trans
36:13health care so we're really excited
36:15about that
36:16and we thought good like it was just
36:18like holy like this is awesome no
36:24it was like we were writing the super
36:27high mountain and then I was just
36:28getting punched in the face it's screwed
36:30up everything and it was weird because
36:33like I didn't know what to do right it
36:35was just like well this site is good but
36:37not that great like we're dealing with
36:38an entire government and I started to
36:41think about like just like everything
36:43that was happening and I was one day I
36:44was like kind of leaving to go to work
36:46and I had my hand on like a door knob
36:48and I was getting ready to leave my
36:49apartment and I heard like the people
36:52like and like I live on like one of
36:54those hotel buildings there's a lot of
36:55different complexes in the space and I
36:57heard this couple fighting like really
36:59funny going at it and she's like
37:01screaming at the sky being like I can't
37:03believe you cheated on me I
37:05couldn't believe like you hurt me and
37:07she's crying like losing her mind crying
37:10crying and I sat there and I was just
37:13listening to it at first I wasn't
37:14sitting to make sure that she was okay
37:15but then I just found myself listening
37:18because I really is that like I hadn't
37:20felt that like in a real way like I was
37:23it wasn't that I was like envious of her
37:24hurt like her hurt but I was envious
37:27that she was able to be hurt like at
37:29some point in her life she learned to be
37:31vulnerable enough in a relationship to
37:33be hurt and this guy screwed her over
37:35and that sucks but she felt it and it
37:37was so real and I started to think about
37:40the kids who are going to transition
37:41right now during this administration
37:43beyond just my trans health right like
37:45what about the kids in like the lessons
37:47that learning from community right now
37:48about how they grow up like what lingers
37:51because the stuff that I went through
37:52still kind of in the back of my head
37:54like I worked through a lot of it but
37:55it's kicking in there so all this
37:57cultural conversation around bathrooms
37:59that doesn't just go away that continues
38:01and stays with them which is complicated
38:03because like we'll be over this issue in
38:06a few months but that will linger with
38:08them for the rest of their lives
38:09and we got to be better so here's how we
38:13do that it's a fun little segment that I
38:15like to call how to show the up
38:17and it's a 5-part er the first is to be
38:21a micro designer and so the people in
38:23this room you're all very good at what
38:24you do right trans people are also
38:26really good at what we do and when it
38:28comes to this stuff we have like a lot
38:30of thoughts a lot of ideas and a lot of
38:31like projects that we want to work on to
38:33help our own community that big macro
38:35vision stuff the concept the direction
38:37that influence that's on us we can do
38:39that but when it comes down to
38:41resourcing we might need some help at
38:43times and so if you do run into somebody
38:46who's working on something and like
38:47could use some help like doing some data
38:49entry or like whatever it is be that
38:51person just show up and be like oh no
38:52it's cool like I got 10 extra hours it's
38:54fine like we'll help you out and get to
38:55that to be a micro designer too you can
38:59just give your money to people like
39:01that's kind of like a cool thing right
39:03um so transgender Law Center trans women
39:05of color collective and trans lifeline
39:07they all do such good work in the
39:09community and like they just need
39:11resources to keep it up so give your
39:13money to people youhad the internet
39:14Google these people um the third thing
39:18despite like all of our wishes in this
39:20whole world
39:21elected officials actually don't give a
39:22 about our feelings but what they do
39:24give a about is our vote so call
39:27them let them know this is your state
39:29governor in California you can call them
39:30today and be like hey just want to let
39:32you know you don't get my vote next time
39:34unless you show for trans kids for trans
39:37youth for trans women poor trans men
39:38like you just don't get it that's going
39:41to get their attention that will get
39:42them to do things number for diversity
39:45in tech lol um diversity in tech matters
39:50I'm with you I'm there but what really
39:52matters is never seen leadership like if
39:54you're hiring a bunch and turns out like
39:56good for you like that's awesome but are
39:58those interns and leadership meetings
39:59where decisions get made because that's
40:01where that voice really matters so
40:09so for sure hire diverse people I am
40:11100% with you but when somebody calls
40:14you out when you put them in the room
40:15you listen to every word that
40:16they say number five this is a three
40:19parter give all your money to latina
40:21trans women all of it everything you own
40:27give all your money to brown trans women
40:29you can split this up there's a lot of
40:31people here it's Chell give all your
40:35money to black trans woman if you look
40:37at the history of any sort of resistance
40:40across any year whatsoever it comes down
40:43to trans women of color like that is
40:45where every core idea comes out
40:47of you look at the work of sylvia rivera
40:49look at the work of Marsha P Johnson
40:51even contemporaries now like Laverne Cox
40:53or Janet mock these are the people that
40:55are putting in the work right so them so
40:58like I can stand up here as like a white
41:00trans girl and talk about my trans
41:01health um for sure it's a good thing but
41:03that doesn't that whole project does not
41:05exist for that equal on it does not
41:07exist without Janet maka does not exist
41:09out all these people so give all your
41:11money to them Thanks
41:14[Applause]
41:32my mic on high so as you know this is an
41:37independent design event this is
41:38something that Gabe that Julio and I
41:41came together and built but we couldn't
41:43build it by ourselves we needed
41:45companies who believed in our values and
41:48wanted to support them to give their
41:49money to us to make this event happen so
41:52I want to recognize figma as one of our
41:55best sponsors tonight pick my team where
41:57you at I know you're here pigma made
42:05sense to support vectors because they're
42:08building a platform that's mostly free
42:10that's browser-based device agnostic
42:13that helps designers design for free I
42:17don't know if any of you remember the
42:18days where we paid like 1500 bucks for a
42:21license to a piece of software that
42:22determined our industry that determine
42:25our jobs and we're in a new era where
42:28that's that's not how tools work tools
42:31are democratic and when you make tools
42:33accessible to people people get to build
42:35and when you get to build as a Mexican
42:38woman as a Cuban guy of any color height
42:43interest sexuality race location
42:47language that means something so I want
42:51to please give a round of applause to
42:52figma for helping us make this possible
42:58and I hope you check out their awesome
43:02platform in the future hello hi are you
43:19guys doing can do better than that
43:24alright hi so my name is Alex Valdivia
43:37I'm an interaction designer at blogger
43:40everyday I help people tell their
43:44stories all over the world their unique
43:46stories in their unique voice and today
43:48I'm really really excited to be the one
43:50who gets to share some of my story with
43:52you guys so thank you so much for
43:55allowing me to do this it's going to be
43:56really tough to follow this first people
44:00went before me that was really awesome
44:02before we get started though since we're
44:06already clapping for people let's let's
44:08clap again for all these people who put
44:10this conference together I think it is
44:12awesome alright enough about them about
44:20me so I'm just gonna tell you a story
44:24this I'm just gonna tell them my story
44:26hope that you guys can make something
44:29out of it so this is a story about chaos
44:32not sorting through chaos or
44:35decluttering it but about embracing it
44:40so let's start with a word about style
44:45this was a recurring theme during
44:47college or rather the lack of it lack of
44:50style professors everywhere kept
44:54repeating that designers are not
44:55supposed to have a style we are supposed
44:59to be this stoic impartial
45:04problem-solving machines and we're
45:07supposed to take ourselves out of the
45:09equation to solve the problems of the
45:11companies that were
45:11presenting um I always had a problem
45:16with this I thought it was obtuse and a
45:18little bit more mediocre I still do
45:21I saw the lines between an artist and a
45:24designer and an illustrator and an
45:27engineer blurring all the time so when I
45:32heard this in college this was super
45:34confusing it was problematic see
45:36illustrators and artists they spend
45:38years trying to develop a style and
45:41we're supposed to get rid of ours so I'm
45:44a designer but I'm also a musician I'm
45:47an illustrator and every now and then I
45:50even call myself an artist so you see my
45:53problem with this I'm nothing but style
46:01so I'm the son of a doctor and an
46:05accountant I was born in communist Cuba
46:08in the 1980s
46:11if you don't know if you don't know
46:15anything about communist Cuba you should
46:17know this they have a lot of rules very
46:19strict rules over there everything in
46:22communism is made up of rules and
46:24straight lines these societies they need
46:28people to follow the rules in order to
46:29keep existing so they go to really great
46:32lengths to get them to stay compliant as
46:36you can probably imagine this doesn't
46:37leave a lot of room for style or for
46:40diversity my father he was forming in
46:45communist Cuba and very much subscribed
46:48to the ideology at the time he had very
46:51well-defined ideas of what a person
46:55should be the person who would leave and
46:58lead this society that they were trying
47:00to build so he made every conceivable
47:04effort to raise me and my brother in
47:07accordance to these ideas in fact most
47:09people had a really clear idea of who
47:11they would be and what they would become
47:14identity was deeply linked into not only
47:19your self-worth but your worth as a
47:21member of that society so once you found
47:25the calling you
47:25stuck with it so during the early years
47:28of my childhood I was very much a
47:31product of this environment I learned
47:33the songs I wore the uniforms I repeated
47:36the mantras and I thought the world was
47:39this set of boxes that everything and
47:42everyone would eventually fit in until I
47:46turned ten and my family seemingly I
47:50don't know where at least from my
47:51perspective as a ten year old they just
47:54decided to pack everything and uproot my
47:56family and move to the very very
47:58capitalistic Republic of Costa Rica if
48:03you don't know anything about Costa Rica
48:04you should know this it's just like the
48:07United States but smaller I'm with a lot
48:10more fresh fruit so this is how I became
48:15a immigrant at the age of them so you
48:18may be thinking at this point big deal
48:20everybody has a story to tell in
48:21California and the United States in the
48:23world there's a lot of immigrants and
48:26they all go through hardships so first
48:30of all this is my story and the only one
48:32I have so deal with it but I submit to
48:36you that the set of circumstances that
48:39led to my particular migration of what
48:41came afterwards might be interesting to
48:44you and you might be able to solve this
48:48problem about style with this chaos so
48:53mine wasn't a really difficult migration
48:57relatively speaking I didn't have to
48:59scape in a raft or anything like that
49:02there was no drama I just got on a plane
49:05I moved easy right but what I didn't
49:09know was that right at that point I was
49:11I was about to enter enter a world of
49:13absolute chaos that would become deeply
49:16embedded in my identity and ultimately a
49:19main source for creativity so becoming
49:23an immigrant right off the bat made me
49:27learn a valuable lesson there are
49:29multiple ways to look at things this is
49:33easy to say but I had to leave it and
49:35make it part of myself so it's because
49:39of this that I
49:40try to see problems from multiple
49:42perspectives and consider multiple
49:44points of view without kind of fixating
49:46on my own this became so ingrained into
49:49Who I am that it kind of helped me be
49:53more at peace with the world I'm with my
49:55choices but to get there with me I might
49:59need you to understand something
50:00my family's core values the things that
50:03made us who we were there were often
50:05times the exact opposite to Costa Rican
50:08values and by extension most
50:11capitalistic societies while communist
50:14Cuba value the rights and dignities of
50:16the community you know there's no
50:19private property the needs of the many
50:21outweigh the needs of the few capitalist
50:24Costa Rica value those of the individual
50:27over everything else
50:28there are several profit models you take
50:31care of yourself on yours and everything
50:32else will follow
50:34so by sheer experimentation I learned
50:39that it's precisely going from one
50:41extreme to the other that kind of makes
50:44up your social political aesthetic and
50:47philosophical views which is by the way
50:49pretty much everything on that under
50:51that design considerations umbrella so I
50:55learned to live with this with this
50:56conflict and eventually I learned to
51:00thrive with it being a ten year old
51:03individual and after passing out from
51:05drinking soda eating candy and watching
51:07Power Rangers which were all new things
51:09to me this move felt like an upgrade
51:12most of the time but also felt like a
51:16rejection of most of my previous life
51:19and thus a part of myself an important
51:21part of myself you see when you leave
51:25Cuba at least back then you were not
51:27simply calling a new place home and
51:30dealing with the challenges of that new
51:32adventure you were also losing your
51:35status as a citizen your material
51:37possessions your house your bike and
51:40we're effectively committing a very
51:42modest act of treason seeing our
51:45grandparents or friends again it was a
51:47bit of a naive dream it wasn't supposed
51:49to happen
51:50in fact I would never again
51:53visit cuba without feeling like a
51:55foreigner myself like a stranger in my
51:57own country so while this bucket of
52:00chaos was brewing in fact because of it
52:03I was about to start developing an
52:05identity as a person points of views
52:08abilities affinities that were very much
52:11permeated by the journey I was already
52:12in I developed a passion for music for
52:16literature art and went on and
52:18never-ending quest for beauty eventually
52:22I did search withing enough to see
52:24myself as all of those things a painter
52:27a musician and all trees all glowing
52:29pillars of the society I had left behind
52:32but I ignite over the conflict of
52:36wanting a hefty paycheck as I grew up I
52:40had to come to terms with wanting to be
52:42an artist and having enough money not
52:44only to pay for rent that was the thing
52:46but also to make my whole journey worth
52:48it the journey that my whole family was
52:51going through into this new place so I
52:54wanted to solve real problems tangible
52:56problems material problems problems that
52:58were mostly relevant to this new society
53:02took me a while to detangle this mess in
53:07a way I'm still kind of working on it
53:10but now I can make more sense of it
53:12growing up I struggle trying to find my
53:16calling and trying to follow any given
53:19path to the end this was not only me by
53:21the way my whole family was going
53:23through this my father for example he
53:27had his own dosage of chaos he was a
53:29doctor in communist Cuba and all of the
53:32sudden he had to come to terms with
53:34privatised medicine Social Security
53:37payments pharmaceuticals lobbying
53:39doctors and treating them as clients
53:41it was crazy for him he had to really
53:45find not only who he was as a person but
53:48who he was as a professional in the most
53:49fundamental levels like if a person
53:51comes to you for help like real
53:54life-and-death help and you're the only
53:57person who can help them I mean on top
53:58of that you charge them does that make
54:01you a good person is that okay these are
54:05the kind of questions we were dealing
54:06with
54:07later in life we decided to move back to
54:11not back we decided to move to the
54:13States and I found myself in college
54:18trying to learn everything I could about
54:19graphic design I saw the design as a
54:22destination in this journey I was in
54:25this path of confusion and conflict ever
54:28since I was 10 so this was a big deal I
54:30had lived in a world of extremes and
54:33bounced back between them between two
54:36different ways to look at life right
54:38this led me to study music and later
54:40seek a career as a fine artist then
54:43another one in advertising and then
54:45later reject all of them to a degree in
54:49favor of design it wasn't until I saw
54:53the work of people like David Carson or
54:55James Victoria who combined
54:57problem-solving abilities with their
54:58unique ways to see the world and even
55:01their venture out into their own side
55:03projects shamelessly that I understood
55:06design as this perfect amalgamation of
55:10aesthetics and altruism and objective
55:13prose solving so everything that was
55:17unique about my story you know I contact
55:19the constant pool between left and right
55:22the shifting values of these societies
55:24the identity crisis that my whole family
55:27has navigated while traveling to the
55:31American continent were also the things
55:33that made me me it was because of this
55:38story my story that I decided to use my
55:42own confusion my personal chaos has a
55:44superpower and channeled it into my work
55:46just like my father had to redefine who
55:50he was in the face of a different
55:51reality I embraced my own kind of bit of
55:54a testament of who I was now this is not
55:59the void or conflict in itself like
56:02everybody here today I will I'm gonna
56:06have to wrestle with this question if
56:08you have superpowers and you decide to
56:09use them are you the hero or the villain
56:12but maybe that's a different talk so I
56:16can I can help to go back but but go
56:19back to the wire right
56:20why should you care about this this is
56:22my chaos and mine alone you all are
56:25different people with different stories
56:27and different outlooks and a different
56:30set of values and at the end at
56:32different chaos but maybe that's the
56:35point
56:35you have your own chaos so you should
56:37find your own way to use it if you walk
56:41out of here with anything let it be this
56:43chances are that you're not an immigrant
56:45or disabled or an artist or a minority
56:50but I assure you you have your chaos so
56:53I invite you to find what's unique about
56:55your story how do you get here and start
56:57using that as your own superpower these
57:00little boxes that we create for
57:01ourselves
57:02one always makes sense so you show you
57:06this these powers to step outside of
57:08them you are the sum of your choices the
57:12choices of your parents the environment
57:15have formed you and more importantly all
57:17the lessons that you learn from it as
57:19designers as creators help as human
57:22beings this is our style and not
57:25bringing it into our world and into our
57:27work might might be responsible but at
57:30the end of the day I think it's
57:31impossible so don't take yourself out of
57:35the equation chase your style hone your
57:38style and own it so in a world where
57:42we're supposed to always give the best
57:43of ourselves all the time we should be
57:46able to own the best of ourselves even
57:49when that's pure unadulterated
57:51unapologetic all chaos thank you
57:56[Applause]
58:49[Applause]
58:58all right so you guys waiting so far
59:03cool
59:05nothing has broke it so we're good so
59:11for the next half hour I figure we kind
59:14of chat I have some of my favorite
59:18designers here I'm a fan of all you guys
59:21individually but as a group this feels
59:23like the Avengers of the time panel also
59:24pretty excited about that yeah
59:31so some of you guys not might might not
59:35know them so I figured maybe we can go
59:37real quickly say your name your role and
59:39maybe the weirdest thing you've ate
59:42recently you ate recently Kathy you
59:47wanna start hello
59:53hi okay hi my name is Kathy um I am a
59:59product designer at Instagram oh okay I
01:00:07also do a lot of work at Facebook at the
01:00:10interlock research lab that's where we
01:00:12create a lot of our posters and it's
01:00:15just like a lot of internal culture
01:00:18initiatives are being like you know
01:00:20initiated there and so I'll show you
01:00:23some of the work later on but the
01:00:25weirdest thing I ate um not sure that
01:00:34make something fun I'll come back to
01:00:36that howdy
01:00:38I'm Dana Lawson I'm the VP of
01:00:41engineering at envision I'm the only non
01:00:44designer up here oh cool I'm the one
01:00:47that y'all get mad at when
01:00:48like no you can't do that that's
01:00:51probably not gonna happen it's cool
01:00:54though but probably not gonna happen I'm
01:00:57that person um you know I have the
01:01:02beautiful opportunity of getting to work
01:01:03with designers at work in a vision and
01:01:05we're super I'm super honored to be here
01:01:07to be able to talk to y'all and be with
01:01:08this awesome panel weirdest thing I've
01:01:10eaten I'm gonna have to say 2:00 a.m.
01:01:13jack-in-the-box tacos it's pretty weird
01:01:16don't do it they're gross I remember
01:01:20what she ate recently chili mangos hmm
01:01:24yeah it's good let's say weird yeah
01:01:27interesting
01:01:28was it a mango it was like with chili
01:01:31components or was it a chili with mingi
01:01:32it's like dried mango was chili that was
01:01:35really good
01:01:36interesting interesting well I'm
01:01:38Shaquille gyasi I'm currently a senior
01:01:40product designer at Google my work on VR
01:01:43on the day dream team been there for
01:01:45about six months or so it's interesting
01:01:48coming from 2d and designing for a VRS
01:01:50of really interesting transition getting
01:01:53to design in a 3d space so I get to be
01:01:55an interior designer sometimes it feels
01:01:56good
01:01:58weirdest thing I've eaten it's either a
01:02:02tie between
01:02:03so I grew up in the Midwest the context
01:02:05and it seemed everybody ate Mayo and
01:02:09fries which is like really odd but it's
01:02:12delicious
01:02:12so those weird Beatles good and then the
01:02:16most recent weird thing I've eaten I
01:02:18just can't get used to it and everybody
01:02:20loves it is kale I can't it just feels
01:02:25really weird to like tickles your mouth
01:02:27and he's just really straight yeah I
01:02:28can't do hi everyone
01:02:33so I'm also not a designer my name is
01:02:36Sheryl Chang I'm one of the general
01:02:37partners at an early stage venture firm
01:02:39called blue run ventures um in a
01:02:42previous life and I used to do new
01:02:45products for Clorox and Procter & Gamble
01:02:47so not on the design side but much more
01:02:50on the consumer insight side and now
01:02:52probably more reviled than you is me in
01:02:56my role as an investor because we're
01:02:59very bottom line driven right
01:03:00at every meeting we're asking you know
01:03:02what are the results what are the
01:03:03results so let's see the strangest thing
01:03:06I ate recently was the Mother's Day
01:03:09breakfast that my children cooked for me
01:03:13and I still don't know what I ate but it
01:03:17is a cure I didn't ask I just ate it and
01:03:20then I went back to bed yes it came from
01:03:25the heart though so what can I commit it
01:03:28well my name is Justin de Walker I'm a
01:03:31graphic designer by trade but I a few
01:03:33years ago chucked it all and put my good
01:03:36government job with my corner office in
01:03:39a window and indoor heated parking and I
01:03:43decided to go to graduate school I got
01:03:45an offer from the Ohio State University
01:03:47and I just finished doing my research
01:03:50work with looking at diversity in design
01:03:53disciplines I also own and operate
01:03:55design education business name design
01:03:58explore we offer youth activities
01:04:01consulting with clients and we also have
01:04:03an amazing website that we're trying to
01:04:05build out and I also have the
01:04:07opportunity of being the chair of AIGA
01:04:10diversity and inclusion task force for
01:04:12the national level so I work very
01:04:14closely with 72 chapters nationwide and
01:04:1727,000 members that's kinda what I do oh
01:04:20and the weirdest thing one time there's
01:04:24one time I was in New Orleans and um I
01:04:28ate something called a gator kebab it
01:04:32tastes like sausage
01:04:35great awesome cool so this fellow's cool
01:04:40on tap potential and figured we can get
01:04:43together and talk about the D word right
01:04:45not that one but diversity so yeah
01:04:52diversity so some people might think
01:04:54that there is an archetype for the right
01:04:57designer a worker right then that person
01:04:59might look a certain way they might act
01:05:01a certain way so I'm curious why why is
01:05:04it important to challenge that archetype
01:05:09stereotypes are never good I mean we
01:05:12wouldn't ask creatives when we come up
01:05:13with personas and archetypes we're
01:05:17really talking about stereotypes in a
01:05:21very covert creative manner we're really
01:05:25talking about these stereotypes so what
01:05:27happens if what you perceive as happy
01:05:33really isn't my happy so you again have
01:05:36used your bias in a manner that's going
01:05:40to influence the rest of us so I
01:05:42understand we do it and I understand why
01:05:45but there's really some care there's I
01:05:48love the last presenter who talked about
01:05:50using you know your super powers for
01:05:52good and so what are you going to do now
01:05:54that you know this so kind of add on to
01:05:58that I don't know where I saw it back
01:06:01when I had actually had cable I saw this
01:06:04piece about there is this guy from
01:06:06Britain and he would walk to people's
01:06:08houses and he would he would convince
01:06:10them that he was like an interior
01:06:11designer like some sort of like expert
01:06:13in something and they believed them they
01:06:15were just like going through their
01:06:16housing and make these recommendations
01:06:17then there'd be like this reveal that oh
01:06:19actually I'm not an interior designer or
01:06:21whatever I'm just some random guy who
01:06:23just like let me in your house so but
01:06:26there was this added perception of
01:06:28because I have like a British accent I'm
01:06:31like really good at like this like thing
01:06:32I think there's really interesting kind
01:06:35of like reverse a kind of directive
01:06:37there about if it was like me I walked
01:06:40up to your house like would you believe
01:06:41me like would you let me in your house
01:06:42so it's just interesting like when we
01:06:44challenged or like when we present these
01:06:46these commonplace archetypes they can
01:06:50manifest in like very negative ways
01:06:52especially like when random black people
01:06:54show up at your door
01:06:54like how do you treat that person right
01:06:56you don't expect them to be like an
01:06:58expert in design like an expert in code
01:07:00so I think it's really interesting to
01:07:02start challenging that stuff now but I
01:07:04think you have to do it across multiple
01:07:06industries including Hollywood because
01:07:08they are one of the main reinforcers of
01:07:10those things so my industry is probably
01:07:16one of the least diverse industries in
01:07:19tech and you know we do what we can but
01:07:23I think one of the reasons why diversity
01:07:24is important to me both from a design
01:07:28perspective is just as well as just as
01:07:30an investor's because human beings have
01:07:33natural biases and they draw from our
01:07:36past it's not a good thing or a bad
01:07:38thing they're just naturally there and
01:07:39so when you see a problem where you see
01:07:42an opportunity you see it through a
01:07:44different lens and unless you have
01:07:45diversity on your team be designing a
01:07:48problem or a product for a problem or
01:07:51making a decision whether you're going
01:07:53to invest millions of dollars you have
01:07:55to be able to approach it from multiple
01:07:57perspectives and when you don't you end
01:07:59up as a team collectively because you're
01:08:03all individually sort of the same from
01:08:05maybe the same stereotype making the
01:08:07same decisions over and over again and
01:08:09sometimes those are good but oftentimes
01:08:11you'll also make the same mistakes over
01:08:13and over again and over time it can be
01:08:16very toxic so to me that's one of the
01:08:19things that I think is really important
01:08:22to avoid as much as possible and you
01:08:25know - one of the speaker's earlier it's
01:08:27important at the decision-making level
01:08:29um not just from the creative level or
01:08:32you know everybody who's doing the work
01:08:34but the people who get the final say
01:08:36right is there diversity in thought at
01:08:38that point and that's where I think we
01:08:41have a little bit of a chokehold right
01:08:43now so ya know that sounds great sounds
01:08:46almost obvious so I'm curious like what
01:08:50I think yeah like how do we get here
01:08:53like what you know if it makes so much
01:08:57sense in theory in practice why are we
01:09:00in an industry that is not diverse oh
01:09:04well I've been I've been doing this now
01:09:06almost 20 years believe it or not I know
01:09:07I look like I'm 27 but I think it's fear
01:09:12I think a lot of it's fear you know and
01:09:14a person once said to me very recently
01:09:17likes like likes likes likes it's this
01:09:20amazing principal engineer from Intel
01:09:23she's been like 25 years and she says
01:09:25the reason is is because you don't see
01:09:27people represented you don't see people
01:09:29up here like this you don't see
01:09:30conferences like there when you were a
01:09:31kid when I was a kid growing up on the
01:09:34border of Texas in southeast New Mexico
01:09:35you never heard about women in
01:09:37engineering you know there's like you're
01:09:38staying at home making babies like doing
01:09:41baby stuff and obviously have very high
01:09:45nurturing skills uh and I think that you
01:09:53know by having I think there's a fear in
01:09:55it because when you don't have that
01:09:56commonality to connect there's this fear
01:09:58that will you know just like the keys II
01:09:59was saying it's like you know some Rando
01:10:01showing up at your house you're like
01:10:02they can't do that so by having this it
01:10:04kind of breaks down those barriers and
01:10:05says you know what you can do what you
01:10:07want to do and having people that
01:10:08represent you shows that if they're
01:10:10doing it too then so can you and so I
01:10:13think a big portion of it is just people
01:10:16are scared they're scared of not being
01:10:18around people they're liking and the
01:10:20world is about not being around people
01:10:22you're like because we're shoved with
01:10:24this image of this is who you are this
01:10:26is what you represent this is how you're
01:10:27going to do it and if you have any kind
01:10:29of variance in that you're like oh I'm
01:10:32I'm stuck in this little box I've only
01:10:33doing this one particular thing arm and
01:10:35I'm outcast and not given that
01:10:37opportunity and I truly believe that
01:10:38that's been the reason for a long time
01:10:41is there hasn't been representation but
01:10:43there's not been a representation
01:10:44because there hasn't been a platform and
01:10:46there hasn't been a platform because
01:10:47people are scared but I don't know what
01:10:49are you guys and I also feel like you
01:10:51know in the past there hasn't been a lot
01:10:53of visibility so like like conferences
01:10:56like this never existed I remember you
01:10:58know like I've been in this industry for
01:11:00about 15 years just like you know like I
01:11:03see like why European guys like being
01:11:07represented in
01:11:08design publications when I was going to
01:11:10school and that's all I know like you
01:11:13know designers should be a certain way
01:11:15and then so like when I was first
01:11:17starting out I was feeling like really
01:11:19not confident as a designer and then
01:11:22also not being treated with a lot of
01:11:24respect just as women you know like
01:11:27coming from like I was born in Taiwan I
01:11:30don't speak at you know idea learn how
01:11:32to speak English until I got here so
01:11:34language has always been something you
01:11:36know I feel really insecure about even
01:11:39now I asked my wife to read my email for
01:11:41pick some ties because you guys are like
01:11:43I'm getting really good at it but
01:11:45there's something you always feel like
01:11:46oh I'm in competent or you're afraid to
01:11:49speak up and then so I think slowly I'm
01:11:52just so glad that you know we're being
01:11:54more visible like have opportunity to
01:11:57kind of help make conversation and just
01:11:59get together and share experiences it's
01:12:02really important just and I know you
01:12:05have some historical context that maybe
01:12:07you'll be helpful to share no no no I do
01:12:10tons of context tons of context I don't
01:12:12know are we going to go through the
01:12:14slides yes yes great great so doing this
01:12:19type of you know doing this type of
01:12:20research work means you have to really
01:12:22really get deep down in history so I'm
01:12:25about to really geek out so I don't want
01:12:28you guys to get scared okay don't be
01:12:31nervous cuz I got some real shakiness to
01:12:35tell y'all so I want to make sure that I
01:12:37stay on script but I just want to tell
01:12:40y'all this I'm so during my research of
01:12:42diversity and design disciplines I found
01:12:44that the lack of diversity unfolds with
01:12:47the beginning of john f kennedy's
01:12:48presidency after years of segregation
01:12:53and investigations of our racial
01:12:54inequalities JFK he begins conversations
01:12:57with many leaders and officials to get
01:12:59input and support for a civil for a bill
01:13:02about civil rights now a lot of people
01:13:05try to ask me and they say well do for
01:13:07lack of diversity of design it started
01:13:09from slavery right
01:13:15no diversity and design the lack of
01:13:19diversity and design did not come from
01:13:21slavery the reason that JFK's request
01:13:25for civil rights is so important is
01:13:27because we never had that request from
01:13:30the top there was never that request was
01:13:33always a request from as we like to say
01:13:35nowadays and in social justice work
01:13:37community activism grassroots you know
01:13:42these are code words from the bottom up
01:13:44and so when JFK started doing this he
01:13:46sent a ripple around the United States I
01:13:50mean this the world was watching us but
01:13:54on June 11 in 1963 the University of
01:13:57Alabama was forced to desegregate this
01:14:00was a big deal for JFK because he had
01:14:02been kind of tap dancing around the
01:14:04issue a little bit he was afraid to do
01:14:06it he didn't get great election numbers
01:14:09that people were concerned that if he
01:14:10was the one who brought it up are you
01:14:12going to get reelected and so he was
01:14:14tap-dancing around it but when he had to
01:14:16literally call the National Guard down
01:14:18the University of Alabama and tell
01:14:20George Wallace get the hell up out the
01:14:21way he had the confidence to come and
01:14:26make this announcement so he
01:14:27desegregated University of Alabama like
01:14:30let's just say 12:00 1:00 o'clock he was
01:14:32on on the television at 8:00 p.m. that
01:14:34night telling people this is what I'm
01:14:37about to do he asked Congress to think
01:14:41about creating and looking into what he
01:14:44called a moral crisis he announced that
01:14:48he was going to ask Congress to commit
01:14:51that it has not that has fully made this
01:14:54sent country possible that he wanted to
01:14:56be able to say in a bill legally that
01:15:01race had no right had no position in the
01:15:06way we were operating in government so
01:15:08after he makes this huge speech people
01:15:12are falling out people are nervous and
01:15:14it's he took a lot of heat he spends
01:15:17months going back and forth with the
01:15:19House and the Congress trying to get
01:15:22this bill passed finally in October
01:15:26Congress how the House passes the bill
01:15:30finally he's assassinated four weeks
01:15:35later
01:15:49after the death of Kennedy lyndon b
01:15:53johnson is sworn in he spends the next
01:15:56eight months with help from many leaders
01:15:58like Martin Luther King jr. and Whitney
01:16:00Young to get Kennedy's bills passed he
01:16:02they want to maintain his legacy here
01:16:04all right
01:16:05but in doing so he had to make a few
01:16:08concessions everybody knows what a
01:16:11concession is right raising hands yes a
01:16:13sacrifice you got to give something up
01:16:15you had to compromise so the bill wasn't
01:16:17going to actually have sex in it it was
01:16:19just going to say race but he had to
01:16:22concede with religion and he had to add
01:16:24sex he had to act so these are some
01:16:26types of things he did next slide and in
01:16:28june/july of to liken 1964 the civil
01:16:33rights bill was signed now after the
01:16:36signing minnie thought that the hard
01:16:37part was over but in reality the hard
01:16:40part was just beginning because many
01:16:42organizations and institution began to
01:16:44silently oppose the new law with
01:16:47policies specifically targeting the
01:16:49folks who were just awarded their civil
01:16:51liberties
01:16:52now once the institution one of the
01:16:54institutions and who had unfair policies
01:16:57and practices with the American
01:16:59Institute of Architects and in 1968
01:17:02Whitney Young address the AIA about
01:17:04their silence during this crisis and
01:17:08allowing this to continue to happen and
01:17:09in all actuality this is the first time
01:17:12we hear about the lack of diversity and
01:17:14design so we've been talking about this
01:17:16and asking about this since 1968 and we
01:17:19still have not made it now unfair
01:17:22policies and practices that result in
01:17:24differential access to goods services
01:17:27and opportunities of a society by race
01:17:30is called institutionalized racism and
01:17:33we see this a lot in healthcare housing
01:17:36education you name them now another big
01:17:41bite in the workforce when we talk about
01:17:43the history of components of this is the
01:17:46amount of people incarcerated you have
01:17:48to understand that over the last 40
01:17:50years the incarceration numbers have
01:17:52increased 300% the privatization of
01:17:55prisons have literally taken a hit in
01:17:58our population
01:18:01data indicates that one in every one out
01:18:05of every three black men one out of
01:18:07every six Latino men versus one out of
01:18:11every 17 white men are in prison right
01:18:13now the United States imprisons 25% of
01:18:17the world's population so we're only 5%
01:18:21of the entire world but we imprison 25%
01:18:25of the entire worlds population now
01:18:28Michelle Alexander writes a lot about
01:18:30this in her new book called the new Jim
01:18:33Crow
01:18:34now ramifications of the Civil Rights
01:18:37Act institutionalized racism and mass
01:18:40incarceration may have been seen
01:18:42throughout the design profession in the
01:18:45form of detrimental attitudes and
01:18:47education discriminatory hiring
01:18:49practices cultural and sensitivities and
01:18:52advertising and minimal diversity
01:18:54building initiatives so these are the
01:18:56things a thesis and four years of
01:18:59research work will get you to know
01:19:10so no that was a lot I know it was a lot
01:19:12but you wanted the history totally no
01:19:15that's great I guess now that we know
01:19:18this the question is like what do we do
01:19:20right and at all levels what do we do as
01:19:23employees as CEOs as designers who make
01:19:27products like really what what can we do
01:19:29and and what's available for us to take
01:19:32action one of the things that we have to
01:19:36really think about and this is something
01:19:38that we're working heavily with in AIGA
01:19:41is that we're beginning to look at the
01:19:43design journey because if we continue to
01:19:46think the lack of diversity exists is
01:19:48one problem we'll never solve it well we
01:19:51have to understand it and accept is that
01:19:53it's multiple problems along the journey
01:19:56so depending on where you fall is the
01:19:58problem that you're having so if you're
01:19:59in the beginning of your journey it
01:20:01might be access and exposure but if
01:20:03you're in the middle part it might have
01:20:05something to do with opportunity and if
01:20:07you're nearing the end which hopefully
01:20:09you'll come back and help in the
01:20:11beginning but if you're nearing the end
01:20:12that's going to really look like value
01:20:14you know that's what we started talking
01:20:15about this glass ceiling who's talked
01:20:16about management we talked about who's
01:20:18making these types of decisions so if we
01:20:21begin to think of it as a journey and
01:20:23problem-solving along the journey we may
01:20:26actually solve it
01:20:28kathan you've been involved with some
01:20:30semi activism right through your work
01:20:33yeah so I want to talk to you guys about
01:20:36some of the work I've done recently and
01:20:39and how it kind of relevant to working
01:20:44at Facebook too so I first I want to
01:20:48also just talk about like the importance
01:20:50of building company and culture because
01:20:52culture it culture is a set of values
01:20:55that's core to everything we create so
01:20:58it needs to reflect people within the
01:21:00company their voice and also the people
01:21:04that were building product for so it's
01:21:06really really important so that's one
01:21:09thing beyond doing product design work
01:21:11you know all the things you see later
01:21:13it's all like time I put in on the
01:21:14weekends and late nights it's something
01:21:16I feel really passionate about because I
01:21:18remember like you know just in my past
01:21:21experience being a comp
01:21:23means that didn't cultivate that kind of
01:21:25culture and make me fit feel really
01:21:27alienate so I want people who work at at
01:21:30Facebook and Instagram like even beyond
01:21:33that now being able to kind of like
01:21:35empower people and make them feel like
01:21:38comfortable and share their experience
01:21:42and just feel like you know they're
01:21:43accepted so we so yeah so we you know at
01:21:47Facebook we we use posters we love
01:21:49posters and and that's how we kind of
01:21:52like communicate and I remember when I
01:21:55first joined the company I met Ben Barry
01:21:57he was the founder of the analog
01:21:59research lab and I was very fortunate I
01:22:03got to talk to him he showed me around
01:22:05campus and I was surprised I was like
01:22:08wow anyone can just like put a poster on
01:22:10the wall and he said yeah if you want to
01:22:14have democracy you want to give people a
01:22:16voice you can't just say oh someone can
01:22:20put ugly art like no you can't do it or
01:22:22like your art is better than you know
01:22:24someone else's and that's kind of it you
01:22:26know sort of like the risk you run into
01:22:29but it's also the beauty of it so I
01:22:31that's every that's the advice I give to
01:22:35everyone now like when they first start
01:22:37working there it's like you don't need
01:22:39permission to do anything if you want to
01:22:41share your voice just like put something
01:22:43on the wall like even just like write a
01:22:45post and talk about it and then so that
01:22:47some of the things you see here like I
01:22:49teach classes at the interlock research
01:22:52lab I work with a lot of we have these
01:22:56employee resource groups at Facebook
01:22:59sort of black app pryaet women at so I
01:23:01do a lot of diversity kind of like
01:23:04design work with them and then so yeah
01:23:07so teaching people how to make their own
01:23:09posters and share their own message is
01:23:12very empowering and so these are just
01:23:15some pictures that you see like I've
01:23:17done over the years working with
01:23:19different teams at Facebook and we yeah
01:23:23the company culture topic
01:23:27I mean I'm curious like I know cheeky
01:23:29see you have some some thoughts to share
01:23:30here and maybe then we can expand it
01:23:32beyond your company yeah
01:23:35obviously things that are pretty obvious
01:23:37to us hire a diverse team and keep that
01:23:40team diverse I think the the question of
01:23:43how the higher that diverse team is
01:23:45obviously a pretty contested one I think
01:23:48the answer is that we that we know is
01:23:50okay like it's a pipeline problem like
01:23:53there just isn't enough talent like one
01:23:55is false the talent is there we're just
01:23:59not finding it but there's also some you
01:24:02wants to it a little bit like where
01:24:04we're not doing a good job at educating
01:24:07young kids that these opportunities
01:24:09exist for example every year we do like
01:24:14to take your kids to work day event at
01:24:16Google pretty typical like all the
01:24:17Googlers bringing their kids it's a lot
01:24:19of fun and we do a workshop we do like a
01:24:2210x thinking workshop when we ask them
01:24:24to imagine like what is your school look
01:24:25like 50 years from now and it's really
01:24:28interesting like when the Googlers bring
01:24:29in their kids they're thinking about a
01:24:30lot of ideas they're doing like paper
01:24:32prototypes they're imagining like okay I
01:24:34want to like take a teleporter and I
01:24:36want to like go visit like India and I
01:24:38want to come back like use that stuff
01:24:39and like bring it back home and their
01:24:41uses a pretty grand things that we talk
01:24:43about it's actually pretty fascinating
01:24:44to see like 9 and 10 year olds use the
01:24:46same terminology and it was interesting
01:24:49like we we branched out we did that same
01:24:51workshop for for kids at school
01:24:54districts like Oakland and Hayward and
01:24:57it was really interesting to see how the
01:24:58ideas were the same but the technology
01:25:00was different it was more practical it
01:25:01was just about books it was just about
01:25:02having access to the same things that
01:25:04other kids had so I was just interesting
01:25:07that the idea of being like a designer
01:25:10the idea of being a developer just
01:25:12wasn't penetrating so one just inspiring
01:25:15kids today that these things exist as
01:25:18hugely important and - one thing that I
01:25:22don't really hear about the hiring
01:25:23process that I think is really important
01:25:26is having a conversation with your team
01:25:29to make sure that everybody there is
01:25:32comfortable what the team is being
01:25:33diverse this sounds ridiculous this
01:25:35sounds crazy but you'll be surprised at
01:25:38how many people don't actually want to
01:25:39be part of a diverse team they might not
01:25:42expose it right away but they'll just
01:25:44they will be the toxic
01:25:46your team if you don't resolve it and
01:25:48the worst thing they could do is when
01:25:50you hire diverse talent that person is
01:25:55going to take the blunt of all of that
01:25:57trauma and then the second part of like
01:26:01how do you like retain that person right
01:26:03I can only really speak to this in the
01:26:04context of a designer I think a
01:26:07developer definitely relevant now I'm
01:26:10sure I love working with you but one of
01:26:14the most important things is giving one
01:26:16that does not designer a voice and an
01:26:17opportunity to grow I'm not just saying
01:26:20like okay give them like you know all
01:26:21the special projects or give them all
01:26:24the projects that tackle like you know
01:26:25diversity issues I'm talking about
01:26:28giving them the opportunity to have a
01:26:30voice in the meeting without having to
01:26:31to give them a voice give them an
01:26:34opportunity to speak up at the things
01:26:35that they're passionate about not the
01:26:37things that you're passionate about them
01:26:39solving right so for example one thing
01:26:43that I think is like really writeable
01:26:45vital to our positions as designers is
01:26:47we tell a lot of like user journeys we
01:26:49we take our clients on like user
01:26:51journeys I think that's beautiful I
01:26:52think that we can put a clientele again
01:26:54a users shoes we say okay this is this
01:26:57is Eric we're he's a 24 year old he's
01:27:00going through this product and this is
01:27:01how this product is going to be better
01:27:03because it works for him as a black man
01:27:07like as a designer I get to actually
01:27:09customize like those stories based off
01:27:11what my own experience and that stuff is
01:27:13like unique to clients because they're
01:27:15not seeing it from those angles so I
01:27:17think like user journeys and actually
01:27:19using like diverse examples is actually
01:27:21a really powerful way to start designing
01:27:23for communities because you start
01:27:25designing for communities you start to
01:27:27launch design in these communities I
01:27:30think that's actually a beautiful thing
01:27:31so I actually really love the example
01:27:33that the bevel product is actually doing
01:27:36bevel if you don't know I'm kind of
01:27:38doing a product shout out right now
01:27:40but they make grooming products for men
01:27:43for men and I think it's like beautiful
01:27:46you actually look at their about page
01:27:48it's like all black men and it's like
01:27:51all black like men and women it's like
01:27:52it's just amazing to see that you know
01:27:55they're able to like build a narrative
01:27:57like around that product and they're
01:27:59able to attract all that talent and that
01:28:01wasn't just because like hey we're a
01:28:03diverse team like we want you to come
01:28:04here they actually did it through the
01:28:06product they use the product like tell
01:28:09that story I thought that was beautiful
01:28:10and I think there's a lot of teams that
01:28:12are obviously trying to do that but I
01:28:14think once you have people that come
01:28:16from different backgrounds and they can
01:28:17influence the product that they're
01:28:18working on I think that's a vital thing
01:28:23so I do agree that um the problem that
01:28:27we're having with diversity and many
01:28:29things it's it stems in education you
01:28:32know like my my children who are really
01:28:34young they're not always exposed to the
01:28:36things and we're not going to see the
01:28:37manifestation of that for you know
01:28:39another 20 years but what can we do
01:28:41today one of the things that I found
01:28:43that's interesting is it when somebody
01:28:46graduates from college you think they're
01:28:48grown up that they're an adult but
01:28:50they're not they've actually just gone
01:28:52through a certain academic track that
01:28:54doesn't necessarily translate to their
01:28:57forever career and I think that
01:28:59companies need to think about listening
01:29:03to what their employees are good at even
01:29:05though that wasn't what they were hired
01:29:06for initially so I mean my parents were
01:29:10immigrants and my parents still do not
01:29:12understand what I do and and I and you
01:29:16know if you really kind of dig in like
01:29:18my dad is a chemical engineer you know
01:29:20as all good immigrant Asian men are
01:29:23because English wasn't good but you know
01:29:25he was really good at math and so that's
01:29:27how he could make a living in this
01:29:28country my mom was actually much more
01:29:30creative but she's the minority voice in
01:29:32our family from like social construction
01:29:35and everything so I I never really heard
01:29:38her voice all while I was growing up
01:29:40saying go into marketing go into
01:29:42advertising going I didn't hear it
01:29:44because I was everybody was so used to
01:29:46listening to dad and I think the same
01:29:49thing happens in companies you go in and
01:29:51maybe you start off as an inch
01:29:53because that's what you studied in
01:29:54college but maybe you have a passion and
01:29:56an insight and I think it's part of the
01:29:58company's job after you've hired this
01:30:01pool of talented young people to listen
01:30:04and watch for what they're good at and
01:30:06then give them the confidence and the
01:30:09access and the skills to maybe change
01:30:11careers and you don't hear that happen
01:30:15very often you just hear people get
01:30:18disgruntled but then they leave and then
01:30:20they say I'm just gonna go start
01:30:21something new when really at a place
01:30:23like Google or Facebook like there's an
01:30:26opportunity to take a young engineer
01:30:27who's maybe not a great engineer and
01:30:30maybe make them a designer but you have
01:30:31to make the design function approachable
01:30:35to somebody who didn't grow up in it you
01:30:38never want to make an engineer or
01:30:39designer trust me every time I give them
01:30:43a prototype they're like what the hell
01:30:45are you doing I'm like buttons
01:30:47everywhere I'll make a button for that
01:30:50button and then I get yelled at ah I
01:30:55don't know I'm in a unique position
01:30:57because you know I am I mean I am an
01:30:59executive I influence I have the
01:31:01opportunity to influence who you hire
01:31:02and I think a big important part is my
01:31:05company is a unique one you know I don't
01:31:08want to sit here and be like little
01:31:09inpatients the best but it is it really
01:31:10is um but you know we're 100%
01:31:13distributed global company and by nature
01:31:16we have the opportunity that a lot of
01:31:18people don't by just hiring anywhere we
01:31:21want and so my team right now I have
01:31:24people on every continent except
01:31:25Antarctica I'm waiting for one of those
01:31:26sinus scientists became a designer they
01:31:29should probably come an engineer that
01:31:30would trust me um but I think he gives
01:31:33you me perspective and the thing that
01:31:35that motivates me is you know I have a
01:31:37seat at the table like they put me at
01:31:38like you know being a lady executive
01:31:41that's not just kind of unheard of like
01:31:43down here in San Francisco I swear I'm
01:31:45like you Phoebe they're like you are I'm
01:31:47like I am
01:31:49they don't believe me at first but I'm
01:31:51like seriously and I think by your comp
01:31:53you know by finding a company that it
01:31:55that really cares about it I mean it's
01:31:58going to change and I want more
01:31:59companies to care about it because you
01:32:01put people in those positions of
01:32:03leadership they're going to bring in
01:32:04people that are underrepresented and
01:32:07that's the first step you know trust the
01:32:09people and listen I think you I think
01:32:11you've all said it over and over you
01:32:12have to listen it's like grassroots
01:32:15doesn't work if nobody's listened at the
01:32:16top you need to put those people at the
01:32:18top and actually force change and then
01:32:20it's going to go all the way through and
01:32:22and by having events like this and
01:32:24bringing it to the table and taking that
01:32:26from that subconscious because a lot of
01:32:28the times it is subconscious or you know
01:32:30you hear that word unconscious bias I
01:32:32call people out on it you know and I
01:32:34expect people to do the same for me but
01:32:36it's about having you know a grown up
01:32:38I'll say it a grown up conversation
01:32:40about what makes you know everything
01:32:43better because it you know to flip it
01:32:45over you when building products right
01:32:47you know that's what I do at the end of
01:32:48the day I'm responsible to take your
01:32:50amazing ideas telling you know and then
01:32:52eventually do them on but there's this
01:32:56term called navel-gazing has anybody
01:32:58heard that term navel-gazing
01:32:59navel-gazing is basically ORN you're so
01:33:02busy just looking at yourself you don't
01:33:04realize what's going on around you and
01:33:06so it really loses perspective and I
01:33:08think you know I have a unique position
01:33:10at least where I'm at today is by having
01:33:12a global team we're building a product
01:33:14for everybody when you build a product
01:33:16for everybody then everybody wants to
01:33:17come and be a part of that and then
01:33:18everybody feels represented it's kind of
01:33:20like what she was saying like until you
01:33:23know this this amazing company really
01:33:24said you know what we're targeting and
01:33:26then we're going to go for it it would
01:33:28have been probably a bunch of nabel's
01:33:29nasal navel gazers not looking at what
01:33:32they can actually accomplish and expand
01:33:34and so I think you know really putting
01:33:36emphasis in that you know you're going
01:33:38to have some of the best things in the
01:33:40world come out you know you're not going
01:33:42to just have this one thing that works
01:33:43for this one person you're gonna have
01:33:44something that works for many and it
01:33:47really changes your perspective on how
01:33:48you can build product and how you can
01:33:50design for because you know people
01:33:52aren't binary I tell me engineers that
01:33:53every day I'm like if only we wore
01:33:55robots it would make my life so much
01:33:57easier
01:33:58because then I could just program it
01:34:00away but the reality is is we're
01:34:02multifaceted and there is no there is no
01:34:04you know black or white there's a very
01:34:08wide spectrum of gray or whatever
01:34:11representation and I think that it's my
01:34:13responsibility to ensure that we don't
01:34:15lose that perspective by participating
01:34:18and speaking up and listening I think at
01:34:21the end of the day listening you know so
01:34:24we have an audience here full of
01:34:26designers and people that make products
01:34:28and I'm curious how can we then
01:34:31translate all this and actually
01:34:32influence our work I love this example
01:34:35of something we'll give Don Cathy to
01:34:37actually bring your perspective into the
01:34:39product and influence it in a very
01:34:41tangible way curious if you can talk
01:34:44about how you can actually bring that
01:34:47into a product yeah I think just as like
01:34:52I was saying before like depending on
01:34:55the problem that you're trying to solve
01:34:56depending on the size of the project
01:34:59take time take weeks I convinced just
01:35:02going to it's going to be hard to
01:35:03convince like your clients but take
01:35:05weeks to understand the problem and
01:35:07don't put you know underrepresented
01:35:13people at the end of the process and you
01:35:15have to like really started thinking
01:35:17about like who are we making this
01:35:18product for and how can we expand that
01:35:20reach and I think user journeys again
01:35:23it's like a one really powerful way
01:35:25because you can you do it with pictures
01:35:26like really simply this is a person from
01:35:29affluent neighborhood a neighborhood
01:35:31this is a person from a poor
01:35:32neighborhood this is how they're going
01:35:33to experience this product have them
01:35:36side by side actually show that this
01:35:38person is actually in the affluent
01:35:40neighborhood is actually going to be
01:35:41really happy with this product this
01:35:43person in a poor neighborhood is
01:35:45actually going to have a really hard
01:35:46time with this product and then you have
01:35:47to make that decision to say yes we are
01:35:50willing to accept that right I think
01:35:52that'll be much harder for you to do
01:35:53when you actually see that at scale so I
01:35:56think that's actually one really
01:35:57powerful thing for designers but I know
01:35:58it's hard I think one of the biggest
01:36:00things is that what I experienced was
01:36:03you know you're sitting in a meeting and
01:36:05everybody's coming up with ideas and you
01:36:08actually bring an idea to the table you
01:36:09think Oh actually I have my voice now
01:36:11I'm here I
01:36:11made it right this is good but then you
01:36:14like you bring up the idea and they're
01:36:15just like looking at you like just a big
01:36:17stare just like I don't I can't
01:36:19hypnotize with that problem no we're not
01:36:21going to do that so it's those are one
01:36:24of the problems I think that we face
01:36:25that yeah I brought it up I had the
01:36:28bravery to bring it up but I didn't have
01:36:31enough support from the people and that
01:36:32goes back to the original problem of
01:36:34making sure that your team is actually
01:36:36capable of like listening to people with
01:36:39different perspectives so I think
01:36:41visually you can at least like use those
01:36:42user dreams like put them side-by-side
01:36:44of you know what this is something that
01:36:46I'm familiar with and I'm telling you
01:36:48that this is actually going to suck for
01:36:49like these other people right
01:36:50but it depends on what you're working on
01:36:52it's also um I don't I I can only speak
01:36:56from the perspective of I see some of my
01:36:58startups incredibly run as fast as
01:37:02possible mode so they're trying to solve
01:37:05for like problem a and then they only
01:37:06saw a problem a when I used to work at
01:37:09Clorox and Procter & Gamble we would
01:37:11develop new products we would go into
01:37:14people's homes we would kind of see how
01:37:15they interacted with everything even
01:37:17things that were unrelated to what I was
01:37:20trying to build because it was important
01:37:22to understand the user holistically and
01:37:25so when they would give you feedback
01:37:26like oh this is really hard to open or
01:37:29this is really hard to close we'd be
01:37:31like we would sometimes dismiss them as
01:37:32like oh they're just like a minority of
01:37:34people that it doesn't matter but when
01:37:36you went in to somebody's home you would
01:37:39realize oh these people are disabled or
01:37:42they're really old or you know anybody
01:37:44who's over 50 that has arthritis has a
01:37:45hard time so there's all these things
01:37:47you see but you have to leave Silicon
01:37:51Valley and I think that's um that's
01:37:54something like my startups have a really
01:37:55hard time with like they recruit user
01:37:57coops off Craigslist that are local and
01:38:00they do all these things and I'm always
01:38:01like but that's not who you're only
01:38:03selling to like you've got you're
01:38:04selling to all these different people so
01:38:06you have to go visit them I think where
01:38:11companies get caught up is definitely in
01:38:14the wanting to make sure everybody wants
01:38:16to be diverse like because really some
01:38:19people really aren't
01:38:21but diversity has to be on the front end
01:38:24and it has to be purposeful it has to be
01:38:28purposeful so we can't can't just tap
01:38:30dance around it like well what do you
01:38:32think about having a woman on the team
01:38:35no you hire her ass
01:38:36tell her work starts at 10:00 get here
01:38:39well you know guess what she's a new
01:38:40person on the team so I think sometimes
01:38:42when we tap this runner we miss it you
01:38:44know and I feel like we've been tap
01:38:46dancing since 1968 I'm told y'all so we
01:38:51just I don't think we have the luxury to
01:38:53continue to do that you know we're in a
01:38:54minority majority trend right now so if
01:38:57you don't want to get your team's
01:38:59diverse in a minute that's all that's
01:39:01going to be left to hire great I think
01:39:04that's a great way to wrap it up we're
01:39:05running short on time but we can talk
01:39:08about this for hours so if you guys want
01:39:10to keep talking about it we'll be around
01:39:12after the the residents because are done
01:39:14but please give a round of applause to
01:39:15the great powers
01:39:17[Applause]
01:40:04in organizing events and it takes a
01:40:08million micro actions to bring something
01:40:10like this together it means that we have
01:40:13to reach all of you that we have to win
01:40:15your hearts over we have to get you to
01:40:17pony up and buy a ticket and then even
01:40:19get you to show up but the rarest thing
01:40:22that could ever happen to you is that a
01:40:23sponsor knocks on your door and says I
01:40:25believe in this and I want to make it
01:40:27possible but that's what our friends ad
01:40:29Adobe did for us the Adobe experience
01:40:32design team is really excited to sponsor
01:40:35these event because they want to make
01:40:36sure that designers of all walks of life
01:40:39have a seat at the table they do that
01:40:41through their products through their
01:40:43sponsorships and through their culture
01:40:45and what they're extending to us tonight
01:40:47is a vote for yes a vote for this and
01:40:52the possibility to bring us all together
01:40:55our friend at Adobe left us with a quote
01:40:58that says humans always have been
01:41:00emotional
01:41:01and I've always reacted to the artifacts
01:41:03in their world emotionally we want
01:41:05designers to boldly pursue these
01:41:07reactions in order to bring about the
01:41:09change that we all desire in the world I
01:41:11think many of us here know the good
01:41:13Gandhi quote build the world you want to
01:41:15be a part of or the build the world the
01:41:18change that you want to see in the world
01:41:19and I think we all have something to do
01:41:22with that here tonight so thanks to
01:41:23Adobe and thanks for all of you
01:41:25[Applause]
01:41:50hello everyone so unlike Pablo I did not
01:41:53have a that much confidence in the
01:41:55confidence monitors so I brought an iPad
01:41:57um so thank you for having me
01:42:00I think of vectors for bringing this
01:42:03together my name is Rafa I'm a design
01:42:06lead at IDEO org and I've been exploring
01:42:10how we can use design and technology to
01:42:12mitigate unconscious bias and so today
01:42:16I'd like to walk you guys through some
01:42:19of the products and people who I think
01:42:21are really starting to make an impact in
01:42:22this space and paint a landscape of
01:42:24where some of the design opportunity
01:42:26areas lie and so first let's do an
01:42:30exercise a little game and this going to
01:42:31require some participation from you all
01:42:34so you're going to see two words pop up
01:42:37on screen and I want you to tell me
01:42:40which you think is a larger cause of
01:42:42death each year in the United States and
01:42:45so I'll prompt you to raise your hands
01:42:46and vote and so the first one tornadoes
01:42:49and thunderstorms so raise your hand for
01:42:51tornadoes no one a few people okay
01:42:55thunderstorms okay suicide and homicide
01:43:00raise your hand for suicide raise your
01:43:03hand for homicide gotcha car accidents
01:43:08or abdominal cancer raise your knee for
01:43:10car accidents abdominal cancer great you
01:43:15guys ready for the answers I get a drum
01:43:17roll or something like yeah awesome
01:43:19mister so actual answers are
01:43:22thunderstorms suicide like a factor of
01:43:25two and abdominal cancer so so raise
01:43:30your hand if you got one or more of
01:43:31these wrong yeah a lot of folks and so
01:43:36what everyone just experienced is what
01:43:39we call the availability bias or the
01:43:41availability heuristic and this is when
01:43:44instances of one event come to mind more
01:43:46easily than others and we we mistakenly
01:43:49take that as evidence of their frequency
01:43:51and so the important thing to note here
01:43:54is that greater ease of availability to
01:43:56the mind doesn't equal greater
01:43:59frequency of occurrence in the world and
01:44:01the availability heuristic is just one
01:44:03of many types of biases or mental
01:44:05shortcuts that we all have and these
01:44:07kinds of mistakes happen incredibly
01:44:09frequently and probably every single day
01:44:11for most of us this also happens to be
01:44:14the foundation of stereotypes and so we
01:44:17don't just hold bias towards a fence we
01:44:19use it to make judgments about people
01:44:21and if you were to look at any two
01:44:24strangers and you can answer these next
01:44:25couple questions in your head and ask
01:44:29yourself which one of these people like
01:44:32skiing which one has a GED and which one
01:44:37has a PhD which one has been to Paris
01:44:41multiple times which one will I hire
01:44:44because they'll be more competent on the
01:44:46job and so these two strangers happen to
01:44:50be my parents neither one will like
01:44:52skiing they neither one of them has
01:44:54either one of those degrees where
01:44:57they're both pretty amazing people but
01:44:59the thing I want to underscore here is
01:45:00that our judgments of others are often
01:45:03incredibly inaccurate but it turns out
01:45:05to be surprisingly easy to make make
01:45:09these judgments based on nothing more
01:45:10than a static picture and when we're
01:45:12working with such little information
01:45:13about people we rely on the social group
01:45:16that person belongs to or other
01:45:18characteristics they embody as the basis
01:45:20for our judgments in everyday and
01:45:24decisions that may take fractions of
01:45:25seconds in our minds we fail to perceive
01:45:27individuals as individuals but rather
01:45:29view them as representatives of social
01:45:31groups and these biases are not just
01:45:34restricted to race or ethnicity they
01:45:35stem from a number of identities
01:45:36including age gender class sexual
01:45:40orientation physical ability or
01:45:42disability physical attractiveness and
01:45:44on and on and on and these biases we
01:45:48carry have very real impacts on the
01:45:50lived experiences of people who embody
01:45:52these identities it's often the
01:45:55difference between landing a job offer
01:45:56or a company deciding you're just not a
01:45:59cultural fit between having a bank loan
01:46:02approved or rejected between going about
01:46:06your day or being stopped and searched
01:46:07and so how might we transcend the
01:46:12negative effects
01:46:13bias and specifically how come how and
01:46:16where can tech play a role and so I'd
01:46:18love to show you an incomplete list of
01:46:20some opportunity areas that I've been
01:46:21seeing
01:46:22and so opportunity one is to mitigate
01:46:25bias and decision making and so
01:46:28mid-century in the u.s. the top five
01:46:31orchestras in the country were about
01:46:33five percent women in the early 50s some
01:46:36administrators of the Boston Symphony
01:46:37recognized this and had the awareness to
01:46:40know that this likely had little to do
01:46:41with actual talent but rather some bias
01:46:44that's in the system and so they started
01:46:46experimenting and one of those early
01:46:47experiments is what's now referred to as
01:46:49blind auditions where you place a
01:46:51curtain in between the judges and the
01:46:53performers because you don't really need
01:46:56to see the person to know how well they
01:46:57play an instrument and the first few
01:46:59trials flopped the judges could still
01:47:01tell the gender of the person based on
01:47:03the sound their shoes would make as they
01:47:04enter the room and so the early
01:47:06iterations they removed all name so
01:47:08everyone gets a number everyone takes
01:47:10their shoes off before entering the room
01:47:12or there's a carpet on the floor and
01:47:13there's a curtain between the judges and
01:47:16the performer and so this simple
01:47:19intervention increase the likelihood of
01:47:21a woman advancing to final auditions by
01:47:2350% in a few decades many of the top
01:47:26orchestras went from but from 5% to
01:47:28between 25 and 35 percent women and
01:47:31today some even sit at around 50 and so
01:47:34in this case the deep-seated belief that
01:47:37male equals virtuoso undermine the
01:47:39ability of orchestras to select top
01:47:41talent and the arts isn't the only place
01:47:45where this exists there's been several
01:47:47studies that have sent out identical
01:47:49resumes to companies that showed female
01:47:51names and african-american sounding
01:47:53names are often perceived as less
01:47:55competent and less hireable than the
01:47:58identical resumes of white and male
01:48:00sounding names and so similar to what
01:48:03the Boston Symphony did for musical
01:48:04auditions there's a few startups that
01:48:06are doing this for recruitment and
01:48:07hiring in the corporate world and so
01:48:11blender is a hiring technology that
01:48:13reduces unconscious bias by hiding
01:48:15information that often leads to bias in
01:48:17hiring decisions like a person's name
01:48:19their picture alma mater and elevates
01:48:22more sound criteria for making
01:48:23assessments about competence like skills
01:48:25and job experience
01:48:27and similar to the symphony's Blind
01:48:29Auditions blenders product aims to
01:48:31neutralize human error in the hiring
01:48:33process another place that bias shows up
01:48:38in decision-making is in the sharing
01:48:40economy something that many of us
01:48:41interface with every day and a little
01:48:44over a year ago a hashtag popped up on
01:48:46Twitter when a number of black users
01:48:47notice that they were not being accepted
01:48:49by hosts on Airbnb and I have a few of
01:48:52these hashtag are being being while
01:48:54black examples that will let you read
01:48:55through and for these folks their
01:49:05suspicions were confirmed by a Harvard
01:49:06study which found that african-american
01:49:08sounding names were roughly 16% less
01:49:11likely to be accepted than their white
01:49:12sounding counterparts and this dynamic
01:49:15is not unique to Airbnb studies have
01:49:17found similar results and a number of
01:49:18sharing economy platforms so what to do
01:49:21about this a couple years ago an
01:49:24independent team of engineers built a
01:49:25plugin for google chrome called D bias
01:49:28yourself that strips away pictures a
01:49:30name so the host can focus on content
01:49:32messages
01:49:33ratings and endorsements and this gives
01:49:36hosts who are aware that they have
01:49:38biases the option to conceal information
01:49:40from themselves that might otherwise be
01:49:42used for discrimination so on the left
01:49:44you see a normal screen from Airbnb on
01:49:47the right with a plug-in installed they
01:49:50even have this badge you can add your
01:49:51profile to let others know that you're
01:49:53an equal-opportunity host and I know
01:49:55that some of the graphic designers are
01:49:57cringing in their seats right now but I
01:50:00want to say that I know this isn't the
01:50:02best visual design execution or maybe
01:50:04even the best long-term solution for a
01:50:06platform like Airbnb but I think this is
01:50:08such a powerful provocation one it
01:50:11normalizes the idea that people can and
01:50:14should take responsibility for their own
01:50:15bias and two it shows that a team of
01:50:18people who don't even work for a
01:50:19platform like Airbnb can challenge the
01:50:21system and I also want to give a major
01:50:23shout-out to all the folks at Airbnb
01:50:25that are doing some major efforts
01:50:26internally to combat bias on their
01:50:28platform and so the second opportunity
01:50:32area is using data to name an address
01:50:35bias so a study from hewlett-packard who
01:50:40wrong one okay a study from Euler
01:50:42Packard found that men apply to job
01:50:44descriptions when they meet only sixty
01:50:45percent of the criteria but many women
01:50:47apply only if they meet a hundred
01:50:49percent and the words we choose to use
01:50:52is a major influence and who deems
01:50:53themselves qualified or not so text EO
01:50:56is essentially a spell check for gender
01:50:58bias you paste in the text of a job
01:51:00posting and tech Co highlights
01:51:02problematic phrasings and make
01:51:04suggestions to help attract attract more
01:51:06qualified and gender diverse candidates
01:51:08and as you see in the slide the system
01:51:10is recommending to replace the word
01:51:11ambitious with visionary high reaching
01:51:14daring or bold and it does this by
01:51:16comparing your job description to more
01:51:18than seventy million others that have
01:51:19been tracked on how they performed and
01:51:21what demographics they attracted and on
01:51:24average hiring teams with a high tech
01:51:26CEO score the number you see in the top
01:51:28right recruit 25 top left recruits 25%
01:51:35more people that are qualified enough to
01:51:36take an interview and attract 23 percent
01:51:38more women I think this is just the
01:51:40beginning of how machine learning can be
01:51:42applied to removing bias from our
01:51:44workplaces so something that I've been
01:51:47thinking about a lot last year is how to
01:51:49give companies the ability to not just
01:51:50understand bias and the recruiting and
01:51:52hiring but also within their existing
01:51:54workforce and so this is a product I've
01:51:57been building outside of work that will
01:51:59collect data from a number of sources
01:52:01and help pinpoint specifically where
01:52:03bias shows up in an organization and so
01:52:05the most basic level the tool can help
01:52:07provide visibility into the
01:52:08representation of certain identities for
01:52:10example we could determine that a team
01:52:12or a department or an office is X
01:52:14percent this identity or X percent that
01:52:16identity but the tool allows companies
01:52:18to drill down even further for example
01:52:21we could see that within this specific
01:52:24department it takes women 15 percent
01:52:26longer than men to get promoted to
01:52:28senior management and we can also
01:52:29benchmark that to an industry average or
01:52:31another comparison points and this
01:52:34insight around the difference in
01:52:35promotion pace could be an indicator
01:52:37there's a bias and how that department
01:52:39is doing evaluations and promotions and
01:52:44in this case the system will recommend
01:52:45proven methods of D biasing employee
01:52:47performance reviews and so we're
01:52:49building what we're building is an
01:52:50analytics tool to help companies
01:52:51understand how bias shows up and their
01:52:54pay
01:52:54gapps their promotions employee turnover
01:52:56and overall demographic representation
01:52:59and so where this product focusing
01:53:02focuses on helping organizations take
01:53:04responsibility for identifying bias I've
01:53:06also been super interested in a product
01:53:08relief earlier this year from the design
01:53:10firm Doberman that is all about
01:53:13individual accountability and this app
01:53:15called gender EQ uses voice recognition
01:53:17to track male and female voices and
01:53:20meetings and visualizes the gender and
01:53:23visualizes which gender is speaking the
01:53:25most and as you might guess has been
01:53:27dubbed the mansplaining app and while
01:53:31this isn't a silver bullet for solving
01:53:33gender despair in the workplace it is a
01:53:35great example of how technology can
01:53:37heighten awareness of how bias exists in
01:53:39our everyday interactions and as much as
01:53:43I love this and think this is also a
01:53:45very powerful provocation this is also
01:53:47an example of how even tools we create
01:53:49for combating bias can sometimes be
01:53:52filled with bias themselves and so the
01:53:54underlying voice recognition technology
01:53:56of a product like this which picks up on
01:53:58the pitch of your voice may not be
01:54:00inclusive for all trans or gender
01:54:02non-conforming folks and categorizing
01:54:04people and see the appropriate gender
01:54:05and this is just something for us to
01:54:07keep in mind as we continue to build
01:54:08products in this space and so the third
01:54:12opportunity area is for disrupting
01:54:17harmful narratives so these mug shots on
01:54:21the left is what we see when we google
01:54:23black teenagers versus the pleasant
01:54:25stock images of happy smiling kids when
01:54:28we google white teenagers and to be
01:54:30clear I'm not blaming Google for this
01:54:31for me this raises a troubling question
01:54:34of how racial bias is reflected in the
01:54:35media more than it does Google's
01:54:37algorithms that display top hits for
01:54:39those articles or image sources but
01:54:42regardless of where they stem from these
01:54:44are the false narratives and stories
01:54:45that were constantly bombarded with and
01:54:47if you remember the availability bias
01:54:49where we were what we see is a myopic or
01:54:51what we see is stories that come to mind
01:54:54more easily this is how that bias forms
01:54:57well what we're presented with is a
01:54:58myopic and opt-in often false
01:55:00representation of these different social
01:55:02groups and so the techies project is
01:55:05here tonight many you guys saw them on
01:55:06the way in is a great example
01:55:08of how of how we can disrupt harmful
01:55:11narratives and they're doing this by
01:55:12documenting the excellence of
01:55:14underrepresented people and tech and as
01:55:17they describe it bring a bit of
01:55:18attention to folks in the industry whose
01:55:20stories have never been heard considered
01:55:22or celebrated another platform the
01:55:26filters allow you to search for example
01:55:28developers who are people of color and
01:55:30women and you see people who embody the
01:55:32intersection of these identities and you
01:55:35can also then read about the individuals
01:55:37who are making some real impact in the
01:55:39tech world and so in addition to telling
01:55:42stories of successes and stories of
01:55:44individuals I think we also need to be
01:55:48much better at understanding systemic
01:55:50challenges that many communities face so
01:55:53does anyone know what kind of map this
01:55:54is you guys yelling out redlining
01:55:59so this is a map of Chicago in 1940 that
01:56:03shows racial breakdown of certain
01:56:04neighborhoods and the red areas being
01:56:07populated predominantly by people of
01:56:09color so redlining was a standard
01:56:11practice of banks across America of
01:56:13denying investments based on racial
01:56:15demographics of communities making it
01:56:17impossible and extent possible for
01:56:19people of color to get home loans or
01:56:21business loans and so in order to help
01:56:24illustrate the impact of some of these
01:56:25policies tallahassee codes created a
01:56:27date this data visualization and an
01:56:29article of his a few years back
01:56:30and so the navigate navigation at the
01:56:32top of this map walks you through three
01:56:34map states based on race vacancy and
01:56:36unemployment so this one is based on
01:56:38race the darker red the area the more
01:56:40black and brown people live there the
01:56:42darker blue the more white folks who
01:56:44live there and I'm going to walk you
01:56:45through the different map states you can
01:56:46see the correlations so this one is
01:56:48based on race this one shows abandoned
01:56:52or vacant houses and lots notice the
01:56:54correlation and this one shows
01:56:56unemployment by neighborhood in Chicago
01:56:58the darker red areas have unemployment
01:57:00rates upwards of 27% and underneath a
01:57:04menu you can adjust for any of the past
01:57:06seven decades to see the correlations
01:57:08across time and so today when we hear
01:57:11about unemployment or poverty in our
01:57:13inner cities we hear a lot of
01:57:15victim-blaming we hear a lot of pick
01:57:17yourself up by your bootstraps kind of
01:57:19talk but when we're able to take a
01:57:21deeper look at how we got
01:57:22hear and understand how the system's
01:57:24enacted decades ago very materially
01:57:26affect employment rates and housing
01:57:28prospects of people and cities across
01:57:30America today I think we'll have a much
01:57:32better conversation about how to move
01:57:34forward and this is just one place where
01:57:36I think design can play a huge role and
01:57:38taking invisible forces and making them
01:57:40visible and so the last opportunity I
01:57:46have for today is to enable empathy
01:57:47among groups who otherwise may not
01:57:49understand the other's point of view so
01:57:53this is an installation at the Whitney
01:57:56Museum in New York City last summer and
01:57:58it was part of a larger installation
01:57:59that included commentary on mass
01:58:01surveillance the war on terror and the
01:58:02US drone program and in this room you
01:58:05can lay down and hear what it sounds
01:58:07like and what it feels like to have
01:58:08drones flying over you the buzzing sound
01:58:10the uncertainty of an air strike like
01:58:12many people in Pakistan Afghanistan or a
01:58:14number of other places do and while you
01:58:17lay in the experience a surveillance
01:58:19camera projects your image into another
01:58:21room and you then become part of the
01:58:23exhibit for other museum goers and when
01:58:27we talk about empathy I think we have to
01:58:29talk about the potential of VR has
01:58:31anyone here done the clouds over Sid
01:58:33your VR experience few folks cloud the
01:58:38residuals of virtual reality film
01:58:39produced by UNICEF and in the experience
01:58:41you meet Sidra a 12 year old Syrian girl
01:58:44that walks you through a day in her life
01:58:46at a refugee camp and tells you about
01:58:47her experience as a Syrian refugee
01:58:49escaping war
01:58:51it's an incredibly moving piece that
01:58:53virtually puts you in her shoes and
01:58:56here's a room full of diplomats and
01:58:59global leaders who are walking with
01:59:00Sidra including on the right former UN
01:59:03Secretary General Ban ki-moon
01:59:05and this is Davos in 2015 and what you
01:59:08might notice that this is a group of
01:59:10mostly middle-aged men for whom it might
01:59:12be difficult to imagine what it what
01:59:14it's like to be a teenage girl let alone
01:59:16one who lives in a refugee camp and what
01:59:19if every policymaker had to walk a mile
01:59:21in the shoes of people other policy
01:59:22decisions would ultimately affect what
01:59:25if every school kid could experience and
01:59:27build empathy with people who embody
01:59:29other identities before these biases and
01:59:32early conditionings hardened in their
01:59:34minds
01:59:36and so what can we all do I believe that
01:59:41everyone this room has the
01:59:43responsibility and the ability to start
01:59:45to move us on a more equitable track and
01:59:47as you go about changing the current
01:59:49state there are a few things that I've
01:59:50been thinking about that I want to leave
01:59:51you with the first one is that small
01:59:56things count and I just shared a lot of
01:59:58really bold opportunities to mitigate
02:00:00bias but you can start to move the
02:00:02needle by taking ownership of everyday
02:00:03actions and so we should all be asking
02:00:06ourselves small things like who from the
02:00:08office are we are we going to lunch with
02:00:10regularly who we're providing mentorship
02:00:13to and who are we seeking mentorship
02:00:15from who are we referring to jobs and do
02:00:19they look and act just like us and
02:00:21especially for this audience that came
02:00:23up a couple times in the panel who are
02:00:25we testing our products with and whose
02:00:27opinion is shaping the products that we
02:00:29bring into the world the next point is
02:00:33that everybody is impacted by bias but
02:00:35not an equal measure and the thing is
02:00:39that there's certain communities that
02:00:40have suffered disproportionately at the
02:00:42hands of bias and when we talk about
02:00:44addressing bias we're often talking
02:00:45about increasing the diversity of very
02:00:48privileged spaces about making tech
02:00:50companies more colorful or getting more
02:00:52women into the c-suite and these efforts
02:00:54are mission-critical
02:00:55but as we continue to push on these
02:00:57fronts we also need to make sure that
02:00:59we're being inclusive of communities
02:01:01that have been most impacted by bias
02:01:03over the years we need to be thinking
02:01:05about the millions of black and brown
02:01:07folks incarcerated due to a highly
02:01:09biased criminal justice system we need
02:01:12to be thinking about how resources that
02:01:14lead to health are not equally
02:01:15distributed across our society and to
02:01:18put this last point into perspective
02:01:19life expectancy drops 10 years in the
02:01:22four subway stops between Murray Hill
02:01:24near midtown midtown Manhattan and
02:01:27Harlem and so another perspective I
02:01:32think sometimes gets left out of the
02:01:34conversation about bias when we're
02:01:36talking about diversity inclusion is
02:01:38that bias and diversity or economic
02:01:39issues so this graph from Pew Research
02:01:43shows a median net worth median net
02:01:45worth per household in the u.s. from
02:01:471984 to 2011
02:01:49and as you see white households have 12
02:01:53times the net worth of black and lek
02:01:55Latin ex households and so now when we
02:01:57see diverse reports showing that our
02:02:00tech companies are for example 2% black
02:02:02or 3% Latin X let's remember that by not
02:02:05taking intentional steps to mitigate the
02:02:08unconscious bias in our workplaces we're
02:02:10choosing to perpetuate this economic
02:02:12trend the last point is that I think
02:02:16change starts with dialogue and I really
02:02:20believe that everyone this room can
02:02:21start making change by continuing to
02:02:23talk about these issues and elevate
02:02:25their importance in our organizations
02:02:26and our friendships and in our
02:02:28conversations and so thank you so much
02:02:31I'm around after this if anyone's a cop
02:02:41[Applause]
02:02:51hello can you hear me good um hi I'm
02:02:54Jodi I'm a producer on the design team
02:02:57here at stripe um in case anyone's
02:02:59unfamiliar stripe builds tools and
02:03:01infrastructure for starting running and
02:03:04growing a business online and I'm going
02:03:06to talk to you a bit about some of the
02:03:07tools and infrastructure and that we use
02:03:10on the design team within a rapidly
02:03:12growing company like stripe um so our
02:03:16team is fairly similar to most in-house
02:03:18design teams and that our ultimate goal
02:03:20is to create beautiful work that does
02:03:22the right things for the right people
02:03:24it's fun interesting and efficient to
02:03:27use and so we work on a variety of type
02:03:29of things to accomplish this goal from
02:03:31our web and mobile products to our
02:03:34marketing site our brand voice videos
02:03:37and even Polk printed publications so
02:03:41this one might look familiar if you've
02:03:42looked inside your swag bags tonight um
02:03:45but we're fairly atypical in a few ways
02:03:47um one is the incredibly fast rate that
02:03:51stripe is growing so in the last year
02:03:53alone the company has grown by about 300
02:03:56people and I'm dyeing team we've grown
02:04:00from 6 to 15 in the last year and we're
02:04:04expected to be around 35 by the end of
02:04:07next year um another way we're a bit
02:04:10atypical is that stripe is both an
02:04:14international and an incredibly
02:04:16cross-functional and collaborative
02:04:17company and so this map here is showing
02:04:19our nine plus offices worldwide and
02:04:22doesn't even account for the many
02:04:24stripes that we have working remotely
02:04:26everywhere in between and so that
02:04:28combination means that we really need to
02:04:30employ a lot of strategies to maintain
02:04:32visibility into our work and and to make
02:04:36sure that we're providing means for any
02:04:37stripe anywhere and to be able to
02:04:39contribute their opinions and expertise
02:04:42and so all this is great and makes
02:04:46working at start really exciting but it
02:04:48does create some interesting challenges
02:04:51and as we uh
02:04:54try to scale in a way that allows us to
02:04:56continue to produce good work but also
02:04:58involves the diverse perspectives across
02:05:00the organization and so some questions
02:05:03we asked as we started to think about
02:05:04this and one how do you scale up team
02:05:07capacity and increase diversity in
02:05:09skillsets and backgrounds and then as we
02:05:12do grow and more work starts throwing
02:05:14through flowing through the team and how
02:05:17do we maintain that visibility into our
02:05:18work and incorporate the different
02:05:20perspectives to ensure that we're
02:05:23producing good and well-rounded work and
02:05:26then how do we maintain the spirit of
02:05:29collaboration and knowledge sharing in a
02:05:30way that challenges and pushes our work
02:05:33forward
02:05:33um so because we knew the challenges
02:05:36that lay ahead of us and because we know
02:05:38that we're not the only design team out
02:05:40there who's ever thought about any of
02:05:41this stuff and we kicked off of the year
02:05:43with a little bit of a design team
02:05:45Roadshow where we went around and just
02:05:47talked to other teams and to see how
02:05:49they kind of approach some of these
02:05:50issues and so I won't go into the Nitty
02:05:53Gritty here but this is just a
02:05:54high-level overview of some of the
02:05:56things we learned about other teams
02:05:57operations and of course every team has
02:06:01its own unique set of challenges but
02:06:04it's really fun to trade some tips and
02:06:07tricks and compare and contrast some
02:06:09things that have worked for other teams
02:06:11who are going through similar growing
02:06:13pains so a few tools and tactics that
02:06:16we've been experimenting with um first
02:06:19around growing the team and so it's
02:06:23really tempting to start recruiting as
02:06:25soon as we got headcount on the team um
02:06:27but our first step was really to
02:06:29identify the skillsets that we thought
02:06:31we needed and so at an end-of-year
02:06:34off-site we had back in December we
02:06:36conducted a skillset survey and where we
02:06:38asked ourselves and what kind of work do
02:06:41and sorry what kind of work and how much
02:06:43of it do we anticipate doing the next
02:06:45year and where do we think we're strong
02:06:47as a team and where do we think we're
02:06:49lacking um this posted note I think is
02:06:52one of four giant sticky post notes that
02:06:55we filled out I know it's not the
02:06:57prettiest thing to look at so I spared
02:06:58you the details of the other ones um but
02:07:01the result of the exercises that we went
02:07:02from having one job wreck of designer to
02:07:05nine different job wrecks um
02:07:08including two new disciplines altogether
02:07:10and copywriting and research and so
02:07:13identifying this wider range of skill
02:07:15sets was really our first step in making
02:07:18sure that we're building out a
02:07:19well-rounded team and but we also want
02:07:23to make sure we're reaching outside of
02:07:25our own networks and so that we aren't
02:07:27just hiring more of ourselves and so we
02:07:29had some fun hosting sourcing parties
02:07:31where we invited people from all over
02:07:33the company um into one big room and we
02:07:36brought snacks and and drinks and we
02:07:38scoured through a contact list and it's
02:07:41kind of a simple way just to make sure
02:07:43referrals are coming and outside the
02:07:46design team as well um we found that
02:07:51having a well-established framework was
02:07:53a really important tool in our hiring
02:07:55efforts and so we worked as a team to
02:07:58create a framework that and defines the
02:08:03same set of questions that we ask every
02:08:04single candidate as well as a rubric and
02:08:07that we can use to evaluate answers
02:08:09against and this is really helpful in
02:08:11one aligning on capabilities that we
02:08:15think are important in every candidate
02:08:16and the to more importantly mitigating
02:08:19against some unconscious biases that can
02:08:21sometimes and creep their way into the
02:08:24interviewing process and so next some
02:08:28tools that we used to maintain
02:08:29visibility into our work and allowing
02:08:32spaces for open collaboration and so
02:08:36this is our wall and this is where every
02:08:39designer prints out work in progress and
02:08:41pins it and it might seem like a simple
02:08:44practice and but we found it to be an
02:08:46indispensable part of the way and that
02:08:49we open up feedback and inclusion to a
02:08:51larger company and it creates a casual
02:08:54setting for anyone um to chat about work
02:08:57in progress
02:08:58um for anyone who may be less vocal or
02:09:01maybe isn't directly involved on a
02:09:03specific project um it's also a nice way
02:09:06to showcase our involvement in the
02:09:07company and that it diverse um amount of
02:09:10work that we work on it's kind of a
02:09:12subtle way of encouraging design team
02:09:17collaboration in the future and so one
02:09:19really important thing to note here is
02:09:20that
02:09:21in order to make this work we realize we
02:09:24need to make it super clear that the
02:09:26intent of the wall is not to be a museum
02:09:28of pristine work that with perfect
02:09:30masonry layout and its intent is instead
02:09:34highly functional and so there's a
02:09:37general understanding that work here is
02:09:38in progress and open for discussion and
02:09:41it's constantly rotating and and as I
02:09:44mentioned we're also a very
02:09:46international company so not everyone is
02:09:48walking by our wall every day and so we
02:09:51also use wake which is essentially a
02:09:53digital version of our wall with the
02:09:56same guidelines and then we also pipe
02:09:58everything that goes into wake into
02:10:00slack which is where most of the
02:10:01companies and we also consider our
02:10:06physical space to be a tool and so this
02:10:09is our design pod and we use the work
02:10:12table that you see here and the TV in
02:10:15the background for impromptu and
02:10:17meetings or reviews and it's just
02:10:20another way of inviting all stripes into
02:10:22our credit work space and so lastly a
02:10:27few things we've done to make sure that
02:10:29we're challenging and pushing our work
02:10:31forward and so the growing team and
02:10:34increased amount of work and we take on
02:10:37is greater the need to bring a little
02:10:39bit more structure into the way we
02:10:40review and learn from each other and so
02:10:44we've had weekly hour-long design
02:10:46reviews for a while since the team was
02:10:48probably five or six and where we go
02:10:50around the room and designers share
02:10:51work-in-progress and we get feedback and
02:10:53it's always been a nice way of bringing
02:10:55the entire team together um and for
02:10:58general awareness of what everyone's
02:10:59working on and but as rooms grown bigger
02:11:02I found it harder to get through
02:11:03everything and make sure that everyone's
02:11:05voice was heard and that people felt
02:11:07comfortable sharing their opinion so
02:11:09we've also started making critiques into
02:11:11our process and which I'm sure you're
02:11:13familiar are more focused reviews with
02:11:16smaller and with a smaller room and we
02:11:21also make sure that the room has a
02:11:23diverse group of designers in it so for
02:11:26example someone who may be typically
02:11:29works on brand or our videos will be in
02:11:31a
02:11:32and product design critique where we're
02:11:34looking at the nitty-gritty UX of a new
02:11:36settings feature in our dashboard
02:11:37product and so we found these really
02:11:40important to and helping us one make
02:11:44sure that we're getting people with
02:11:46different perspectives thinking about
02:11:47the same problems we're trying to solve
02:11:49and to that we're being rigorous and
02:11:51intentional in our design decisions by
02:11:54dedicating focused time to each design
02:12:02here we go um oh I went too far so you
02:12:11guys didn't do that um the last thing we
02:12:13want in the habit of doing is having
02:12:15these mini workshops hosted by different
02:12:19members of the team it's a nice way to
02:12:22learn from each other and sometimes
02:12:23about things aren't directly tied to our
02:12:26everyday work at stripe so here's Ben
02:12:29and he's teaching us about CSS grid
02:12:34here's the rest of us trying to
02:12:36understand been teaching us about CSS
02:12:38grids
02:12:39just kidding we totally got it um here's
02:12:43Everett teaching us the mechanics of
02:12:44screen printing um so yeah these are
02:12:47just a fun way to highlight some unique
02:12:48skill sets and backgrounds on the team
02:12:50um so that's it that's just a quick
02:12:54summary of some of the tools that we've
02:12:55been using on the team to combat some of
02:12:57these scaling issues and we love talking
02:12:59about this stuff and so any ideas
02:13:01questions or feedback I'm Jody at stripe
02:13:04and I'd love to chat Thanks
02:13:06[Applause]
02:13:19okay okay
02:13:27all right so many of you are probably
02:13:32wondering who the hell I am
02:13:34I am Maurice woods I am the executive
02:13:40director of interact project does
02:13:41anybody know what interact project is
02:13:44[Applause]
02:13:46thank you appreciate that so I just want
02:13:50to say a few words first and foremost I
02:13:53think we are vectors and everybody
02:13:55involved for making this event happen
02:13:57this is truly very special because the
02:14:02work that we do is really sort of in a
02:14:07lot of ways respective of all the things
02:14:10that you've talked about tonight for
02:14:14those of you don't know interact project
02:14:15is our mission basically is is that we
02:14:19bring designed to underserved
02:14:20communities and kids of color and the
02:14:24reason why we do this is quite frankly
02:14:27because we see the need not only for
02:14:29teaching kids in underserved communities
02:14:31and giving them access to design but
02:14:34also providing you know people of color
02:14:37opportunities to get in the business
02:14:40I myself have sort of taken a a pretty
02:14:45you know long-standing on this position
02:14:48I've been doing this now for 13 years
02:14:50and man it's been a tiring long run to
02:14:55say the least
02:14:56but the reason why I do it and the
02:14:58reason why I continue to work and
02:15:01continue to develop interact project and
02:15:04keep trying to go in stronger and treat
02:15:06keep trying to have more impact is
02:15:08because I see the power of impacting
02:15:11kids lives you know I was that kid I was
02:15:14at inner-city kid and you know
02:15:16basketball was really my first way out
02:15:18and that's how I got exposed to design
02:15:20so I know in fact that there's other
02:15:24kids out there they're really interested
02:15:25in design and want to have these
02:15:27opportunities so I try to do that with
02:15:29with our program one of the things I do
02:15:34want to say in light of the event is
02:15:36that is really important for diversity
02:15:38and design
02:15:39and the reason why it's really important
02:15:41is is that you know visual culture
02:15:44permeates our our civilization every day
02:15:48we see things and we aspire to be those
02:15:51things or we associate truths with the
02:15:54things that we see and it's not just you
02:15:57know graphics but it's also image in the
02:16:01way things people are portrayed and how
02:16:03they're portrayed and it's very
02:16:06important to have those diverse people
02:16:08in the room so they can mitigate in work
02:16:11on those images to make sure that
02:16:13representation is right because not only
02:16:16does it affect you know the way people
02:16:20see things but it also affects the
02:16:23people that are marginalized the way
02:16:25they think about themselves so it's
02:16:27really important you know the work that
02:16:29we're trying to do is we're trying to
02:16:31you know bring about this change in the
02:16:35community where the things that we're
02:16:37teaching them about design is much
02:16:40bigger than just teaching them about
02:16:41design but teaching them to be thinkers
02:16:44the next generation of innovative
02:16:46thinkers so I'll conclude and just say
02:16:50you know I want to give everybody you
02:16:52know when we give a special hand clap to
02:16:54everybody who came out and supported
02:16:56this event you know it's it's a real
02:17:00testament to all the work that we've
02:17:02done all the hard work we've done over
02:17:04the course of the years and all the
02:17:07things that we've done to try to sort of
02:17:08provide as many opportunities for young
02:17:11people as we possibly can so I want to
02:17:14thank you all so much for that do you
02:17:27guys have a good time so I want to give
02:17:31one last shout out to each of the names
02:17:34here on the board we wouldn't be here
02:17:36without stripe giving us their beautiful
02:17:38office and their amazing team to work
02:17:40with Google for filming this and helping
02:17:42us spread the word to everyone who
02:17:44couldn't be in the room with us to
02:17:46Facebook design for helping us amplifier
02:17:48impact here and making it possible by
02:17:51paying our bills
02:17:51for us Quorra AIGA envisioned figma I
02:17:57want to address Adobe sketch Udacity
02:18:00glue run ventures revision path and
02:18:02spectrum they all voted on this being an
02:18:05important topic and they put their money
02:18:06behind their beliefs and they made this
02:18:08possible for us so with that I'll pass
02:18:10it to Gabe for some closing comments but
02:18:12thank you for being here and thank you
02:18:14for those who made it possible
02:18:16[Applause]
02:18:18[Music]
02:18:21all right we did it
02:18:23they were they doing it awesome I think
02:18:27the the spirit of this conference is
02:18:30really to just talk about this this
02:18:31topic and and we know it's a little bit
02:18:34uncomfortable and it gets people kind of
02:18:37like their hairs up but you know the
02:18:41worst thing we could do is censor
02:18:43ourselves and not address it so this is
02:18:46our attempt to just put the spotlight on
02:18:49it address a head-on and start the
02:18:51conversation so if you can please
02:18:54continue that conversation amongst
02:18:56ourselves you know reach out to us reach
02:18:59out to other people that you think might
02:19:00benefit from this conversation that is
02:19:01the whole point of why we're here so
02:19:04thank you so much for being a part of it
02:19:06we were beyond stoked that it was such
02:19:10an awesome event lastly thanks things to
02:19:17you guys one last thing I do want to
02:19:19just kind of again send on it does take
02:19:22conscious thought it does take
02:19:23deliberate action just wishing it and
02:19:25willing it to happen isn't isn't enough
02:19:27so as something that came through a lot
02:19:29of the talks is something that I just
02:19:30kind of wish to remind you tomorrow
02:19:32little things big things medium things
02:19:34whatever do something about it it
02:19:36doesn't just come at to you I also just
02:19:39in terms of I do want to thank my
02:19:41students the sounds the state a lot of
02:19:43you are in here a lot of you abuse I
02:19:44asked you to help
02:19:45if education is a big part of it so I'm
02:19:48privileged to have the opportunity to
02:19:49teach to to work with you and to be able
02:19:52to impact that pipeline at the very
02:19:53beginning so I wanna thank you all for
02:19:55just all your work you guys are all
02:19:57scattered around so anyway thanks to you
02:19:58and thanks to everybody
02:19:59[Applause]
02:20:09see us next time
02:20:34you
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