Diversity Hiring

An Amicable Firing

A manager gave an engineer feedback, discussed issues in one-on-one's, and gave her specific tasks to work on, but she still didn't meet the expected standard. A formal performance improvement plan was put in place, with goals and measurements, and the manager met with her for 3-4 hours a week to coach her. Despite improvements, sustained improvements were not seen, so the manager increased the urgency of feedback. It was realized the role was not a good fit for her, so the manager communicated that she should be let go and she was understanding.

The Important Role Of Team Diversity

The director of Omaze's engineering team took charge of growing the team and gradually added more diverse members. This led to a team composed of a variety of people with different backgrounds, experiences, and skills. As the team's diversity increased, the team members began to bond in new ways and were more open to new ideas and perspectives. The director also implemented a rule that the word "stupid" was not allowed, which helped create a more comfortable environment. The director learned that diversity of thought is more important than just race or gender, and that a diverse team can bring a larger pool of ideas and help to solve issues faster.

Retaining Women In Tech

After leaving her engineering manager position at Apple due to burnout and lack of supportive leadership, the author started her own small business helping other small business owners with their technological needs. Through this experience, she realized the importance of resilience, an inclusive environment, and strong leadership for women in the tech industry. She encourages women to network outside of their own organization, and to stay in and influence the industry in order to shape the future.

How I failed at my startup

Eguruvu was a company founded with the goal of helping students better prepare for college preparatory tests. The founders ran into several missteps in execution due to personal bias and lack of market research. They attempted to sell the product to private boards & institutions and government agencies, but ran into operational challenges and lack of commitment to adopt the new system from administrative staff. The lack of experience in selling and go-to-market cost them the company. The two main takeaways from this experience were to never do it alone and to roll out and develop products incrementally.

Building a Diverse, but Cohesive Team

This article discusses the challenges of building a diverse mobile engineering team and the actions taken to overcome them. Intentional sourcing, in-house programs, and expectations setting were used to ensure diversity of all sorts. Lessons learned include that people add more than they fit, diversity brings unique perspectives, culture building takes time, and non-traditional backgrounds add value and creativity.

Building Diverse and Inclusive Teams

Diversity and inclusion are essential for individual and organizational success, but how do we build a diverse and inclusive team? A holistic approach is needed, from defining and implementing culture to employee lifecycle, hiring, onboarding, fair compensation, feedback, and measuring progress. Additionally, intersectionality should be taken into account, and everyone should be better allies for underrepresented groups.