Grace Hopper Notes

Notes from Grace Hopper Conference 2018. Please forgive typos!

1. Keynote Speech

Padmasree Warrior

• work across boundaries — work can be integrated with family (not mutually exclusive)

Women Leaders

Powerful Women Leaders

1. Mary Dixon Kies
2. Ada Lovelace
3. Harriet Tracy

Characteristics of a woman leader are changing with time Now:

• influencer
• movement starter (don’t be apologetic to be a feminist)
• we don’t have to be different
• be yourself
• community builder
• share experiences

Before:

• isolated, very different from everyone else

Eyes on the Stars, Feet on the Ground

What can we do?

• increase women engagement / highlight them
  • spotlight those doing cool stuff

Stats

• in 2018 - women hold 24.04% of tech jobs
  • in 2017 - 22.99% (some improvement given # of tech jobs)

Jessica Matthews

• young entrepreneur + black woman -> ceo/founder of uncharted power

Her Story

• she is woman, black, and first-generation
  • didn’t match the status-quo
• dual-citizen
  • found infrastructure power is lacking — esp in Nigeria
  • agency to solve a problem can be helpful
    • empower locals to have agency to change problems
• she wasn’t trying to start a business -> she would have been too scared

The problem

• working at refugee camps

  • girls CANNOT play soccer once they hit puberty

• don’t silo energy sources -> combine energy sources

• square peg in a circular hole

• her product -> 70% cheaper, 80% faster, 50% reduction in payback period — needed for developing areas

• a feminine perspective on tech

  • more collaboration
  • more sustainable
  • more communication
  • men have ego, want to do it all themselves

• being underestimated can be the best thing

  • no one will be intimidated by you and try to bring you down
  • more diverse

What can we do and advice

• say “GROUNDBREAKING” about ourselves — women don’t do it as much as men
• don’t be afraid to THINK_WORK_LIVE our authentic truth
• just because it’s not your plan doesn’t mean it’s not your destiny
• being that fresh face allows you to be GROUNDBREAKING

2. Pivot or Die

Panelists

1. Kaaren Hanson
   • director of product design at fb
   • you don’t know your boundaries til you hit them
   • a guy will say, “I nailed it”, but a woman won’t (even if she does just as well)
     • men assume experience is more positive for themselves than women even if same score
     • so — just tell yourself (if you’re a woman) — if you were a guy, you’d feel good about yourself
2. Sara Khoury
   • director of ux design at google
   • comfort and growth don’t go together
   • she started at startups
   • follow intuition
   • her path:
     • 1st pivot - family
       • make plan + budget
       • risk -> how to go back to work?
       • reward -> priceless
       • led to an identity shift
       • she wrote a letter to herself about why she was doing it and what she wanted to achieve after going back to work
     • 2nd pivot - get back into the workforce
       • research + design was internal at her company
       • found job @ job board — not through her network (which she los due to leaving work) — as senior vp
       • made name for herself as an exec
       • when she got comfortable and secure, opportunities show up
       • it’s a rocket ship — get on it
       • panic — “what if we fail?”
         • coping mechanism:
           1. Go to calendar
           2. Find any day 3-6 weeks out
           3. Focus on getting to that date
           4. Repeat
   • planning plays an important role, but intuition is needed to make decisions
     • develop intuition by going too far, making mistakes, and learning
     • so — listen to your gut
3. Margaret Schmidt
   • vp eng, intuit
   • none of her career was planned
   • pivots from moments when bored -> got too comfortable
   • find things that give you energy and chase those - even if hard
   • most meaningful pivot - at tiro after 16 years
     • take initiative to help when needed, even if out of the box
     • don’t stay within bounds of job description
       • volunteer the role if still doing day job
     • make decision, then say ‘let me know if you want to over-rule me’ -> execs/bosses won’t have time to think of better option

Q/A

1. Bigger is better (job titles)… is that true?

• impact is not determined by your title
• focus on growth and learning
• own your career
• “management track”??
  • don’t do it!! … now
    • if you have organizational skills, you’ll be pushed into management eventually
    • if you do it too early — you’ll become irrelevant
    • 10,000 hour rule -> 5-10 years

partner’s careers … balancing pivots between two people?

• note — it was interesting how much focus and thought was put into these women’s family and partners — this is probably not a question that a male software engineer/techie would ask or be concerned about. Food for thought :)
• 2 people at startup with a fam is hard
  • take turns with risky job
• if bf doesn’t clean toilet, dump him now
  • need someone who’s truly a partner

how to handle weaknesses?

• say yes to every opportunity related to weaknesses
• “in comfortable shoes, you forget you have feet” — don’t get too comfortable — common theme
• keep getting up - common theme (it’s going to be hard, and you can only persevere — and find your ppl)

do you have a backup plan?/

• have $$$
• with jobs — there will always be other jobs
• when you know what you really want, the universe will conspire to make it happen

advice for new grads?

• people were told — ‘you’re here because you’re a gal’ or affirmative action
• toughen up - gain the scars
• say, fuck you
• keep pushing, and be ready
• help friends and other women
• honing your craft - get VERY good - common theme
  • become an expert

when ready to pivot — walk away from company/reputation or stay internal?

• walk away - learning app, reinvent self
• stay - can get sponsorships/move up faster
• pick what gives you energy - common theme - don’t do just because it’s suggested or the norm

these panelists are ‘Jill of all trades’ — is there still opportunities for new people?

• more specialization t large company — predictable, but can volunteer for new things outside of scope
• more creative freedom at startups, new types of roles, can build a spectrum of skills

3. Mind the Gap

shoot for the moon… if you miss, you’ll land in the stars

• a startup is 95% team and 5% idea
• why startups don’t fail
  • complimentary skillsets
  • support + respect each other’s roles
  • adaptability
• when evaluating a startup idea, look at:
  • market (is there need?)
  • competencies (can you build it?)
  • passion points
• launching v.s. not launching
  • better to launch early — discover more, less risk of ‘polishing a turd’ — you don’t know the users’ reception

4. Driving Social Impact

• panelists:
  • Sandra liu huang
  • erin coffman
  • shripriya mahesh
  • era ozkan
  • Minnie ingersoll - code for America, google.org

How to determine long-term impact?

• “what’s measured is treasured”
• believe people they work with make the right decisions — give agency to the local people - common theme
• ensure what you’re building is sustainable, and has ownership+involvement of locals
• if more stable in the short-term, helps in the long-term
• empower beneficiaries
  • i.e. help with the design
    • ownership ==> relevancy
• focus on the right outcomes
  • learning -> earning
• ask - why do these problems exist? - don’t just solve symptoms
• tech alone won’t solve the problem, in fact is far from it
  • need process and programming
• think, can there be a new system??

How to stay oriented on a practical level?

• how to motivate team when project is very long-term?
• what can we do now that’ll be most leveraged?
  • i.e. in biotech -> how to accelerate basic science today?
    • more collaboration between labs (no silos!!)
  • set half goals every 6 months
• no war is won according to plan, but no war is won without a plan
• we need to build with urgency but coordinate for sustainability
• think about the user journey
  1. Iterate with end-user
  2. Release minimal viable product often
  3. Repeat
• barriers:
  • cultural barrier
  • cost
  • language
• knowledge transfer is important to make sustainable
• “what’s the ideal journey?”
  • for each type elf user/participant
  • something working itself is not ideal
• understand the user - common theme
  • go out to where the tech will be used
  • immerse self in experience and get context on the ground
  • 100+ users

is it possible to take that time? i.e. is it ok to think, ‘we can’t predict, so we’ll build first’?

• sometimes there are creative approaches to fill roles you’re not trained in
• ‘you need to move slow to move fast’ -> make sure you don’t build too fast without direction
• have a diverse team — very critical to represent many perspectives
  • not productive initially, but good long-term
• collective impact - no single sector or solution will fix the problem
  • need to bring diverse group of stakeholders
  • work together to transfer knowledge
  • ^^ this applies to biotech/medicine too!
• like scaling production -> research has to be scaled too
• take a step back -> what’s the root of the problem we’re trying to solve?
  • don’t solve symptoms of the problem only
• have metrics to measure how you’re doing

‘how do I have meaningful impact?’ - non-profits v.s. for-profits

• social impact and business aren’t separate things
• have to be a profitable business to be sustainable
• in your career:
  1. Choose company with a mission
  2. Ask questions - to all teams
     1. Who are we serving?
     2. What’s the user problem?
     3. How do we know we’re solving it?
  3. Demand accountability
• impact can be driven from any vantage point
• regardless of where you are, you can drive impact
  • individual level:
    • remote mentoring to ppl abroad
    • code sign product for different populations
    • fly into areas and help setup projects — wifi connectivity
• we need all these sectors to solve these problems
• be excellent at the thing you want to do - biggest chance to have impact
• be thoughtful about your impact
• there is a huge opportunity to apply tech innovation to problems otherwise not focused on

notes from q/a

• language barrier is an important consideration (tech is useless if can’t be adopted by different communities)
• integration is v important so it helps entire society and is sustainable
• software eng feels too far removed from the problem — how to still feel impactful?
  • highlight wins + stories of users
  • hear stories of users + keep close to that
  • go out of your way
  • systemic approach - ask management how does this fit in?
• how to be humble and not burden communities?
  • build relationships
  • figure out when, who to meet
    • be respectful of their time
  • ask for feedback!

Can hiring be need blind?

Different companies represented:

1. Greenhouse Inclusion
   • prevents unconscious bias
   • has resume highlights - hides name, college, names
   • anonymized take-home exercises
2. Cockroach Labs
3. Blendoor
   1. Founder story is quite interesting
      1. Went to Stanford + MIT
      2. When she applied to Google — they said she ‘wasn’t technical enough’ and suggested she go into Sales/Marketing
   2. People say it’s a ‘pipeline problem’
4. Interviewing.io
   1. Tech screen first
   2. No resumes, just technical interview before further interviews
   3. branch.interviewing.io - for good
      1. For underrepresented communities
   4. Stat -> 40% of people who got thru on interviewing.io are from non-traditional backgrounds (we see that at Freenome too)

• what is bias?
  • example -> changing name Emily to Greg leads to 2x response
  • factors: name, age, gender, race
  • even women have this bias! Especially against Female POC
• better approach:
  1. Merit-based (interviewing.io)
  2. Anonymized Resumes (Greenhouse Inclusion)
  3. Either way -> collect metrics and data on how your’re doing
  4. Ask for candidate feedback

practically, how long does it take to implement identity_blind process?

• has to be bought in by exec team

• huge time investment

• a process change is needed — people look for low-hanging fruit -> bad

• to drive change, there has to be a tectonic shift in how hiring is done

• someone may not look a certain way on paper

• school name is not an indicator of performance

  • except for some demographics (black people, etc)
    • it helps them prevent bad unconscious bias
      • i.e. founder of Blendoor may not be seen as ‘credible’ without her Stanford degree - which is unfortunate bc that shouldn’t matter

• call people out!!

  • i.e. referring only people who look like and are like yourself — propagates more of this lack of diversity

5. Developing Your Personal Brand

Brand = what people say about you

• people challenge you — tell you what you can or cannot do -> challenge them!
• market your skills that speak the same language to different people
  • learn how to pitch yourself
• take initiative to become the ‘go-to’ person
  • declare yourself as a leader
• be intentional about building a brand + skills
• startups have worse sexism than a big company
• ‘if you can’t beat them, beat them anyway’

how to start a brand?

• no one knows what they want to do
• think about what you aspire to be -> in terms of adjectives
• people don’t strive big enough
• look at job descriptions and circle what you want to be
• oppose well-intended, terrible advice
  • i.e. get an MBA to look like every other applicant (why would you want to blend in?)
• take a NICHE problem and make it yours!! - common theme
• never apply for a job again
• it’s okay not to know

how to figure out transition

• ask questions that show what you like

• so people talk about you when you’re not there —> you’re a developer + something!__

• build network and get introductions

• become an expert so you can talk about an issue

• women are bad abs talking about accomplishments

  • why?
    • imposter syndrome
    • modesty horn -> feel physically uncomfortable
    • rescue fantasy -> raised to believe, if I work hard, someone will rescue me (that’s bs)

• stop downplaying yourself

  • if you know your strong areas, put yourself into a situation with strong feedback lab
    • i.e. control engineering your life

• when going to investors -> if you have a company, but it doesn’t do much yet

  • tell them, believe in me as a person - build a myth about yourself so investor believes in you

• being brutally honest is good - radical candor

• first they ignore you

  • then they laugh at you
  • then they fight you you
  • then they join you

• if you’re really an entrepreneur:

  • lots of NO
  • it’s so hard
  • have to be a bit crazy - listen to your craziness

• even if lots of push back, keep talking, and then people will eventually respond

  • then find the person who gets so excited - then u golden

6. Breaking up the Boys’ Club

Read this!

• in the 40s/50s - women were well represented in software (and men in hardware)

• ‘The Computer Girls’ - Cosmo 1967

• What happened?

  • in 60s/70s -> desperate for talent, tech companies (?) used personality tests
    • ‘good programmers like solving puzzles’
    • ‘good programmers don’t like people’
      • so, more men
        • but, there’s no evidence that people who don’t like people are good at the job
        • in fact, it makes more sense the other way around - building for the user
  • so, they pushed women out
  • women with a CS degree dropped from 37% to 18%

• movies didn’t create stereotypes, the tech industry created and REINFORCED the pipeline problem -> dominated by white men

• if you don’t look the part, people will naturally ask tougher questions

• even today (look @ facebook, PayPal)

  • call themselves a ‘meritocracy’, even though the founders admit that they hired their friends (i.e. look like them)
    • this myth is damaging
  • Silicon Valley is a modern utopia, where you can change the world .. if you’re a man
  • meritocracy is impossible, because everyone comes with different privilege
    • never an even playing field
  • ‘meritocracy’ was actually coined by a British sociologist do describe a dystopian society

• Silicon Valley embraces hard problems (sending people to space, self-driving cars, curing cancer), but when it comes to Diversity & Inclusion, they say it’s too hard

• so naturally, girls who code are scared

  • you cannot be what you can’t see - not enough role models
  • be something the next generation can see

• women are 2x more likely to quit tech

  • so..
    • help women thrive
    • create your own path

• steps a company can take

  • (good intentions aren’t enough)
  • ex. Google
    • before -> Sergey and Larry explicitly cared about hiring women
      • they blocked hiring until x women were hired
    • after growth -> their other priorities took over, lost women representation
  • can’t stop after meeting some quota - continue year after year
  • unconscious bias training isn’t enough - need to give tools to conquer bias
  • example:
    • don’t start interviewing until 2 women, 2 POC
  • have hindsight
  • be explicit
  • if you say you care, it attracts more people

• take-aways

  • know your value
  • be true to yourself
  • companies want to be on the right side of history
  • we’re up against a lot
  • embrace the fact that you’re a woman
  • find people who are championing this effort
  • diverse team = no blind spots
  • it’s not all on women - men should speak up too
  • this game is rigged

The arc of history is long and random, but you have the opportunity to bend it.