Be the Voice of Change
It’s common knowledge womxn—especially womxn of color—are underrepresented in the technology industry today. This lack of gender diversity carries with it a major opportunity cost. Diverse teams are on average more creative, innovative, and, ultimately, are associated with greater profitability. In addition, being a designer in the technology industry is often a minority group, and with a focus on engineers and developers, there often aren’t initiatives to grow creativity in tech organizations.
As designers and design leaders, how do we bring change to the tech industry to address this lack of diversity?
As a co-founder of Womxn in Design at Microsoft, a group that aims to empower creative women by supporting professional growth and cultivating relationships within and beyond the design community, we aim to create awareness of gender-related issues and elevate the influence of women leaders in design within Microsoft and our industry.
Learn how Womxn in Design was started, key insights into how to spark change and how to take action to bring change to the tech industry.
The key takeaways
- Why Women + Diversity Matters to your Organization – Using data and insights gathered from women at Microsoft, the audience will learn how to spark change in their organization.
- Treat Team Culture Like a Product – As a creative leader at Microsoft, I relied on my strength and knowledge in designing products and applied it to improving the culture of our team. The process surrounded 5 steps: 1. Start with research, 2. Define a road map, 3. Run pilots, 4. Track and measure results, 5. Learn, iterate and repeat.
- Ten Event Ideas to Spark Change Now – Ultimately, change is hard… and slow. But, there are things you can do now to activate culture improvement in your organization. These will be shared in an easy, ‘how to get started’ toolkit
- Take action! How can you be the voice of change now? – From examining your own assumptions to making space for differences, the audience will learn ways to take action immediately.
Ultimately, change is hard… and slow. The audience will learn that if we all work together we CAN spark change.
Tasha’s experience on the topic
Twenty years industry experience as a creative leader and co-founder of Womxn in Design at Microsoft has provided a unique perspective and allowed me to examine the intersection of culture and product. Sparking change in a large company has been a challenge and rewarding experience that others can learn from.
Why is this relevant?
This lack of gender diversity carries with it a major opportunity cost. Diverse teams are on average more creative, innovative, and, ultimately, are associated with greater profitability. In addition, being a designer in the technology industry is often a minority group and with a focus on engineers and developers, there often aren’t initiatives to grow creativity in tech organizations.
