What role do diversity and inclusion play in your work?
Sebastian Janus - derStartupCFO
29 replies
As I am a firm believer in diversity and its upsides, since diversity fosters innovation and creativity, I have been wondering:
What is your experience with diversity efforts and promotions in your workplace and projects that you are working on?
Replies
![Vivek Katial](https://ph-avatars.imgix.net/4094007/original.jpeg?auto=compress&codec=mozjpeg&cs=strip&auto=format&w=36&h=36&fit=crop)
Vivek Katial@vivekkatial
Always love to reference Verna Myers: "Diversity is being invited to the party; inclusion is being asked to dance"
Our business was founded through DEI principles (diversity, equity and inclusion) and it pervades every part of our business from product development, internal ops and hiring.
There is a whole bunch of stuff we do which probs I cant list out but here are some examples
Product Development:
- In our user research, actively measuring and showing our ideas to people from diverse groups
- Building data tools, following best practices around data ethics
- We only collect data if we are able to provide value to those same people (reciprocity).
- When we do data labelling, we divvy it up across a diverse group of people. This is important to minimise the bias that our model learns from the labelled data.
- For analysing the quality of feedback given during code review, we avoided using features like the demographic information of the feedback’s authors, because this could end up penalising certain groups of people.
- We commit to doing intersectional evaluation of all of our models on our own team (since we have our own demographic data and a diverse team)
Internal Operations:
- Quarterly training and L&D sessions about the histories of oppression in ANZ
- Allyship training for all employees
- Internally transparent salary bands and ESOP allocations
- Consciously creating an environment that listens to those different voices, e.g., considering the share of voice in our team meetings; and making sure to rotate “office housework” tasks
- Aus and NZ based employees learning about Te Tiriti o Waitangi, histories of oppression of Maori in NZ and we also do Te Reo workshops
Hiring:
- Reach out to people from different communities to share opportunities for working at Multitudes
- Check for values alignment and people who are adding to our culture as an organisation
- Ask candidates to reflect on their privilege and how they think about oppression
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@vivekkatial Thanks for sharing your insights. It was a pleasure to read on how thoroughly your company approaches the topic of diversity in all relevant aspects of the organisation. I believe more companies, including mine, can improve on product development and learn from advanced processed such as those that you described above. Transparency and trust become more and more important for society and businesses which is why data ethics should not be neglected by the same.
@scaleuplab Thanks Sebastian! We're super passionate about this topic for our work at https://www.multitudes.co/ -- we've got a few blog posts on how we do things too if you're curious to check it out and learn more :)
Hi @vivekkatial, also thanks to you on your interest in this topic. I also just launched the world's largest directory on Diversity and Inclusion :) Please check it out: https://www.producthunt.com/post...
Diversity is important right from the brainstorming phase, because having different backgrounds is what makes the ideas richer and more innovative.
You have to hire people who are different from you. The Myers Briggs assessment through Wendel is also a great tool to use
@saamerm I agree, though very important, people often think of diversity only in terms of ethnicity or gender. As you described: Diversity in terms of personality types like those determined by the Myers Briggs model is key, too, as it enriches thinking and decision making and ultimately and innovation. Thanks for sharing, @saamerm !
Hi @saamerm, I just launched the world's largest directory on diversity & inclusion on PH. Check it out :)
https://www.producthunt.com/post...
For me -- it comes from both individual approaches and company-wide efforts. On an individual basis, I make sure to understand potential biases that often occur in the hiring process so I can overcome them (i.e. overlooking those different from me while hiring people that are similar to who I am). On a company-wide basis, we are currently going through a rebranding, and it is important to prioritize brand elements (such as messaging and imagery) that do not alienate any part of our userbase or target customers.
Right now, we are proud to be a small company comprised of 11 people from 10 different countries 😀
@taliambender Sounds amazing! Thanks for sharing.
I wonder what is your best advice in order to overcome biases in the hiring process?
@scaleuplab you're welcome! For us -- it's helped having several eyes looking at the applications and being part of each interview round.
Hi @taliambender, I just launched the world's largest directory on DEI on product hunt. Please check it out! https://www.producthunt.com/post...
For me, it is essential to have a diverse top management team. This includes gender diversity, ethnic diversity, and more.
@histon_966 I agree, while I also believe that diversity in every level of the organisation is important, the top management in particular needs to symbolise it and must take the lead.
@histon_966 I couldn´t agree more because having no departmental team to enforce employees will lead to organisational disasters
+1 to @vivekkatial's answer. I think it's critical to talk about the systemic causes of bias, racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination, so that as a company, we can create system-level change in our organisation, domain, and industry as a whole. We don't shy away from topics like anti-racism, decolonisation, indigenous data principles - these are all professional topics that will 100% impact the success and value of our product.
We find that talking about these topics and applying them to things like design reviews, exploratory data analyses, and UX research helps us to avoid entrenching existing inequalities with our product.
@jenny_sahng 100%. Though I believe a lot of companies do face difficulties in drawing conclusions in order to successfully implement and apply to their business processes. It takes patience and a strong intrinsic company culture to get where you are. Keep it up!
Hi @jenny_sahng Please check this out: https://www.producthunt.com/post...
I just launched the world's largest directory on Diversity & Inclusion on Product Hunt. I'd appreciate the support :)
Multiple perspectives create greater perceptions of depth.
We complement Marketing Leads and Founders' effort to reach and speak to their target audience the way they would like to be spoken to.
It's important for us to know how to speak to different people. We've benefitted a lot from having a diverse team by virtue of their wealth of unique experiences.
Wouldn't trade that for anything.
@centamadi I couldn´t agree more because most organisations talk about it but do not know the effective measures to carry that will lead to fostering a happy working culture.
As a member of a fully remote team, I get to firsthand appreciate the benefits of diversity. I work with people from all over the world and exploring new perspective and trains of thought is always satisfying.
@maya_ovice Thanks again for sharing your experience. Feel free to check out my new project on the same topic https://www.producthunt.com/post...
It's the largest directory on Diversity & Inclusion on product hunt :)
One company I work for had not been very diverse traditionally, and now with a new CEO and Exec they are using recruitment of diverse staff as a way to shake things up and change the culture. I find it fascinating!
@justine_hanna This is an amazing approach to combatting biases.
@joy_okundia It's not the only thing we're doing but it's certainly a fairly direct way to come to grips with the issue!
Hi @justine_hanna, thanks for your observations on this important topic. Please also feel free to check out this project related to the same topic. The world's largest directory on diversity & inclusion.
https://www.producthunt.com/post...
Diversity is a topic that is very important nowadays especially in a globalised world. It comes with great advantages and also disadvantages if it is not managed properly. Therefore, for organisations embracing diversity or about to adopt this strateyg; it is essential to mitigates its challenges, as a result managements should be able to provide trainings, mentorship/coaching, policies and access its hiring policies. Without these and other effective strategies there will be loopholes and conflicts between employees leading to great dissatisfaction in the workplace.