Finding Diversity Where the Wild Things Are

In order to both make the thing right, and to make the right thing, we need a diverse range of backgrounds, identities, and skill sets. I’m thrilled to be joining thousands of other queer folks and allies to make ideas travel and draw connections between our own systems of knowledge at the Lesbians Who Tech Summit in San Francisco, today through Saturday. 

This will be my first LWT summit – and my first time speaking at a conference! I’ll be speaking about what picture books can teach us about reducing complexity in tech on Saturday, March 3, at 12pm at the Badlands Theater. Or for live coverage from the #LWTSummit, follow SAP Silicon Valley on Twitter, Instagram, Periscope, and Facebook!

Enterprise design can be a jungle, but picture books contain powerful lessons about simplified storytelling

I’m a Millennial, but I’m old enough to remember a world not yet hyper-connected by the internet. I used to ‘Ask Jeeves’ what the weather was. 20 years later, I can say “Hey Google, good morning” and Google Home tell me the weather – plus reads my schedule for the day, tells me the news, lets me know what my commute will be like, and and starts the Roomba. We’re witnessing one of the biggest transformation in human history as we rely on technology to let us work, communicate, travel, eat, exercise, drink water, meditate… to be human.

As the creators of transformative technology, we have the power to influence the lives of hundreds of millions of people. But with great power, comes great responsibility – and this responsibility is too great for any single demographic to have full control over tech. We decide what kind of benefit we want the product to deliver, and who we want these benefits to be for. Diversity (of gender, class, race, abilities, backgrounds, and more) is paramount in ensuring that we make tech for everyone. Ideally, tech should be FUBU – for us, by us. While we can’t make sure that the team ‘us’ includes every possible voice, we can make sure that we reach out to make those voices heard.

The LWT Summit is a great place for tech folk to meet, mingle, and learn how we can put our skills to use to build better tech for tomorrow. As the personal is becoming increasingly affected by technology, we – the makers of technology – have a responsibility to create products that work for everyone. The world runs on SAP and the world is a diverse place!

For live coverage from #LWTSummit, follow SAP Silicon Valley on Twitter, Instagram, Periscope, and Facebook!