This month François Montay, Sr. UX Designer & Team Lead at Google explains why he supports the idea of a diversity movement such as WE SHAPE TECH.
I am fortunate to be a father of 2, a girl and a baby boy, both 3rd culture kids. My little girl will soon be 7. She is bright, bubbly and curious about a ton of things. Which is something I foster and encourage every day.
The other day, while I was getting cash at the bancomat, she went on asking questions about “how it works, and how the machine knows how much money I have in my piggy bank.” And here I am, describing technology and security to a 7 year old.
The whole experience turned out to be very interesting not only because she was truly fascinated by the way “machines” could communicate with each other, but also because technology was no longer a complete mystery. It became accessible, reachable, but still magic somehow. Maybe someday she’ll want to explore more, and if she does, I want to make sure she has equal opportunity in this field than her brother.
This little crash course in computer science made me reflect on our practice. We need more women and diversity in our company because we need to be the reflection of our end-users. The same applies at the team level. “You don’t know what you don’t know.” Bringing as many perspectives as possible into a project is the surest way to maximize its chances of success.
Diversity is all around us – in every aspects of our lives.