DesignOps 2020- Day 2 Opener: Past, Present, and Future—Closing the Racial Divide in Design Teams (Session Notes)
Speaker: Vincent Brathwaite: Design Leader, Speaker, and Educator
—To begin, Vincent would like to thank the entire DesignOps conference for letting him share his presentation today
— The message of the talk is how to close the racial divide in design
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COVID and Protests for Black Lives Matter have brought up a truth that was long dismissed
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Everything. It’s a negative domino effect.
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Unequal treatment of people by different races is being reflected in the design industry
—According to 2019 design industry survey only 3% of design industry members are African American/Black designers, while 71% of designers are white
An Overview of the Problem
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Until 18th century, it classifying something as belonging to a specific race/sort/kind
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After abolition of slavery race became a mechanism of summary focused on social differentiation
- It had an emphasis on superiority vs. inferiority
— Per anthropologists Audrey and Brian Smedley, race is about profound and unbridgeable differences. It is designed to differentiate on people between origin and appearance, and to discriminate because of these differences.
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The lack of open discussion about race impacts design teams, preventing bridges from being built, and people from collaboratively working together
Tamara Petit: Product Design Manager at General Assembly
Bill Townsley: Senior UX Design Manager, Product Design at Capital One
Cory Grabow: Founder of Bruxton Group LA
Amir Elabbaddy: Senior UX Designer at Accenture
Terrell Cobb: Design Lead at Microsoft
— There is no single definition of success for design teams, as success varies depending on the team context.
- Structure and Communication
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Data in every meeting
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Paying attention to diversity
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Alignment with talent and experience
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Starting with User Research
— Structure defines the parameters of engagement, allowing a team to work autonomously
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Regularly scheduled meetings
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Communicating on behalf of meetings
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One just said “communication is key”
— In all cases, structure is defined, and communication of the team is evident.
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Lack of either has led to bad outcomes that cost money or led to poor solutions that didn’t solve the problem at hand
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No words to communicate thoughts or emotions (due to fear of offending people or being misunderstood in what you said)
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Race is complex so people often avoid it, or push it to the side
— The lack of discussion is why the topic of race is so relevant, and race has been given space to grow in its impact and complexity.
The Solution
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Language is defined as method of human communication, either spoken or written, consisting of the use of words in a structured or conventional way
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Language needs communication and structure, like teams, to succeed
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Use structure in language (specifically four components)
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Can be shared in formula that can be used when you share with others, but people don’t see it when engaging on topic like race
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This lets people agree/disagree, yet still progress to a common goal
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Networking event
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DesignOps 2020
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Your department
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Context exists, but can be unspoken and impressive
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If informal, mention the context of the meeting immediately
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Make people aware of things that need to be discussed
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Effective communication + structure = success design teams
The Structure
Equity
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When people discuss race must be.a shared understanding of contributions and roles
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We know how to speak with friends because we know our roles and operate within parameters
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When hierarchy disappears, the creativity is opened up
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There was an exercise where the name-cards of senior staff members removed and table re-arranged to muddle existing ranks
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This muddle of hierarchy encouraged people to think of themselves as equals despite rank differences
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This technique led to more ideas being generated
Vulnerability
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Vulnerability creates opportunity to relate
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Lets you show you are imperfect and open to be more informed
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Consider the motto “Fail Forward”— It suggests the opportunity for moving forward with mistakes
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Be vulnerable and objective about what you know and what you don’t
Investment
Diversity
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Diversity gives gives everyone access to each other’s blind-spots
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It limits the influence biases can have in a conversation
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It lets people consider different angles of problems
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Best conversations include depth and learning
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Space must be created for diversity to survive and thrive
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Have a succession plan for diverse leaders
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Future of design team comes from those who come behind us
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As gatekeepers, we need to keep the door open to those who will keep torch going
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Black youth are trend-setters for the American consumer and represent largest group of people of color in the marketplace
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They are responsible for 1.4 trillion dollars annually, and carry influence in which projects to the rest of the population
A Formula to Follow
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But you can see positive results
Success According to the Design Managers is as follows.
Tamara Petit: Product Design Manager at General Assembly
Bill Townsley: Senior UX Design Manager, Product Design at Capital One
Cory Grabow: Founder of Bruxton Group LA
Terrell Cobb: Design Lead at Microsoft
Putting it into Practice
- Vincent and a white colleague were instructors at a UX design course, and they received two simultaneous responses from two Asian females and a Black designer. All three designers were assigned to the same project, and had come to know each other very well.
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The white co-instructor told Vincent there needed to be a conversation with the Black designer, under the assumption that the Black designer’s near immediate response to his Asian female team-mates was making the Asian team-mates uncomfortable.
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There was an assumption on behalf of the white co-instructor that the Black designer was going to start a conflict with his team-mates, and the white co-instructor wanted to get ahead of the conflict.
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Vincent told his colleague that they should wait until reason to speak about conflicts in the team that actually appeared, and the instructors didn’t end up speaking with the team at all.
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But Vincent was curious about what the colleague meant and why he said what he said
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His colleague thanked Vincent for bringing the issue up, but pointed out he didn’t mean anything in terms of ill and intent
Conclusion
Questions
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How do we contribute to fighting racial divide outside U.S.?
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Advice or guidance on hiring?
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How to tackle educational divide for Black designers?
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What to do when you are the “only one” or person of color on team?
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Do you see practices for increasing creativity and innovation for closing racial divide?
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How to contact?