Day 3-Paving the Path for Neurodiversity in Design

nd1

— Hi, and thank you for joining my talk on paving path for neurodiversity in design
  • I do DesignOps at British Telecom (BET), a leading UK telecoms companies with 100,000 people working here and focused on  our business customers
— I oversee a design team of 160 people

 

nd2

— I’ll jump right in
  • I’m responsible for onboarding new designers on the team
  • I ended up onboarding three neuro-diverse (ND) people consecutively over several and met more as well as supporting a close friend through their own ND diagnosis

 

nd3

— Failed at the start as we didn’t think of ND when designing processes and didn’t know what we didn’t know

 

nd4

— For new joiners onboarding, we found that 15% thought to be ND and numbers  can grow as people get access to testing
  • If there are 100 people, 15 can potentially be ND, without diagnosis
— What percentage do you think are women who are ND?

 

nd5

— Numbers are hard to find as access to diagnoses and treatment for women is harder
  • Few studies on female specific ND and most common diagnostic age is in late 30s to early 40s
  • For men diagnostic is seven years old
— Every new starter was ND, and women, who received it recently
  • Helped understand challenges colleagues were experiencing

 

nd6

— For the task at hand we started onboarding people, and setting up operations, but found ways of working were flawed and assumed  person was neurotypical by default
  • Made it feel like we had work to do, from this we had to have a conversation to make it happen

 

nd7

— I’ve been asked, why are you working on this?
  • My job is to research and adapt processes to people, and listening and caring for processes
— Colleagues have different requirements and DOps has potential to be source of power and partner

 

nd8

— Everyone’s job to care about and contribute for inclusivity and DesignOps is literally everyone’ duty

 

— Today I will talk about people have worked within British Telecom’s design team
  • Do want to say what we talk about are research and ND is unique and not one-sized fits all
    • Will focus on ADHD as the main source of neuro-diversity, as main focus of my experience and knowledge

 

nd9

— Here’s a definition of ADHD, based on how I think about it
  • One type of ND and stereotype as naughty child at school who couldn’t focus
    • But did you ever have naughty little girl at class as opposed to a boy?
— Current treatment deal with dopamine deficit, in that they are constantly chasing what gives motivation

 

nd10

— If we go back, didn’t know distinction between normal and neurotypical
  • Anyone who functions in similar way to most other people can be considered neurotypical
    • But who is ‘normal’ anyway?

nd11

— Comorbidities are distinct health conditions present with multiple illnesses or disabilities there
  • Example include someone who has anxiety and autistic spectrum disorder

 

nd12

— I’ll with Molly as senior systems designer for team where DesignOps wasn’t even involved and hadn’t received normal diagnosis
  • Molly felt like an imposter for talking about ADHD
— Challenges
  1. Lack of unique onboarding process tailored to Molly and receiving feedback and rejection sensitivity
  2. Design team going through reorg with little communication, which created perfect storm for ADHD with feelings bigger and more intense
— Solution
  1. Modified checkpoints for gathering formal feedback from starters and not leaving it to managers.
    1. Slack channel and check-ins and daily check-ins
  2. Navigation of seeking diagnosis and best way to make it work
    1. Needs assessment one-on-one for questions and ask person to assess and how they like to work
    2. Gave Molly time and space to give what needed, along with associated support

 

nd13

— I realized that these things relevant to new starters, but neuro-diverse colleague and more important for foundations being strong and as much ambiguity as possible
  • Without improvements on our end, we would have lost new joiners to other companies

 

nd14

— Next meet Emma, who joined as a content designer
  • I didn’t get notified she was joining, so Emma joined the company with no process or structure
  • She was alone with journey and dealing with diagnosis
    • Struggled with chaotic processes and delivery perspectives
— Processes in company weren’t in control and needed someone to talk through it and  the information
  • Started to connect neuro-diverse colleagues with each other and check points for process worked for Emma and Molly
— Second, way of communicating and setting deadlines and standard email and block of text and no words
  • Risk of time blindness
    • Information was linked to something typical for large org and have information everywhere and onboarding process and implemented more formalized onboarding doc
  • Made a checklist and clear expectations
    • Taught how to display checklists to display info in way to avoid cognitive overload
    • Format helped Emma with memory
— Future new starters for team, we gave an onboarding pack ahead of first day, and aim to provide answers to questions before even asked
  • Main feedback has reduced anxiety for new starters by having clear structure and expectations and measure journey with 30-60 day check-ins and protections against time blindness

 

nd15

— Finally Frances, she was the last ND person onboarded and joined design team as we were ramping up changes into org
  • Over year into diagnoses and articulated it really well
— Every task seemed like one impossible thing and Frances had little guidance on priorities
  • Debilitated by seemingly tasks (i.e. 17 steps to brushing teeth)
  • Applied to work as well
— For new team and manager worried about not understanding way of working, and fear of being poorly understood and clear grasp of priorities
  • New projects always seemed to cause anxiety
— Frances’s ability of hyperfocus had clear asset to team, but she just needed to tap into those qualities
  • Joined and asked for workshop and collaborating with aunt and how to support
— Link to resource document and how team would like to communicate and gave Frances ability to feel seen, and had tools needed to succeed in role
  • Use this framework for new starter
— Frances also had anxiety around communication, which impacted me

 

nd16

— Take a look at question above and how it made you feel
  • Frances also had general anxiety, and truly believes she is about to get fired and quick message puts her into waiting mode and don’t move until it works for you
— Fullness with her

 

nd17

— Key learnings to connect dot sand power in community and in DesignOps we did this together to create safe space for working group
  • Need a team to make change at scale, with experience and passion and saw immediate value of bringing people with similar challenges together
    • Each person’s ND was unique and had own perspective gave reassurance of listening and making workplace more accessible
— Learned to redefine success criteria for people
  • For each new starter senior hire, needed to capture ADHD ways of working
— Okay to ask questions and not have all the answers, and admit ignorance to how everyone likes to work
  • Worth nothing that those with ADHD likely don’t have answer to help themselves and trial and error is key

 

nd18

— Still a lot to do
  • Focused on small group and intimate conversations and ND people on team
    • Space for collaboration and good to reach more people
  • 15% world population is neuro-diverse and if you have 160 in design team,  24 likely neuro-diverse
— Education is part of scaling
  • Many managers asking how to work with ND colleagues
    • So creating training sessions for ways of working  and how to help with that
  • Answer questions people have about themselves and ND
— Reach
  • Other ND types and disabilities and intersectionality and will admit it to be overwhelming and what might work for this group might not work for others
    • Anything done well to support at org. Message me directly and eager to learn from it

 

nd19

 

— Big idea was that there is no big idea
  • Often advancing work, we need to get to basics, and strong foundations are cornerstone for accessibility and more
  • Think differently, judge less, and reset expectations of people around you
Q&A
  1. Neuro-diversity is a super-complex topic, and it is hard to broach topic for workplace culture for neuro-diverse people. How can those managers in small-to-medium businesses start the conversation?
    1. Always ask about disability if part of onboarding process, and lot of it comes to manager training and safe space
      1. Needs assessment for start and bring what is comfortable and for manager to create setting rather than HR listing out a form –where something is wrong with you
      2. You are not the problem, ableism is.