Competence, compassion, and confidence

A talk for Wildhacks 2016 hackathon on building confidence, how compassion and competence play a role, imposter syndrome, and being a designer and a women in tech.

Transcript

1. Competence, Compassion, and Confidence Diana Mounter @broccolini
2. I work on design systems at GitHub (CSS Architecture, UI patterns, style guide documentation etc.)
3. I’m a designer I write code I’m a women (in tech) I’m an alien About me
4. COMPETENCE COMPASSION CONFIDENCE
5. LEVEL 1
6. As a designer Hmmm which green…
7. Prepare to be constantly wrong As a designer
8. Everyone has an opinion As a designer
9. Design is very accessible (lots of people have a friend or a cousin that build a website for $200) Everyone has an opinion
10. This doesn’t look so hard FREE websites templates! Minimal Portfolio Menu theme Fashion site Notebook Hacker theme Many services to use (and for free)
11. Most people can look at something and say if they like it or not Everyone has an opinion
12. Design critique Opinions Opinions Opinions Opinions Opinions Opinions Opinions Opinions Opinio
13. Dinosaurs Humans Invent the wheel Roman Empire Land on the moon Product Design Computers (Not to scale) Sliced bread iPhone
14. With all this against you How do you build your confidence & competence?
15. Back yourself up with data How do you build your confidence & competence?
16. But it’s so obvious! ?
17. But it’s so obvious! ? 200
18. But it’s so obvious! ? 200 400
19. But it’s so obvious! ? 200 400 500
20. Always be researching & testing How do you build your confidence & competence?
21. How does this same interaction work elsewhere? Prototype and iterate in design & code, see how it feels. Seek feedback & critique: your colleagues may have insights you don’t. Always be researching & testing
22. Leverage the tried and tested methods that already exist How do you build your confidence & competence?
23. The Boring Designer Cap Watkins blog.capwatkins.com/the-boring-designer
24. Chooses obvious over clever The boring designer
25. Doesn’t reinvent the wheel (until it needs to be) The boring designer
26. Is practical with time & resources The boring designer
27. Must Should Could Won’t Prioritize (MoSCoW)
28. Strong opinions, weakly held. Paul Saffo saffo.com/02008/07/26/strong-opinions-weakly-held/
29. Boring CSS Me In my drafts folder on Medium.com
30. Obvious over clever CSS makes it easier for everyone to have confidence in what the CSS is doing Boring CSS
31. “If I’m reading HTML, I want to know what the CSS is going to do.” Adam Morse CSS and Scalability
32. LEVEL 2
33. As a women in tech Washrooms >>
34. I have to overcome stereotypes As a women in tech
35. Bossy Over emotional Probably lowered the bar to hire a women Too sexually distracting Overreacts Probably wants kids soon Won’t be able to handle the pace Will have to mansplain everything
36. I use a lot of energy with dual track thoughts As a women in tech
37. You’re not confident enough You’re being too bossy
39. And there are a lot more minorities that face difficulties
40. Making online collaboration safer at GitHub Danielle Leong https://youtu.be/0CLYWi8wSyk
41. Women are more likely to have their pull- requests merged if they hide their gender* *Study is not yet peer-reviewed California Polytechnic State University North Carolina State University
42. “Everyone should be able to merge, no matter what the vehicle.” Danielle Leong https://youtu.be/0CLYWi8wSyk
43. You be you. It’s a tricky balance, but remember
44. LEVEL 3
45. Imposter syndrome
46. It must have just been luck I got this job.
48. I’m not good enough to be here.
49. Maybe if I act more like them…
50. All that does is make it harder for other diverse people to be accepted Don’t be a chameleon
51. And you might be hiding some of the best parts of yourself Don’t be a chameleon
52. Find your squad
53. New to the company, new to being remote, and then I started building a new team I still struggle with confidence sometimes
54. CONFIDENCE INVADERS
55. Right amount of confidence Intimidation Fear Assumptions Arrogance Ability Empathy Bias Worth
56. I am already enough, before 
 I take action When you don’t feel confident, remember:
57. Preparation is your friend When you don’t feel confident
58. Make an agenda & share Rehearse Walk through your work & check it Make a list of talking points Set context Preparation is your friend
59. Actively listen & observe Choose your battles Back up your opinions Remember to:
60. I don’t know but I’ll find out. When you don’t have the answer, it’s okay to say:
61. Give your best guess, follow up and check your answer. Or…
62. LEVEL 4
63. Feedback on how you work
64. Feedback on your work There’s a difference between
65. how you work and
66. Bad bad bad bad bad bad!
67. Bad bad bad bad bad bad! -1,000
68. Good, fair, excellent, how to improve.
69. 300 500 600
70. Is there repetition? If so, figure how you want to respond. Give yourself time to absorb, then ask yourself
71. Don’t sweat the one-off feedback too much, just take it into consideration and be mindful of other occurrences If not,
72. Reach out to other people you trust for their opinion If you feel concerned
73. Remember to thank others Giving others feedback
74. That was totally radcakes Aw shucks, thanks!
75. Good feedback gives people a path forward Giving others feedback
76. That’s wrong
77. I think this would work better with…
78. BONUS LEVEL
79. Change is the only constant In the tech industry
80. Try and enjoy it!
81. Don’t forget to turn back around and help the next person in line. When you get to where you’re going
82. When you get to where you’re going, Tim McGraw A country singer (I’m not really into country music) I just copied this quote from someone at ElaConf Don’t forget to turn back around and help the next person in line.
83. Thank you. Diana Mounter @broccolini Thanks to Space Invaders and Loren Schmidt for design inspiration, and to the speakers at ElaConf 2016 for all their inspiring talks.