The Other Side of Empathy

Given at EmpireJS 2015, this talk expands the original idea of The Other Side of Empathy spoken about at previous meetups and gives real life examples of using empathy as we work together on making awesome products for the web and beyond.

The original essay can be read here: https://the-pastry-box-project.net/nick-hehr/2014-july-5

Transcript

1. The Other Side of Empathy
3. Who Am I?
4. Who Am I? • Nick Hehr • Front-End Developer • Disney Fan • Bouldering Enthusiast • Human
6. Why Do I Care?
7. Why Do I Care? Psychology & Leadership Degree Constant Collaboration w/ Designers & Devs I Community
9. Who Should Care?
10. Everybody
12. What Is Empathy?
13. What Is Empathy? “The ability to understand and share the feelings of another.” - New Oxford American Dictionary
14. What Is Empathy? “Putting yourself in someone else’s shoes.”

15. What Is Empathy? “Seeing the world through the eyes of someone else.”

16. Where Did The Other Side of Empathy Come From?
17. Where Did It Come From? • Using Twitter • Snap Judgements • Mob Mentality • Design Orlando • The Pastry Box Project
18. Breakdown
19. Breakdown Context Constructive Feedback Communication Caring
20. Context
21. – dictionary.com “The interrelated conditions in which something exists.”
22. The internal and external factors that influence the decisions we make and actions we take.
23. How It Relates
24. How It Relates • No One is Un-Opinionated • We All Have Biases • Listening is Key • “Why?”
26. Set The Example
27. Example User Stories with Gherkin
28. –Wikipedia “It captures the ‘who’, ‘what’, and ‘why’ of a requirement in a simple, concise way…”
29. Remembering Context
30. Remembering Context • Take A Deep Breath • Clear Your Mind • Ask “Why?” (sincerely) • Listen
31. Constructive Feedback
32. - dictionary.com “The return of information about the result of a process that helps to develop or improve that process or product.”
33. How It Relates
34. How It Relates “If you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all.”
36. How It Relates “If you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all.”
37. How It Relates “If you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all.”
38. How It Relates “If you don’t have anything constructive to say, then don’t say anything at all.”
39. What about negative feedback?
41. Good Feedback > 140 characters
43. Mutually Agreed Upon Set Up Expectations Open Space Remember Context
44. Example Code Reviews
45. -Wikipedia “It is intended to find and fix mistakes overlooked in the initial development phase, improving both the overall quality of software and the developers' skills.”
46. Encouraging Constructive Feedback
48. https://github.com/atom/atom/blob/master/ CONTRIBUTING.md
49. Communication
50. –New Oxford American Dictionary “The successful conveying or sharing of ideas and feelings between people.”
51. How It Relates
52. How It Relates • What We Say • How We Say It • Where We Say It
53. Communication is a broad area that encompasses how we interact with each other.
54. “I” Statements For Giving Constructive Feedback For Getting Context
55. “You” Statements For Getting Context For Giving Constructive Feedback
56. Example Switching Between Platforms
57. How We Communicate • General = HipChat • Standups = Hangouts / In-Person • Recorded Discussions = GitHub Issues & Trello Cards • Event Planning = Email
58. Creating Communication
62. Caring
63. –New Oxford American Dictionary “Feeling of concern or interest; attach importance to something; look after and provide the needs of.”
64. How It Relates
65. How It Relates Caring is Sharing And Listening And Understanding
67. How Much Do You Care?
68. Do You Care Enough… • To Write A Blog Post? • To File An Issue? • To Send An Email? • To Record A Screencast? • To Submit A Pull Request?
69. – Yoda “Don’t give in to hate. It leads to the Dark Side.”
70. Example Internal Documentation
71. Documentation Matters • Wikis • Code Comments • Styleguides • Pattern Libraries • README.md
72. Exemplifying Caring
73. Mentoring Matters • Remember Starting Out? • Did You Have A Mentor? • Did You Want A Mentor? • Do You Want To Learn?
74. What Empathy Is Not
75. What Empathy Is Not • Pat on the Back • “Cheer Up.” • Empty Conversations • Sympathy
76. https://www.flickr.com/photos/rosenfeldmedia/ 15491807403/in/set-72157649603145899
77. Contributing
78. Contributing • Just Listen For A Day • Apply The Examples • Start Off Small • Remain Open to Sharing
79. “It still sounds too hard.”
81. Resources
82. Resources hipsterbrown.com/empathy
83. Thank You