Dinosaurs
Humans
Invent
the wheel
Roman
Empire
Land on
the moon
Product
Design
Computers
(Not to scale)
Sliced
bread
iPhone
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With all this against you
How do you build
your confidence &
competence?
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Back yourself
up with data
How do you build your confidence & competence?
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But it’s so obvious!
?
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But it’s so obvious!
?
200
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But it’s so obvious!
?
200
400
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But it’s so obvious!
?
200
400 500
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Always be
researching &
testing
How do you build your confidence & competence?
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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
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Leverage the tried
and tested methods
that already exist
How do you build your confidence & competence?
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The Boring
Designer
Cap Watkins
blog.capwatkins.com/the-boring-designer
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Chooses
obvious over
clever
The boring designer
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Doesn’t reinvent
the wheel
(until it needs to be)
The boring designer
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Is practical with
time &
resources
The boring designer
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Must
Should
Could
Won’t
Prioritize
(MoSCoW)
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Strong opinions,
weakly held.
Paul Saffo
saffo.com/02008/07/26/strong-opinions-weakly-held/
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Boring CSS
Me
In my drafts folder on Medium.com
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Obvious over clever CSS
makes it easier for
everyone to have
confidence in what the
CSS is doing
Boring CSS
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“If I’m reading HTML,
I want to know what
the CSS is going to do.”
Adam Morse
CSS and Scalability
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LEVEL 2
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As a women in tech
Washrooms >>
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I have to
overcome
stereotypes
As a women in tech
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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
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I use a lot of
energy with dual
track thoughts
As a women in tech
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You’re not
confident
enough
You’re being
too bossy
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No content
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And there are a lot
more minorities
that face difficulties
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Making online
collaboration safer
at GitHub
Danielle Leong
https://youtu.be/0CLYWi8wSyk
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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
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“Everyone should be
able to merge, no matter
what the vehicle.”
Danielle Leong
https://youtu.be/0CLYWi8wSyk
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You be you.
It’s a tricky balance, but remember
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LEVEL 3
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Imposter syndrome
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It must have just been
luck I got this job.
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No content
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I’m not good enough to be here.
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Maybe if I act more like them…
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All that does is make
it harder for other
diverse people to be
accepted
Don’t be a chameleon
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And you might be
hiding some of the
best parts of yourself
Don’t be a chameleon
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Find your squad
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New to the company,
new to being remote,
and then I started
building a new team
I still struggle with confidence sometimes
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CONFIDENCE
INVADERS
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Right amount of
confidence
Intimidation
Fear
Assumptions
Arrogance
Ability
Empathy
Bias
Worth
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I am already
enough, before
I take action
When you don’t feel confident, remember:
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Preparation is
your friend
When you don’t feel confident
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Make an agenda & share
Rehearse
Walk through your work & check it
Make a list of talking points
Set context
Preparation is your friend
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Actively listen & observe
Choose your battles
Back up your opinions
Remember to:
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I don’t know
but I’ll find out.
When you don’t have the answer, it’s okay to say:
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Give your best
guess, follow up and
check your answer.
Or…
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LEVEL 4
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Feedback on how
you work
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Feedback on
your work
There’s a difference between
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how you work
and
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Bad bad bad
bad bad bad!
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Bad bad bad
bad bad bad!
-1,000
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Good, fair,
excellent,
how to improve.
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300
500 600
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Is there repetition?
If so, figure how you
want to respond.
Give yourself time to absorb, then ask yourself
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Don’t sweat the one-off
feedback too much, just
take it into consideration
and be mindful of other
occurrences
If not,
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Reach out to other
people you trust
for their opinion
If you feel concerned
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Remember to
thank others
Giving others feedback
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That was totally
radcakes
Aw shucks,
thanks!
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Good feedback
gives people a
path forward
Giving others feedback
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That’s wrong
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I think this would
work better with…
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BONUS LEVEL
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Change is the
only constant
In the tech industry
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Try and enjoy it!
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Don’t forget to turn
back around and help
the next person in line.
When you get to where you’re going
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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.
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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.