Community Building: Driving More Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
- 1. MELISSA SASSI CHIEF PENGUIN, IBM Z STUDENT & ENTREPRENEUR EXPERIENCE @MENTORAFRIKA COMMUNITY BUILDING DRIVING MORE DIVERSITY & INCLUSION IN TECH
- 2. Hit me up on Twitter! @mentorafrika Melissa Sassi Chief Penguin, IBM Z - Student & Entrepreneur Experience CEO & Founder, MentorNations & XTP Hustle Intrapreneur Entrepreneur Digital Skills Advocate Startup Boss Youth Engagement Executive Create. Make. Do. No Handcuffs. Make the Impossible Possible. No Hierarchies. Thrive Hive. Be an AND, not an OR.
- 3. WHY? BETTER PERFORMANCE AGAINST GOALS WHEN A COMPANY OR TEAM IS MORE DIVERSE & INCLUSIVE. BETTER PRODUCTS BECAUSE THE TEAM IS MORE REFLECTIVE OF ITS AUDIENCE. BETTER INSIGHTS BECAUSE THE TEAM CAN BETTEER UNDERSTAND AUDIENCE PAIN POINTS, ASPIRATIONS & JOYS.
- 4. DEFINE YOUR VISION BUILD A PLAN TO FILL IN THE GAPS START SMALL IDENTIFY YOUR GAPS GATHER YOUR THRIVE HIVE TEST & LEARN SIX STEPS EMPATHY! EMPATHY! EMPATHY!
- 5. DEFINE YOUR VISION WHERE DO YOU WANT TO BE? WHAT DOES SUCCESS LOOK LIKE IN THE NEAR & FAR TERM?
- 6. Creativity & Innovation in Action Women in tech make up 28% of the workforce. WOMEN IN TECH Less than 3% of venture capital goes to female founders & the numbers are equally dismal for founders of color. STARTUP FOUNDERS I created my own role & job title as a means of driving greater diversity in tech & the startup ecosystem. CHANGE!
- 7. IDENTIFY YOUR GAPS WHO IS DOING IT RIGHT? IS YOUR TEAM REFLECTIVE OF YOUR AUDIENCE?
- 8. Adaptability in Action Took time out of my everyday to listen to the community with empathy & learn new strategies. LEARNING Before 2019, I had a constant feeling of failure & used that fuel my passion for change. FAILURE Built a team & group of collaborators that would be more reflective of my audience. MORE CHANGE!
- 9. BUILD A PLAN TO FILL IN THE GAPS WHAT TACTICAL STEPS DO YOU NEED TO TAKE TO GET YOU TO WHERE YOU WANT TO BE? WHO IS DOING WHAT, WHAT SUPPORT DO YOU NEED & DO YOU HAVE THE BUDGET TO SUPPORT WHERE YOU WANT TO GO?
- 10. Persuasion in Action Shared goals and objectives for greater diversity & inclusion with everyone everywhere to make sure it's top of mind. OVER-COMMUNICATE Asked for more budget to support my entrepreneur & student segments. BUDGET Got my Scrum Master certification to better manage my work deliverables, timelines, milestones & KPIs. SCRUM MASTER
- 11. GATHER YOUR THRIVE HIVE TALK WITH EVERYONE YOU KNOW. NETWORK TO MEET THE PEOPLE WHO ARE DOING IT BETTER THAN YOU. DON'T COMPARE. ELEVATE OTHERS.
- 12. Teamwork & Collaboration in Action Made a point of meeting new people & actually follow up with speakers via social media at virtual conferences. NETWORKING Collaborated with individual influencers, associations, nonprofits & other companies with likeminded goals. INFLUENCERS Connect with those around you wherever & whenever. Enable your audience & community to get to know THE REAL YOU. TRULY CONNECT
- 13. START SMALL IS THERE A SMALL TEST YOU CAN DO TO SEE HOW THE CHANGE IMPACTS YOUR CURRENT STATE? DOCUMENT WHERE YOU COULD HAVE DONE BETTER & BE A LEARN-IT-ALL.
- 14. Design Thinking in Action Made a point of reading everything I could on emotional intelligence & empathy. EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE Learned how to facilitate design thinking sessions to gain audience insights, brainstorm, and take on small tests. DESIGN THINKING Created blog/webinar learning series to bring new audiences into the mix vs. serving as a company mouthpiece. LOUD & PROUD
- 15. TEST & LEARN BE KPI FOCUSED AND EVALUATE HOW YOUR SMALL TESTS ARE IMPACTING YOUR END RESULT. REPEAT WHAT WORKED. CHANGE WHAT DID NOT.
- 16. Lifelong Learning & Growth Mindset in Action Worked hard to build my personal brand & collaborate with likeminded people to try new things & learn from others. SOCIAL MEDIA Spent a considerable amount of time reading from experts within & outside the industry & sharing what I learned forward. LEARN-IT-ALL Shared what I was working on with everyone everywhere in ways that were authentically me. AUTHENTICITY
- 17. Audience-Focused Programs: Students Year-long student leadership & evangelist program with 140 active students all focused on learning IBM Z skills & sharing their skills forward in the student community on a global scale. Z AMBASSADOR PROGRAM Free & virtual hub for students to learn IBM Z skills, prepare for the future of work, network with peers & experts, find out about upcoming events & contests + guest blogging opportunities. IBM Z GLOBAL STUDENT HUB Mobile app and web game for learning the introductory building blocks of enterprise computing, including the concepts of open source, uptime of the Z platform, data protection, privacy & security + commonly used programming languages. HOUR OF Z GAME Launched a biweekly livestream that is entirely for youth, with youth & by youth occurring biweekly with a lens on establishing an intergenerational dialogue between industry & students where we go beyond the textbooks & bring real, practical skills & competencies to life. STUDENTX BIWEEKLY LIVESTREAM
- 18. High-touch, global, early-stage startup accelerator program with 53% female founders, 34% black founders, 14% LatinX founders & 14% AsianX founders with access to IBM Cloud credits, business & technical mentorship & marketing collaboration with a lens on enabling startups to build & scale. IBM HYPER PROTECT ACCELERATOR Medium-touch version of IBM Hyper Protect Accelerator with a similar percentage of diversity & inclusion across the founder set. FRIENDS OF HYPER PROTECT Consortium of startups interested in data protection, privacy & security as a central strategy within their business, orchestrated by IBM's accelerator partner, Village Capital. DATATECH FOR GOOD COALITION Biweekly livestream that is entirely for startups, with startups, and by startups with a lens on establishing a dialogue between IBM and startup founders to demonstrate the business problems startups are solving, the solutions they have created, their value propositions, business models, target audiences, etc. STARTUPS WITH SASSI & RALLS Audience-Focused Programs: Entrepreneurs
- 20. JOIN ME TO CARRY THE CONVERSATION FORWARD MELISSA SASSI CHIEF PENGUIN, IBM Z STUDENT & ENTREPRENEUR EXPERIENCE @MENTORAFRIKA