Many years ago, I got a Wacom drawing tablet. Friends allege that I draw well, being a computer geek, I gravitated towards drawing digitally. However, I found that I moved back and forth between my drawing tablet and mouse. It became a bit of an irritant needing to move my mouse pad back and forth while I alternated between tasks on that computer. I chose to address the problem in an unconventional way; I would start to do one such task with my non-dominant hand.
Given the two tasks, navigating a mouse or drawing, it made sense to do the former with my non-dominant hand. I normally operate the mouse with my right hand, so I moved it to my left side. In order to build the muscle memory, I’d need to do it consistently. However, I used over half a dozen computers regularly at the time, so I needed to switch them all. We intuitively click on the mouse button with our index finger; in order to continue to do this symmetrically, I’d need to reverse the mouse buttons. The first week was a practice in frustration and futility; everything was awkward.
Statistically, about 10% of the population is left-handed. In a limited capacity, I got to experience how they live, and it isn’t all pretty. For instance, if you have an external mouse, there’s a fair chance that it’s an ergonomic mouse. It’s molded to the shape of your hand, or more specifically it’s molded to fit a right hand.
Discriminating against Southpaws
We don’t intentionally discriminate against left-handed people. Historically, we did, but it’s no longer malicious. Having lived through a number of obstacles and being an active member of a product team (Microsoft Windows), I can tell you all kinds of stories.
Did you know that scissors are designed for right-handed people? It’s in the way that your hands apply pressure to the sharp edges of the blades. Naturally, you may buy left-handed scissors. I tried using left-handed scissors once; it was an exercise in futility.
Which side of your microwave is the keypad on, and which direction does it open? Do they make any models with the keypad on the other side, or the top or bottom? Suffice it to say, many elements in life that you’ve grown accustomed to are designed with the bias towards that 90% of the population, while alienating the remaining 10%.
Here’s a more interesting question. If you were on the design team for something like a computer mouse, wouldn’t you want a left-handed person on your team? Couldn’t you mitigate potential problems by simply having every team member pick it up and try it? I’m not suggesting that your entire mouse design team should be left-handed. However, if you had two candidates that were equally qualified, you’re better off picking the one that is less like the remainder of your existing team. Diversity can only benefit you.
Not about political correctness
As a hiring manager, why should you consider a female or black candidate when you found a perfectly competent white male candidate? There are many conversations that may lead you to conclude that thinking about diversity is ultimately about wokeness (or excessive political correctness). It would be easy to conclude that this is not really a problem.
However, that line of thinking is profoundly naïve; having a diverse workforce is not simply about equity and inclusion. The quarterback may be the most impactful player on a football team, but do you really want a football team with eleven quarterbacks? Having a diverse workforce will simply make your team better; they’ll complement each other.
If you work on a product and want to maximize your reach, you’ll want to maximize your audience, that means potentially the entire population. This means that your workforce should proportionately represent the entire population. If your team doesn’t represent your customers, you’ll miss problems that they’ll encounter. Your workforce should be a microcosm of your customers.
Am I suggesting offering the job to someone who is unqualified? Absolutely not. However, I am suggesting treating diversity like a ‘would be nice to have’ qualification. Given two candidates that meet all the required qualifications, you’d break the tie with the ‘would be nice to have’ qualifications; the one that makes your team more diverse will give you more options.
I’m also not suggesting that the minority candidate should always get the nod; it depends on the composition of your team. For instance, white men make up about 30% of the US population. If they only make up 10% of your employees, then you should consider hiring more white men in order to more accurately reflect customers. Moreover, employees in each type of role and level of management should be similarly diverse.
Product failures from lack of diversity
Some of you are still skeptical, which I understand, so I’ll name some examples. I won’t assert that the only way to address these issues is through diversity, but it will be less work and more natural. You can, of course, choose to swim upstream as much as you want.
I’ve been a Lego enthusiast since early childhood. For many years, they considered themselves a toy for boys. And they continued as they approached bankruptcy. They decided to make a few changes in order to save the company. Among those changes was to also create sets for girls and adults. It worked; they’re back. Choosing to focus on a more diverse demographic, to include more ages and both genders, saved Lego.
I’ve been a Fitbit user since 2012. I average about 15k steps each day. When I first started working out with a heart rate monitor, it was the Polar branded ones with a chest strap; it worked off electrical conductivity. Newer activity trackers can do this without a chest strap. It pulses a light onto your skin and picks up a response. Except it doesn’t work as well on dark skinned or obese people, do we think they might’ve detected this sooner or improved the technology if they had more dark-skinned and obese employees?
Most of us have smartphones. These devices continue to get more features. One such feature is the ability to unlock your phone with just your face. Apple’s Face Id was a finely tuned algorithm built from many faces to distinguish between them, but while it was tested internally, it got an opportunity to see many Caucasian faces. Upon launch, customers in China configured the device with Face Id, and their colleague (another Chinese woman) was able to successfully unlock her phone. Whoops!
Simply good business
Sadly, when people hear ‘diversity’, they often hear that someone (the ‘woke’?) is stipulating who you can hire even if they’re less qualified. You’ve been led to believe that this is all for the sake of political correctness.
The fact is that to run a successful business, especially a global one, you need to navigate a figurative minefield of conditions:
- Have you used red and green to denote good or bad (traffic map)? Did you know that about 5% of men are colorblind?
- Do you have flashy animation in your product? That trigger seizures with epileptics? Do you really need it?
- Refer to Taiwan as a ‘country’ in your product (maybe in time zone)? I bet China will have something to say about that.
And none of the above even include traditional diversity demographics (like race, gender, sexual orientation, etc.). Can you test for these conditions? Absolutely… but only the ones you know exist; you can’t account for what you don’t yet know. The more diverse your workforce is, the fewer blind spots like this you’ll have. You’ll be able to address these issues earlier when they’re easier and cheaper to fix. It’s just good for business.