Global Diversity: helping designers break into the speaker circuit
Encouraging underrepresented groups to become design and tech conference speakers.
Our community should consider diversity and inclusion critical in design and technology. As design leaders and practitioners, we must support each other, minorities and those who need mentoring and encouragement. By helping develop the voices of underrepresented groups, women, and people of color, the quality and the richness of ideas we discuss will be broader. The events and conferences that we participate in will reflect a picture much closer to the reality of our diverse society and it will be beneficial to our own professional growth.
Here are a few points that I hope let you gain some perspective of the path you travel towards becoming a speaker.
Overcoming the challenges
Getting over the fear
One of the biggest hurdles to getting into public speaking is our own fear. Our fear takes many different shapes like getting rejected, thinking that we will fail to deliver a good message or fail to deliver at all. It is important to find your voice in settings where you feel comfortable, with your design or your project team. Once you have a few project presentations under your belt, you build and develop the confidence to stand in front of a small or big group of strangers to deliver your message.
I haven’t done anything worth sharing
Anyone of us can identify with this perspective. For example, most of my career has been in Enterprise apps. I used to think that these were boring, complex products. I used to wonder — Who is going to be interested in this topic? Well, nowadays there are books and design conferences dedicated to Enterprise Experience.
There are many people and organizations wanting to learn about different methods, apps, and technologies. More importantly, there are peers in our industry willing to share their lessons. You can be one of them.
My experience is not going to be of interest to anyone
I recently read a designer’s blog post where the main premise was the importance of multidisciplinary teamwork. The article described each of the key team members and their strengths that they brought to the team. It was a personal story. However what made this article impactful was the writer’s perspective to share key takeaways that could be applicable to the reader.
Our professional experiences are unique, they are in part defined by specific situations and people we interact with. What makes them appealing to the audience attending a presentation or reading an article is the answer to the questions: what is in it for me? What can I apply in my job?
Be prepared to be criticized
You will hear people criticize you and try to diminish the value of your work. Recently, Jenn Taylor-Skinner, in the Strong Feelings podcast said that “we need to keep investing in professional relationships with people who take [us] seriously from the jump.”
We have to find support and encouragement from the people who value our work. Preparing to speak at an event of any level is hard work and it is exhausting. We have to find and cultivate the relationships with the people that appreciate our work and that support us. It will pay off in the long run.
Harvesting the benefits of your hard work
Finding the opportunities
A big part of the work to become a public speaker is around professional networking. I encourage designers to join and participate in local and regional events. Many organizers are looking for contributions from the community and many times they would host an event with multiple short presentations. These types of events will help you find your voice, share your experience, and deliver your message in a welcoming setting. By doing this, you will derive three major benefits: you will build your confidence, refine your message; and you will cultivate your professional network.
In some cases, you will find out that an affinity group does not exist in your city. You can join forces with some of your peers and become an organizer yourself.
Here are three curated compilations of some great UX events for 2019. You may find some regional, national and international conferences, plus a few additional local events.
- The Best UX Conferences in 2019 curated by Fabricio Teixeira via uxdesign.cc
- Find UX Events
- UXSeattle.org curated by Nick Finck
Making the pitch — Writing and submitting your proposal
Writing speaking proposals takes time. However, you will invest less time making a pitch that creating a presentation. Sara Wachter-Boettcher says that “Feeling like you gotta write a talk before pitching it is a surefire way to perpetually never get around to giving a talk.” Meri Williams adds “it’s ok to pitch a talk that you haven’t written yet.”
Take the proposal as an opportunity to test ideas tailored to the audience and the event theme. Some conferences ask for a lot of information — tell us about your talk, how does the presentation align with the conference theme, what are the key takeaways, what is the type of audience this talk is best suited for. Other events ask for a short summary, and professional bio. Many of them will end up with a simple, canned rejection message. Some conferences will share the feedback from reviewers. If they do, make sure you take notice about those comments.
You may get turned down many times. The feeling of disappointment and frustration is real. You may question yourself and wonder whether it is worth investing the time or not. I would encourage you to keep trying.
Some conferences offer to mentor new speakers. You can take advantage of this great support. You may also ask the conference organizers for examples of successful submissions so you can use them as a guideline. You can identify key elements to develop and iterate in your own proposals.
Create, prepare and curate your story
Great, you got accepted. Now it is time to get to work.
It is important to put your ideas down. Starting will be difficult, overwhelming, and at times chaotic. Think about your story and what your outline is. Write down the key ideas you want to share, and collect examples to support them.
Depending on the type of presentation less content may be more effective. For example
- A short presentation (~5 to 15 minutes): it is better to concentrate on one idea. Prepare the story or supporting arguments around it.
- Short to Mid presentation (~15 to 30 minutes): you can develop a topic in a slightly broader manner. For example, a case study with context, setting, problem, action, and results.
- Keynote (~30 to 60 minutes): you will have to prepare more material, and supporting examples and have a deeper handle of the subject matter.
While all these types of presentations might be about your personal experience and the context of your work, it is important to extrapolate the lessons learned and the takeaways for the audience.
Preparing for your talk — Practice, practice and more practice
Earlier in my career, I used to dismiss this very important piece of advice. I worked hard preparing the material for my presentations however I did not practice. Many times I ended up regretting missing a point I wanted to make or key aspects of my delivery.
Over the years, as a speaker or an audience member, I learned to appreciate that the best keynote speakers I saw, delivered with ease, appeared more natural, and looked more comfortable. For the second half of my career, I have gained value and respect to the importance of practicing and iterating the presentations I work on.
Find the right setting for yourself and make a commitment to practice. You may practice alone, in your office or in front of a mirror. You may record your practice session and then listen to yourself. You may sit in front of the computer and record a video of your practice session. You may also gather a few colleagues and practice in a conference room at work.
Choose the best practice method that works for you. You will realize the benefits for yourself and more importantly for the audience you have worked so hard for.
Sharing your experiences on stage and giving back to the community
It is a great time to be a designer and to get the opportunity to speak at any level — local, regional, national or international events. We should share our stories of success and failure, how did we find that first speaking gig, how did we go from there to a larger event.
We have the opportunity to share our journey in design or a case study of the project we worked really hard on. Let’s craft that message and package it into a great presentation. Let’s give back to each other and to our community.
Join Diversity Talks in Seattle
Break into the Speaker Circuit — Saturday, March 2, 2019
Diversity Talks in Seattle is a free event that encourages and promotes people from underrepresented groups to prepare and gain the confidence to break into the speaker circuit.
- Workshop Facilitator: Scott Berkun, best selling author, and speaker.
- Panel Facilitator: Lea Alcantara, Partner & Lead Designer at @abrightumbrella and co-host @ctrlclickcast
- Diversity Talks Seattle is organized and produced by Nick Finck
- Hosted by General Assembly
Join a global diversity CFP event
Are you a member of an underrepresented or marginalized group? Have you always wanted to become a tech conference speaker? Let 2019 be the year that you make that dream a reality!
CFP promotes diversity and inclusion from underrepresented groups and provides a framework for global events that deliver coaching for new speakers.
You can find a Global Diversity CFP Day event near you: https://www.globaldiversitycfpday.com/
Resources
- WomenWho.design https://womenwho.design
- Women Talk Design https://womentalkdesign.com
- Women in Data Science https://www.widsconference.org/about2019.html
- Girls Who Code https://girlswhocode.com/
- Ladies that UX http://ladiesthatux.com
- Hexagon UX https://hexagonux.com
- Lesbians Who Tech https://lesbianswhotech.org/sanfrancisco2019/
- Blacks who design https://blackswho.design/
- Latinxs Who Design https://www.latinxswhodesign.com/
- Gender Avenger https://www.genderavenger.com/
- Find UX Events — Find UX Events
- UX Collective — The Best UX Conferences in 2019
- UXSeattle.org — a curated collection of events and resources for UX professionals in the Seattle area.
