Diversity in Product: Why It Matters and How PMDojo Bridges the Gap

The lack of diversity in an organization can affect relationships or impact a person’s performance if they feel unwelcome or out of place. This can also lead to product design failures.

Here are a few well-known examples of product design failures resulting from weak diversity in an organization:

• In 2020, Stanford University and Georgetown University scientists studied mainstream speech-to-text tools, discovering that the tools mistranscribed Black speakers nearly twice as often as white speakers. Black speakers had an average error rate of 35 percent, while white speakers had an average error rate of 19 percent.

• Also in 2020, Twitter rolled out the Voice Tweet feature, which, as the name suggests, allows users to record their voice and tweet it as an audio clip. But the feature drew backlash from the deaf community, which called out Twitter’s failure to deliver a feature that also supports persons with disabilities.

• A study from Carnegie Mellon University found that men, including fake Web users, which Google classified as men, were more likely to be shown Google ads for high-paying executive jobs than female job seekers.

These are just some instances where the lack of diversity in tech creates problems that affect people’s daily lives. Put simply, because product and development teams are often dominated by white, male professionals, the resulting products only cater to select groups of people while excluding others.

Hence why diversity is good for business. When the people creating products are a mix of different voices, experiences, and perspectives, it leads to better and more effective products that would prompt people to use or buy.

PMDojo is a platform that empowers people to transition into a career in product, such as product management, UX design or UX research. It connects people interested in the product world with live and immersive learning, comprehensive career guidance and support, and job opportunities with a vast network of companies.

One of the main goals of PMDojo is to diversify the product industry by increasing access to opportunities for tech skills training, mentorship, and product careers. The platform aims to break down systematic barriers that discourage many from launching their tech careers.

What Is Diversity?

Bosky Mukherjee, the founder of PMDojo, understands firsthand the multiple layers of the tech industry’s diversity problem. She moved to the US from India to pursue her Master’s Degree in Computer Science. This exposed her to an interesting and inspiring career and personal life. Her career began as tech support at a startup and evolved to working in product at a multinational corporation. She eventually landed a job in Silicon Valley, became a mother, and moved to Canada where she founded PMDojo.

Mukherjee’s life and experience gave her a deep appreciation of diversity in tech. More than a lack of diversity in the hiring pipeline, those from different intersectionalities need to first have the opportunity to be included or considered for the hiring pipeline. She believes that it’s essential to solve this problem earlier before arriving at the hiring pipeline.

For Bosky, diversity does not only mean having a mix of gender, race, and sexual orientation in the workplace. It must also reflect people from different backgrounds, those who might have had limited opportunities in life, and those with diverse learning and cognitive abilities. People from different intersectionalities, she said, typically don’t have access to mentorship, networks, and financial resources. This reduced access prevents them from attending prestigious schools, thus impacting their chances of acquiring crucial skills and information. In the end, the system excludes them from being considered for top-tier tech jobs.

To them, she said, they would think that the system is working against them, which means they would most likely seek entry-level jobs or jobs that don’t pay very well. And because they would not possess in-demand skills, it becomes easier to replace them. “Anytime there are layoffs, these kinds of roles are usually the first to go. A majority of the people come from these intersectionalities, whether it’s women or people of color,” Mukherjee said.

Diversity also includes veterans, those struggling to return to work, and those with different learning capacities. Equally important is that diversity should include people with ADHD, bipolar disorder, and those who do not have any access to financial resources.

“I think diversity means, basically, an equal chance for everyone, irrespective of who they are, where they come from, what kind of life they’ve had, and whether they have ever worked in tech or not,” Mukherjee continued.

It is this very challenge that PMDojo strives to address and ensure everyone has equitable access to learning. Because of its deep understanding of diversity issues, it is now working to help close the diversity gap in tech.

How PMDojo Increases Diversity in Product: DE&I Initiatives

Reiterating the importance of driving up diversity in tech, Mukherjee said: “Things are changing so much that to resolve these problems, we need different perspectives and a different lens which will allow us to understand these problems better.” This is what diversity offers.

PMDojo is building a global community that consists of people interested in product, who can help solve these problems. The platform’s goal is to break stereotypes in tech and open doors for people who do not fit the “typical” mold of tech professionals. It does this in several ways.

PMDojo fellows and mentors come from diverse backgrounds, made up of different nationalities, ethnicities, academic and professional backgrounds, and various levels of learning abilities. The platform has been recognized as the first accelerator to accept fellows and mentors who are neurodiverse, including those with autism, bipolar disorder, and ADHD.

To top that, PMDojo invests a significant percentage of its revenue in a scholarship fund that enables financially-challenged people from diverse backgrounds to study at PMDojo. It also includes a specific scholarship fund for tech employees who were laid off.

PMDojo regularly offers flexible office hours to those looking to skill up and transition or advance their careers in product. During these hours, people who join have the opportunity to ask product leaders their questions. These are free sessions, which are extended to any tech worker, even if they are not from PMDojo.

Closing the Diversity Gap

To be sure, the diversity gap in tech is a problem that can’t be solved immediately. That said, concrete steps are being taken to resolve it.

PMDojo seeks to address this by ensuring that tech skills training is made accessible to more people through its affordable programs, mentorship, and career opportunities. It is committed to serving diverse groups of people and helping them find future-proof tech careers in product.

To learn more about PMDojo, book a free Q&A session here.