Why Diverse Engineering Teams Matter (To Me)
Diversity is a somewhat fraught word. It can mean many things to many people. I use it in the broadest sense—diversity in culture and background, diversity in thought and opinion, and diversity in appearance, orientation, and gender. I’ve always tried to create engineering teams that represent as much of that diversity as I can through various means.
I was recently talking with some folks about how I approach creating diverse teams and the various measures I take to ensure that my bias doesn’t creep in and undercut my aims. I was deep in the weeds of the “how” when someone asked, “But why?” It was a great question.
There are lots of very practical reasons to create and employ diverse teams, from avoiding issues with bias in design to extensive benefits in problem-solving and increased revenue for employers. But that’s not why it matters to me.
Background
Diversity in computing has been a topic of concern for decades. The percentage of women in the field decreased from 38% in the mid-80s to just under 30% in 1999, and it’s down to about 22% today.
Okay, but so what? There are lots of professions that are skewed in their gender representation, right? Construction is infamously male, while nursing is just as female. However, they’ve made great strides in equality over the past decade, with nearly 50% increases in gender equality each.
Racial equality is equally as bad, with all groups except Asian and White men being underrepresented as a share of the population.
But there are other professions, so why does it matter if this one is particularly skewed in its representation of the population?
Issues In User-Centered Design
There have been some disturbing trends in the industry with the latest AI trends that have highlighted why having more diversity on your team is important. A few examples:
Amazon’s hiring algorithm. The algorithm was inherently biased because its training data were biased toward those who commonly applied for jobs at Amazon. The system taught itself that men were superior to women.
COMPAS. The Correctional Officer Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions system predicted that twice as many black defendants would re-offend as white defendants despite studies showing no difference in the observed rates of recidivism.
Skin Cancer Diagnostics. A system designed to detect skin cancer using AI was trained on a largely white population, leading to lower rates of detection for those with darker skin.
With more diverse teams running these programs, the likelihood of these issues arising would have probably been lessened.
Benefits
Countless (well, probably countable, but I haven’t counted them) studies have demonstrated real benefits of having more diverse teams. Here’s a couple:
Diversity wins: How inclusion matters (McKinsey). McKinsey found that companies in the top quartile of diversity were 36% more likely to financially outperform their peers.
To Retain Employees, Focus on Inclusion — Not Just Diversity (HBR). Harvard Business Review found that employees are far more likely to stay at companies that have diverse teams.
Economic Factors
Like construction, software engineering is one of the few professions that doesn’t necessarily require a four-year degree. For some who didn’t have access to higher education or otherwise come from non-traditional learning paths, it can be a route out of poverty and a ticket to a great career.
With the decline in US manufacturing jobs over the past decades, having a pathway to a good-paying job without access to a four-year degree has become more important.
Having these barriers in place in an industry that’s this important to both the economy generally and individual families doesn’t make any sense.
Why It Actually Matters to Me
I’m a non-traditional software engineer. I didn’t get a degree in computer science, or any degree at all, for that matter. My path into this industry was different, and I know firsthand how important it is to create opportunities for people from all walks of life.
Growing up, my family struggled financially, and I had a diverse group of friends in school — each with their own unique challenges and perspectives. Those experiences shaped how I view the world and, by extension, how I build teams. The best teams I’ve ever worked with were diverse — diverse in background, culture, and thought. It wasn’t just a moral imperative to create those teams — it was pragmatic. These were the teams that performed better, solved problems more creatively, and ultimately delivered better results.
When I hire, I see beyond résumés and degrees because I know there are brilliant, capable people who don’t fit into traditional molds. My aim has always been to eliminate as many barriers as possible so that more people have access to the opportunities that changed my life. It’s not just about checking boxes or fulfilling quotas; it’s about creating teams that genuinely represent the world we live in and giving talented people a chance to succeed, regardless of where they come from.
In the end, diverse engineering teams matter to me because I know the potential that can be unlocked when different perspectives come together. I’ve seen the benefits in action, and I know that by building more inclusive teams, we can not only shape better technology but also open doors for others the way they were opened for me.
