 Let me tell you a little bit about myself. I'm a gay black woman. I am engaged to my wonderful partner, Myra. We have a 23-year-old black son, a 20-year-old daughter, and a blue standard poodle who looks black too. I have been in the tech industry for more than 25 years, 22 of which I have been at Microsoft. I am 46 and I still get carted. So my journey to today, several months ago, I was asked by someone I had not known very long, but I had admired for their ability to stand strong against oppression for herself and for many others. And she said, hey, will you come and talk at this conference that's called OS and Feelings? And I said, absolutely. I'm coming. I am coming, no doubt about it. Cool. What is it? And she started to explain it to me, and I still didn't quite get it because it's just kind of foreign at times about us talking about this intersection of software and feelings or humanities. But I was so excited that it was in the title of the conference that I didn't need much of an explanation. So I'm honored to be here. I'm honored to share this stage with so many amazing people, and I so appreciate the empathy that each of you are courageously showing to many of us. It is not easy to be up here at a time like this in our world, but I appreciate you seeing me and allowing me to share some of my beliefs and some of my learnings. So who am I assuming you are? You might be a developer or not. You might be technical or not. You might be affiliated with someone who is in the tech industry or not. I'm talking to anyone who is awake, curious, breathing. And I hope this is relatable by all of you. When I talked about this talk about how to contribute to a project without coding, I ran it by a very dear friend of mine. I met recently, John Pinkes. And I dove into the latter part of this talk. And he said, that's awesome. I really, really like your message. But you know, I think people are going to really be looking for some specific roles that don't require coding, but that do have an impact on the product. And they would like to probably hear about that, maybe even talk about what they are and how to get there. And I said, that's awesome. They're going to be disappointed. But it doesn't mean I can't talk about a little bit, just to tell you that these roles do exist. And you have to follow your heart on what it is that you want to contribute. How you want to contribute. There's many, many, many different opportunities to get into these roles. And you just have to make sure that whatever product you are contributing to values what you want to do. That's the first question. But I want to go deeper. I want to talk about what the typical software flow, there's supposed to be a circle around that. See, I'm a PC person and I'm using a Mac. So some of the formatting didn't cross over. But the typical development cycle, if you will, is usually you come up with an idea, something that needs to, we want to address something challenging. You usually have some kind of a mission and a goal and a schedule. Hopefully you have a value statement, a diversity statement, a code of conduct. And then you commence to building it, figuring out what technology you're going to use, who's going to build it, who's going to be there. Finally, you release it or publish it. And then you celebrate. You celebrate yourselves for coming together and building this thing. And you celebrate what it will bring, what it will manifest out in the world. But I have a couple of fundamental beliefs. Hopefully share it with many of you that the energy, the team dynamics, how people work together goes into the product. So if there's chaos, chaos manifests in that product. And the audience that uses that product will experience that energy. It is inescapable. If you look at, as an example, and this is no new news, I'm not sharing anything that is under NDA. If you look at the product, Windows 8, for example, I was not on that team originally, but I joined the team about a year into it, about two years into it. The first thing I said when I joined the Windows team was, I don't get it. I don't even know how to navigate this thing. What are we doing? And the response was, there's a learning curve. It's going to go like this. And I said, what the fuck are you talking about? That didn't go well, but I could not find anyone to really get behind what we were doing, ignoring feedback, ignoring it outright, arrogant. I'm not saying I hate my company, but I'm saying we got some shit twisted. Whole dynamic within that organization, don't you see it today? People were very much so trying to push through with something they didn't really believe in. And then we released, all hell broke loose. People were not happy. It's a very small number. But that energy that was put into that product manifested directly. And there are still people kind of shocked, believe it or not. The other fundamental belief is that the connection that you have within the team, the connection getting to know someone, having a vested interest and getting to know someone, and the audience that you are building whatever it is for. It could be just yourself. That is going to shape the reach of that product. If you think about that, then this flow includes these two critical pieces. So if you think about what you're building, but you have to invest in that connection, who are you that I'm working with to build this API? What's important to you? We don't just come together and start working. I've got to get to know you. What is your day like? If I'm building something, if I'm contributing to an application that is meant to bridge communities and I hate white people, guess what's going to happen? Not so good. But making that time to build those connections within team members is critical, setting the intention. Not why are we doing it to solve this problem, but how is it going to help humanity go deeper? Deeper. It's important. So the ideal team flow then looks like this. The foundation is built on an intention that's set with that team, very deliberate intention. Before you've written the first line of code, then, and including that connection you've made, you go into how are we going to build this thing? But you have to keep nurturing that foundation. So you look at our world today and all that is going on. My partner and I last night were looking at the disturbing video of the woman, the teacher, the black teacher, who was pulled out of her car by a police officer and flung around and taken by her hands behind her back as far up, probably making some kind of damage to her shoulders. And that perspective changes very quickly. We can no longer afford to think small. Everything, everything we build, every intention we set has to consider the sustainability of humanity and the planet. We have to think that big for every single thing we do. There are no more excuses. We cannot waste any more time. And I'm not talking about building something that replaces human connection. We cannot replace human connection because it's the separation that kills us that feeds the ignorance. So again, you ask, how can I contribute there's so many ways from these typical roles that some would say are non-coding roles to nurturing the intention and the connection within a team. And that's regardless of whether you are a developer or not. If you know someone who is on such a team, you can ask them. So what's your intention? And if they say, well, we need to be able to talk to this service so that we can show this data. OK, that's cool. What's your intention? No, tell me how is that related to the long term sustainability of all of us? What do you envision for seven generations based on this thing? Tell me about that. Because if you can't relate it, is it that important? So how do you nurture intention and connections? You ask and go deep. You ask yourself, am I clear on our intention? You ask those you are working with, what is our intention and make sure you're aligned? You ask the friends that you have that are working on certain products. And then you commit time to continuing to connect, to continuing to share what's going on. When I show up at work every day, I cannot suspend the fact that I'm worried about my partner who is disabled and has been looked over when she got on a Seattle bus and the bus driver would not kneel the bus so she could get on. And when she asked him, do you have a problem with me, he rolled his eyes and then had the audacity to pull off as if he wanted her to fall. And not a single person on that bus stood up for her. That's Seattle people. That's our city. So to show up, I can't suspend that. To remain professional, I'm sorry I cannot suspend that anymore. I am bringing that with me into this office space. I am bringing that with me when I write that line of code. I am bringing it with me when I talk to the people that are going to experience this code and to be happy to hear from my son because he had another day. To be happy to hear from my daughter because she's still doing what she loves to do and showing up at home. And to be happy, I'm still alive. I can't suspend that. So we have to create the space for that. We have to connect in order to be able to empathize. When I returned to Microsoft after being gone for about a year, I had a very different view. And I was actually very happy because I was back to work. I did not intend to be out for a year. And our first meeting, one of the team meetings, I came in and I noticed that people were kind of spread out in the conference room. And they were kind of sitting back and looking kind of bored. And they were being talked at by the leader. And then at the end, he asked, are there any questions? And people kind of looked around and nodded. And then they left. And we did that for like three weeks before I said, I can't do this. What's happening, what's the purpose of this meeting? And he said, well, we're getting things done. We're just keeping things going. I said, no, no, we don't have a heart. You can't do this. I said, can I just have the next meeting? Can I, absolutely. Can I just give them a little bit? Yeah, you just get 10 minutes though, I get the rest. So I went into that meeting and I said, look, let me tell you a little bit about myself. But I'm gonna tell you about myself in this way. I'm gonna tell you a lie and I'm gonna tell you a truth. You get to figure out which one is the truth. And every single person went around that room and did the same thing. By the end of that meeting, we were closer together physically. We had learned things about each other that they did not know and they had been working together for over a year and a half. They didn't know some of their teammates were struggling with a divorce. They didn't know that one of their teammates actually had a newborn who had already passed away. They didn't know that several of them loved to scuba dive and have been looking for people to scuba dive with. I didn't write a single line of code, people. Our numbers went up in terms of quality and bugs, we went down. It was that simple. And I continued to ask questions, hey, how's your mom doing? Hey, you know what? How are you and your wife doing with that recovery from that awful thing? They can choose to talk about it or not, but it's so much beyond these lines of code. We have to create the space to talk about these world issues because they are a part of us. We cannot suspend them. So, let's bounce. I had a pleasant surprise last night as well. In the midst of watching this video, Satya, our CEO, sent out a mail and I felt that there was no way that we were gonna get any kind of acknowledgement about what's going on in the world. In the history of my career at Microsoft, working with Bill Gates, with that other dude, that's right, Steve Baumer, and Satya, the only time I had heard any kind of empathy from our leadership team was when there was a natural disaster and there was an opportunity to give and have your funds matched by Microsoft. But this was the first time I saw our CEO and I actually kind of believe him because I sent him a mail a few months ago saying, hey, I would like to talk to you. And less than, actually less than four hours later I had a response from him and then less than a week later I was in his office. And in my entire career I can say that anyone I've met at a VP level or above, I had maybe two to three minutes of talking time and a 30 minute one on one versus my conversation with Satya where I spoke probably more like 20 minutes and he asked me questions. I was freaking out but he was listening. This is some pieces of what he said. Issues facing African Americans here, profoundly affect members of the Microsoft community. It's important to come together and seek to understand each other and most of all express empathy, understanding and support. We must embrace our shared humanity and inspire to create a society that is filled with respect, empathy and opportunity for all. I needed to hear that. I needed to hear that. Now yeah, we got a lot of work to do because the people underneath, we got some work to do. But if it's coming from here, I can work with that. I can work with that. And all of us can work with that. I wanna leave you with this. Everything that we do must be in light of sustaining humanity and the planet. And if it does not really question why you're doing it, I still believe in humanity but God damn it's hard at times. And every single one of us in this room has the power to affect what we do in the technology space. I don't care if you're in it or not. Ask the questions, make sure people are accountable. And we can talk about the other roles later. Thank you for your time.