Another brilliant story from Romy Smith at giffgaff around Women in Engineering day.
A tale of two giffgaffers, Wycombe High School & 'Women in Engineering Day'... ONE YEAR AGO we sat down in the giffgaff park to speak to giffgaff’s ‘women in engineering’. We heard their stories and asked a series of questions. However, there was only one that stuck: ‘if you had £1 million to increase the number of women in engineering from its current 12.9% ; how would you spend it?’ The answers were insightful and imaginative. There was lego and apps. Workshops and labs. Yet through the fun, the buzz and excitement, there was one common thread: the time to influence a young person's future is when they’re young. Before they enter the workplace... before they select their GCSEs... before they start to say ‘my favourite subject is…’ or (pause for effect) start to think 😥 ‘I’m not good at ______’ .... ‘I can’t see myself in _____' This felt big. It made our role as a company less clear: messier. However, I am happy to say, we listened to our experts. And so, ONE YEAR ON, me and my fellow giffgaffer, Dorothy O., took a turn back and walked into a ‘women in STEM’ week at Wycombe High School. This meant sharing our stories and the stories of many giffgaffers to a sea of secondary school students. So, what are our reflections ? We are proud that we stepped out of our comfort zone. That we changed our approach and chose impact over ease. However… did we make some assumptions along the way ? (Guilty! ) We underestimated their awareness, not just of technology but of the role of our company and (most surprisingly) the roles within it. Turns out ‘scrum master’ isn’t the funny or unfamiliar term (my joke needed it to be…). Rather, it is the job title of their parents and family friends. And could we have embraced some more of the agile and product practices we preach? (Of course, ‘there’s always room for improvement’…) We went in with a powerpoint to share our story. This was our key goal and we landed our key messages. We walked away with a clearer understanding of this ‘user group’ and their ‘context’. However, we didn’t walk away with an increased understanding about their concerns or problems to be solved so… Here’s to our follow up conversations ( 👋 ) & the next 2 steps…
