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Welcome to RubyConf Mini 2022!
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It has been an awesome three days.
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We are going to end it with one of the best sessions of all, because I have the distinct privilege of introducing our final keynote speaker.
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Rose Wigley is a senior staff developer at Shopify. She has been a developer for over 25 years and has worked on a wide range of software, from printer firmware to Ruby on Rails applications.
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She wanted me to mention that she is a mom to teenagers, which is particularly important because for those who don't know Rose, she's very active in both the wnb.rb communities and on Twitter. As a highly visible parent and distinguished engineer within the community, she paves the way for others who might not see women with children continuing to be engineers and leveling up in their careers.
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Rose can often be found giving great advice on WNB Slack or on Twitter, public speaking at events like this, or organizing panels for WNB. I truly could not think of anyone better to conclude the RubyConf Mini program with her very first keynote.
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As you heard, my name is Rose Wigley, and my pronouns are she/her. I work at Shopify, and I want to let everybody know that even with the current tech slowdowns, we are still hiring for some mission-critical roles. So please check our website if you're interested.
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This is not the talk I originally planned on giving. My original talk involved some very complex code I once wrote and the importance of simplicity in code. However, as I thought more about it, the original plan fell flat.
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I realized I was writing a technical keynote because I am a woman giving a talk at a programming conference, and I felt the need to maintain my credibility. I have been programming for over 25 years, and I hold a master's degree in electrical and computer engineering. I have written code ranging from C and assembly to Ruby on Rails web apps.
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Yet, I was worried you wouldn't think I was technical enough to be standing here right now.
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Then I asked myself, if I wanted everyone here to walk away with a message, what would it be? This led to the talk titled, 'Leading from Where You Are'.
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For this, we are going to discuss four different questions: Where are you? Why should you lead? What is leadership? And then, some very practical advice on how to lead.
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First, where are you? In the most literal sense, we're all at RubyConf Mini in Providence, Rhode Island. We are here to learn about programming and connect with our fellow Ruby enthusiasts.
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However, the literal sense does not tell the entire picture. To give you perspective, let's take a little trip back in time to 1959. This was 15 years before I was born.
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I know at least half of you are busy doing some math in your head, and because programmers hate date math, I'll save you some trouble: I'm 48 years old. 1959 was a pivotal year in computer programming.
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It was the year COBOL was created, largely thanks to the work of Dr. Grace Murray Hopper, later known as Rear Admiral Grace Hopper. COBOL was built on the radical concept that computer languages should be close to human languages and should run on various types of computers.
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It is not surprising that the driving force behind one of our first major programming languages was a woman. At that time, it was estimated that between 30% to 50% of all programmers were women, though this number had already declined from earlier days when programming was considered clerical work mostly done by women.
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Before continuing, I want to acknowledge that while women are a minority in tech, I speak from a place of immense privilege as an upper-middle-class, straight, cisgender white woman. A lot of the history I'll share with you today, I had to learn for this talk.
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I wish I had taken the time to learn this sooner. When discussing history, it's essential to view it in the full context of its times. 1959 was not a good year for all Americans; it was the year of the Cooper Donuts riots.
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Before researching this talk, I knew about the more famous Stonewall riots in New York City, but I didn't know that ten years earlier, anti-cross-dressing laws were commonly used by police to harass and arrest LGBTQ+ people.
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The Cooper Donuts riots occurred in downtown L.A. when police arrested five LGBT patrons at Cooper Donuts and attempted to cram them into a single police car. Some historians view this as the first LGBTQ+ uprising against police harassment in the United States.
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At the same time, while we were busy developing languages like COBOL, the state of social issues was hectic.
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Now let's jump ahead to 1972. By this time, we are one year before my parents got married and two years before I was born.
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1972 was another significant milestone in programming history with the first high-level programming language, C, created by Dennis Ritchie. C has a special place in my heart because in 24 more years, it will be the first programming language I use professionally.
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However, even as programming advances quickly, other things are falling behind. Remember in the late 50s when 30% to 50% of programmers were women? This number dropped significantly by 1971, one year before I was born, when only 14% of computer science degree graduates were women.
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The world was changing in other ways. In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association issued a statement declaring that homosexuality was not a mental illness, a significant change in understanding.
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By 1975, Minneapolis became the first city in the United States to pass transgender-inclusive civil rights legislation. Interestingly, this pass came with barely a murmur, as the controversy had already occurred a year earlier with the passage of gay rights legislation.
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Before we look at another programming milestone, let’s briefly stop in 1986. In that year, 36% of computer science degree recipients were women. This was a significant moment as it was the only time since the 50s that women had such a large presence in computer science.
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However, from this point forward, the trend would decline. In 1986, I was 12 years old, and by this time, my parents had divorced, and my mom had started medical school as a single mom with two kids.
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While 36% of computer science graduates were women and a woman could get into medical school, it didn't mean it was easy. I remember my mom recounting an interview where she was told, 'How can you possibly expect to be a doctor? Doctors can't just run home at 5 PM to cook dinner for their kids.'
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1986 was also notable for the Bowers v. Hardwick case, where the Supreme Court ruled that anti-homosexual legislation was constitutional in America. It would be another 17 years before this decision was overturned.
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At 12 years old, I had no idea about this ruling, but I knew my parents divorced because my dad realized he was gay. To survive public school, I had to refer to my dad's boyfriend as 'his friend'; I don’t think a single friend of mine knew my dad’s truth until I reached college.
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Jump ahead to 1995, and I find it hard to believe that it was just 27 years ago. In 1995, I was one year from graduating with my master's in electrical and computer engineering.
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The year 1995 is crucial for all of us; it's the reason we're all here together. On December 21st, 1995, Mats announced the first public release of Ruby in Japanese news groups.
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I also want to share that during this exciting time, women’s presence in computer science was again dropping. In my graduating year, only 28% of computer science majors in the U.S. were women. For those of us who studied electrical and computer engineering, it was even worse; under 10% of the 150 students accepted into the program were women.
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I recall being in a software engineering class of 40 students. Every morning, the professor would greet us with, 'Good morning, gentlemen and lady.'
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Now, I want to discuss a serious topic. For the next few minutes, I will talk about anti-trans violence. For many members of our audience, this is not just a history lesson; it is a very real and present danger in their lives. If anyone feels the need to excuse themselves, please feel free.
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Our last historical stop will be 1999, just four years after Ruby's first release, right before the start of the 21st century.
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November 20th, 1999, marks the first transgender day of remembrance, established a year after Rita Hester, a transgendered Black woman, was murdered. Her death led to the establishment of the day to remember transgender individuals who have lost their lives.
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22 years later, in 2021, the toll was high: 57 lives lost in a single year to transgender violence—49 of whom were trans women, and 39 were Black trans women.
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So, why are we here? Yes, in the literal sense, we are at RubyConf Mini in Providence, Rhode Island.
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However, the deeper answer is complex. We are not at RubyConf in Houston, Texas because many of our peers have safety concerns that others may not think twice about.
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These concerns become exponentially greater based on government actions that make someone's existence illegal.
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So why should you lead? Because of where we are, we need leaders right now. We have reached a point in our society where certain subsets of people are becoming very comfortable sharing the quiet parts out loud, sometimes through words, sometimes through actions, and sometimes with life-altering consequences.
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I emphasize this need for leadership because significant incidents have occurred in the single small city where I live over the last few years, and what I’ve shared isn't even everything.
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Additionally, my city is not unique. We need you all to be comfortable leading because right now, only 30% of programmers are women and only 20% of computer science graduates.
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Moreover, only 8.1% of programmers identify as Hispanic, while 4.6% are Black, and only 0.3% are from Indigenous communities, the original inhabitants of these lands.
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Furthermore, only 6.6% of programmers identify as LGBTQ+. As Barbara Tannenbaum eloquently expressed in her keynote, we need your voices, especially those representing these statistics.
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We need to make sure that all of our voices are louder than those who want to drown them out.
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I am asking you to lead. But what does leadership truly mean?
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Is it just a fancy title, like senior staff software engineer?
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The part of me taught never to brag or push myself forward cringes at writing this.
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But I want to highlight an important question: What comes first, the title or the behavior? One of the unspoken rules of tech promotions is that you don't get promoted just for being very good at your current responsibilities.
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You also don't get promoted simply for being in your role for a certain number of years. You get promoted because you are already doing the work at the next level, and you are doing it in a way that is noticeable.
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For instance, I joined a nine-person startup four years ago as a staff software engineer. When I arrived, I noticed the documentation was completely outdated and required updates.
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After realizing the CEO was also working off an outdated schedule, I initiated discussions with other developers, figured out what they were doing, and created an up-to-date schedule.
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I also guided our interns, given that we had two interns in a nine-person company.
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Then one day, the CEO approached me and asked, 'We're fundraising, and we need a VP of Engineering. Would you like the role?' He added, 'You don’t even have to change what you’re doing now.'
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This story raises two questions: First, was I lucky? I don't mean lucky in the sense of being in the right place at the right time. I mean, a lot of the work I was doing leaned towards the non-technical.
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It required a broad understanding of building software products but wasn’t technical like the engineer optimized for encrypted video streaming.
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If you have never seen Tanya Riley's excellent talk on being glue, I highly recommend it. Glue work is the work that keeps your software team functioning but does not directly contribute to the product.
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Examples of glue work include documentation, developing developer tools, organizing team activities, and taking notes. Glue work is often disproportionately picked up by women.
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It's one of the reasons women can be overlooked for promotions; their efforts may be regarded as excellent but not technical enough.
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So yes, I was lucky. I was fortunate to be in an environment that recognized the value of the work I did. I managed to straddle the line between leadership and glue work.
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The second question is, if you need to do the work before you can earn the title, and if titles vary so widely from company to company, should we even care about them? My answer is an unequivocal yes.
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Titles matter. If someone tells you they don't matter, it's likely they speak from a place of privilege where titles are meaningless.
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Worse, they could be attempting to undermine the title you have earned. Titles serve as shortcuts that eliminate the need to establish your credentials every time you enter a room.
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I didn't have to elaborate on my entire resume when I started this speech because my title 'Senior Staff Software Engineer at Shopify' succinctly encapsulated who I am.
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I am a soft-spoken, older blonde mother in tech. I definitely utilize my title when needed.
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To quote my children's favorite musical, 'I want to be in the room where it happens.' Being invited into such rooms is crucial. At a different level, it allows you to participate in high-level planning and cross-team discussions.
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Your title provides access to places where you can share insights and have your voice heard.
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Titles also help pave the way for fairer compensation. While there is still a problem with fair pay in tech, especially for women and minority roles, it becomes significantly easier to assess if your salary aligns with industry standards when your title reflects your level of work.
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I typically do not flaunt my title unless there's a necessity. If I introduced myself to individuals at this conference, I would simply say I'm Rose, and mention I work at Shopify.
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However, in some situations, I might specify, 'As a Senior Staff Software Engineer at Shopify, with over 25 years of experience...'
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And that serves as my polite way of implying, 'Hey, you might want to reconsider burning bridges right now.'
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Now, let's touch on titles that are not useful. Contrary to certain social media narratives, a title does not guarantee you will always get your way.
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This holds especially true on the tech track, where your role often involves advising instead of commanding. The strength of your ideas is what matters.
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While my title can grant me entry into discussions and provide space for my voice to be heard, if I utter complete nonsense, I hope nobody blindly follows my lead.
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In a healthy organization, there should be room for everyone to advocate for good ideas.
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There are also specific things that titles don't facilitate. They don't guarantee that others will feel comfortable speaking freely.
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There's a real reason why I don't introduce myself with my complete title; as a woman, it may seem pushy, and it can create an imbalance of power.
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Remember a time when the VP of Engineering ended a Q&A and asked for Slack feedback? I spent a significant amount of time crafting the right message with my feedback, grappling with the fear of potential career consequences.
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The reply I received the next day was positive, thanking me for my willingness to share my thoughts. This illustrates how important feedback can be, yet past experiences led me to worry.
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I keep in mind that if a new developer or intern needs to disagree with me, they may feel the same way about addressing me as I did when reaching out to the VP.
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This is why this talk on leadership is directed at everyone in this room, regardless of your current level. Even if you have only written a single line of code, your insights can help with aspects that someone at a higher level might never be aware of.
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Additionally, as we discussed yesterday, titles do not mean someone has all the answers; experience may teach us how to find those answers quickly and what questions to ask.
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However, it will also continuously remind us of the multitude of things we still don't know.
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A good leader is willing to say, 'I don't know; let's figure it out together.'
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Let's go back to our original question: What is leadership? It can't simply be a title since you need to show leadership before you earn one.
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I believe the best way to articulate this is through examples.
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Leadership is stepping up and creating a solution when you see a problem.
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While we're on this slide, let’s take a moment to recognize our exceptional conference organizers with a round of applause.
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Leadership is about teaching your peers something that will help you all work better together.
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Leadership involves discussing difficult topics so that others may learn and feel supported.
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What I really want to emphasize is that leadership is not just about those grand gestures.
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I am not expecting this entire room to become the next RubyConf Mini organizers.
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Leadership can be as simple as having a single conversation with another developer.
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Luckily for me, I happen to have another developer in my house. Early in our careers, during the dot-com boom, my husband Doug and I worked together at a small email startup.
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One evening, after work, I was venting about my frustration with not yet receiving a raise. After listening for a while, Doug asked me a simple question: 'Have you asked for a raise?' At that moment, I looked horrified.
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I replied, 'Of course not! I've been putting in extra hours, so they should recognize my work.' He then said, 'Okay, take a seat; we need to talk.'
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It was then that I learned how naive my views on raises and promotions truly were. You don't need to be someone's spouse to give career advice like that, but I recommend kittens as a comforting presence.
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For me, leadership distills down to a core principle. As developers, we assess ourselves based on our individual contributions—features delivered, lines of code added, and ideally, lines of code removed.
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As leaders, we need to reverse that metric. We should judge ourselves on what we enable others to accomplish.
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So far, we've covered where you are, why you should lead, and what leadership entails.
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In this last part of my talk, I want to get down to practicalities: How do you lead? What skills can you take away today that will bolster your leadership capabilities?
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If leadership is about enabling others, the biggest and easiest thing you can start with is to help lift others up.
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For starters, friends shouldn't let friends bear all the glue work. Here are a few simple phrases that can help distribute glue responsibilities across the team.
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One of my favorites is, 'Let's rotate who takes the notes.' Or, 'Let's rotate who organizes the social events.' I also like to suggest, 'Can one of the managers please take care of this task?'
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Often, what may feel like glue work for you might actually fall under your manager's duties. Managers are not just there to instruct you; they're there to buffer your team against external challenges.
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Furthermore, it is essential to highlight leadership when you observe it. Frequently, the distinction between glue work and leadership work is simply whether or not someone is recognized for it.
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Feel free to reach out to someone’s manager and say, 'Hey, I noticed that so-and-so displayed exceptional leadership skills when they reorganized our docs' or 'I really appreciate when this person explained this complex concept to me.'
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Actively advocate for each other; managers often lack awareness of the remarkable contributions happening around them.
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In safe environments, don't hesitate to point out observable inequalities, such as, 'I’ve noticed that all the women on our team have been organizing all the social events. Let's make a change.'
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Another practical action is being mindful of when others struggle to speak up during meetings.
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If you notice an intern trying to voice an idea and getting cut off, pause the conversation and ask, 'John, were you about to say something?'
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By allowing space for others, especially as leaders, you empower everyone at all levels to express their thoughts.
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Finally, remember that as you advance in leadership, it's often beneficial to talk less. Allow others a chance to propose solutions in team meetings.
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Encourage them to come up with solutions instead of always providing the answers yourself. Instead, ask probing questions to inspire their thinking.
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There’s so much more you can do to support your peers. Consider mentoring opportunities or being that sympathetic ear for colleagues sharing their frustrations.
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You can also embrace your role by sharing your learnings. For instance, I'm currently at RubyConf, which means I must bring knowledge back to my team.
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I've started a thread for my day one insights, and although I'm falling behind on my day two thread, I can still share nuggets of wisdom.
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Share what you've learned from conferences; recommend watching specific presentations or highlight resources that could be beneficial.
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Even more critical, talk openly about your mistakes. It’s vital for everyone to know that nobody in tech is perfect.
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Indeed, if you're comfortable raising your hand if you've ever introduced an error into production, let’s acknowledge we’ve all faced mishaps.
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And as a significant reminder, don't forget to compliment your peers when they excel. Approach a presenter after a session and express that you appreciated their insights or thank a colleague for their help.
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Additionally, identify problems. I earlier presented a talk at Shopify on the essence of being a staff software engineer.
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A senior engineer is typically a problem-solver while a staff engineer focuses on finding problems and presenting those for the team to consider.
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We often hear the phrase 'think outside the box'; however, I encourage you to first look inside the box for problems you know about that frustrate you.
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If you can improve something in the tooling that saves your entire team valuable hours of work, you will make a substantial impact.
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Next, think outside the box—consider the product as a whole and what challenges may exist in the teams you interact with.
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Lastly, zoom out to the warehouse; take time to contemplate ideas that may seem too absurd to realistically consider.
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While I don't expect you to act on every outlandish thought, stretching your thinking may lead to discover significant improvements.
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Now, if you’ve identified a problem, do you need permission to address it? The answer varies. I will share a story; Shopify hosts hack days.
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During my first hack days, I was introduced to a data scientist who needed assistance with a JavaScript issue. I helped him, and through this experience, I recognized a common concern during hack days.
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Anyone at Shopify can participate in hack days, but there's a challenge of information availability depending on team composition.
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So, during my next hack days, I initiated a project called Hack Day Helpers. It was designed to assist others in getting unstuck and didn't require any formal permission.
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Eventually, Hack Day Helpers became an official part of Shopify's hack days, all because I had the opportunity to implement it without needing permission.
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However, other initiatives may require permission. In cases when you need a nod to pursue an idea, I recommend utilizing a five-step mini-proposal approach.
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This approach involves stating the issue with supporting data, proposing a solution, estimating the necessary time and number of engineers, discussing trade-offs, and finally requesting permission.
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For example, we might consider the issue: 'Every week, hours are wasted finding error data in the logs.' My solution would be, 'I would like to add a page to our internal diagnostics tool that makes those errors visible.'
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'This effort should take one to two days to complete and will push back the design document slightly. Do you foresee any issues with me prioritizing this work?'
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It's most effective to communicate this in a message, especially if discussing it in person feels intimidating.
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As we round this discussion off, I must touch on an essential point about visibility. I had the opportunity to run an earlier talk organized by Eileen, and one suggestion she made was to emphasize visibility.
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It is significantly harder to lead if people don't recognize your work. Tanya Riley remarked, 'Getting promoted is diversity work.'
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If you are underrepresented in tech and attain a promotion, you now serve as a role model and mentor, impacting others climbing the ladder behind you.
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Visibility is not self-serving, especially for those of us conditioned to remain quiet, blend in, and take up no space.
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We must overcome that conditioning and allow ourselves to be seen.
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So, how do you achieve visibility? Julia Evans has written extensively on this topic, particularly in her blog post about creating a 'brag document.'
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Essentially, if you do wonderful work and expect acknowledgment or rewards automatically from management, you will be sorely disappointed.
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You must keep track of your accomplishments so you can share them with your manager, making their job easier.
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This lesson comes full circle. Leading from where you are is about empowerment. Every single person in this room holds a unique position.
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As tech increasingly influences society, we are the ones driving it forward. In closing, what was the core message I wanted you to take away?
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Leading from where you are is essential. We can simplify the challenges that individuals face, such as updating their name in an app.
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We are the individuals who can drive that change. I urge you all to reflect: Where are you, and how can you contribute towards leading?
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Finally, I want to express my gratitude to all of you for this incredible conference. Thank you to the organizers for trusting me with this closing talk.
