What is “rude” to one person may be perfectly acceptable to another. What is fine in the US Northeast may be rude in the South. What is rude in one country may be perfectly fine in another. So what is “rude” and how do we handle it on a diverse team?

Many have asked Karen to respond about the James Damore situation. So, she thought about a hypothetical: “What If I had James Damore of Google on a team?”

This blog is her answer, including techniques she’s employed successfully in the past.

In a blog designed to provoke conversation—and perhaps controversy—Karen speaks directly to men about how they can use behavior from chivalry and team sports to support women in the workplace.

Karen reflects on the lessons learned from how grassroots efforts transformed user-centered design and how the @Work Action Framework gives us ways to now make grassroots changes for Women in Technology.

Women are twice as likely to leave the field mid-career compared to men. Attrition costs companies 16B a year. Diverse teams produce more innovative and successful solutions than male-only teams.

What are best practices for managing our remote teams? How do issues of diversity play out when we are all on video? What happens to productivity?  We’ll reveal what the current literature and our research shows.

Learn about how you can keep being in the “field” and managing data synthesis, visioning, and design work remotely.  I’ll be sharing techniques and how to run some of the key techniques: Field interviews, interpretation sessions, affinity building, modeling and all detailed design in small groups.

Design critiques are central to maker professions. However, 80% of women lose self esteem when criticized. Learn what our research shows about how to do team design critiques while also including everyone and making them feel valued in the process.

Key success factors for onboarding new employees!

Helping women thrive on tech teams. Learn what to do, and how not to be a jerk!

Watch Karen introduce the Women in Tech project, followed by a panel discussing the Action Framework and interventions.

In this recording of a YouTube Live Event, Karen covered the latest from the Women in High Tech Retention (WIT-R) Project. She introduced the key retention factors, and then shared some of the interventions, along with some exercises you can try out.

In “One Woman’s Journey in High Tech: Passion and Partnership” Karen shares her personal journey and the role of Guides, Partners, Coaches, and Supporters throughout the arc of her life.

The Affinity Diagram is a key tool in organizing qualitative data to see the patterns and themes of the people you interviewed. Often people ask how did we find the dimensions of the @Work Experience Framework. The answer is build an affinity!