Re: Thought on Diversity Part 2.

I’ve spent the last couple of days thinking and talking to many people inside and outside of Twitter about Leslie’s post. I’ve spent some of that time with members of our employee resource groups, who do amazing work to make Twitter more diverse and inclusive. I’d like to share my thoughts with the assurance that diversity is a key priority for me and for Twitter.

I realize that we have blind spots, myself included. One of mine is that I have a tendency to default to engineering-driven, quantitative solutions. The issues Leslie raise require so much more than that. I’ve learned a lot this week. We as a company are working to address our blind spots swiftly to build a Twitter that will make our employees and people who use our services proud.

I want Twitter to be a place where all employees feel comfortable raising questions about diversity. That hasn’t always been the case, which is unacceptable. The comments attributed to me aren’t an accurate or complete facsimile, but they conveyed a meaning that was very far from what I intended, which means I did a poor job communicating. That resulted in unnecessary pain and confusion, for which I am truly sorry. We all want the same results — stronger representation of underrepresented minorities at all levels within Twitter.

Twitter and our industry must make faster progress on the issue of diversity. That requires people in leadership positions in technology to stand up, state it’s a problem, set ambitious goals, and invest in solutions that move us forward. It’s why we not only shared our ethnic and gender composition numbers publicly, but also set public goals for them in the coming year, so we can be held accountable. We are taking action to drive those changes:

• While we’ve offered inclusion training to employees in the past, it will be a requirement for our workforce starting in January. These trainings, along with booster sessions, will continue throughout the entire lifecycle of our employees and interns (e.g. new hire orientation, interview training, manager training, promotion committee training, etc.).
• We are building a clearer view of the representation of underrepresented minorities at every stage of both the hiring and promotion processes, and examining our employment practices generally. We also want to get and analyze data on how retention varies. Above all, we strive for improved transparency and fairness at all stages.
• We are developing specific actions related to diversity that we will expect all managers at all levels of the engineering team to implement, not just top-level representation goals.
• With the help of our employee resource groups (like @blackbirds and @twitteralas), our Diversity & Inclusion team, and recruiting team, we are taking action to meet our diversity goals by reaching out to new graduates and experienced candidates. We are and will be recruiting the best talent from Hispanic-Serving Institutions and Historically Black Colleges and Universities. We are also supporting professional gatherings that serve underrepresented groups, like the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers.

All of the above is only a small start, and we’re going to do a lot more. Ultimately, it’s better to show the world rather than tell the world.

Alex Roetter
SVP, Engineering
Twitter, Inc.