Martina Montero’s SAAS NORTH Experience
Crescendo partnered with SAAS NORTH to provide the unique opportunity to one member of an underrepresented community to attend the conference. The contest offered the prize of a ticket to SAAS NORTH as well as $200 for travelling costs.
We are very pleased to announce that Martina Montero was our winner!
Montero is Product Manager at Prodigy Game. Prodigy Game designs math games which reflect the curriculum for students in grades 1–8 to supplement their learning in a way that is interactive and fun. It is utilized by students, teachers, and parents alike.
Martina is also a Venture for Canada Fellow and is passionate about diversity and inclusion in the tech ecosystem.
We sat down with Martina to hear about the highlights of her experience at SAAS NORTH.
Stefan: Were there some key takeaways that you had from that panel?
Martina: Hadley talked about how as someone who works in diversity and inclusion, you cannot spread yourself so thin, with the aim to cater to, help, and hire from all underrepresented groups at once. In reality, what happens is you are not going to end up helping anyone.
She gave examples of how she had wanted to hire more women, members of the LGBTQ community, and specifically transgender people. When she brought this up to a trans man and mentor of hers, they recommended that it probably wasn’t the right time to focus on all of these, for a couple of reasons:
- If you’re a startup and attempt to focus your attention on attracting multiple groups, it is likely that you won’t be able to significantly impact the representation anywhere.
- If your workplace is still in the early stages of its diversity and inclusion work, it is possible that it could be a toxic environment for a member of an underrepresented group, and you should ensure that you have created an inclusive culture first.
So instead of trying to tackle everything at once, she discussed how it is better to focus in on one group who you want to improve your representation of at the present.
Having this target involves perfecting the methodology of finding members of this group, speaking to them, understanding what drives them, and really working on removing hiring biases from your entire system.
Once you have gone through this process, you can then move on to using these same strategies but in a way that is flexible and speaks to each individual group. This ensures that the right environment exists at your organization to set the stage for a more diverse and inclusive organization.
Hadley has implemented some great initiatives at Tulip. One example is partnering with Bridge. Tulip is hosting a coding school for women, agender and non-binary individuals. Notably, this program is free of cost. She also recommends looking to individuals who have been trained in bootcamps and not to overlook the potential there.
Something Hadley stressed is to keep diversity and inclusion as a core value in your company as it will then reflect in everything you do. Where you take that is limitless.
The Attendee Experience
Stefan: Were there any interesting people you met?
Martina: There were definitely a lot. I ran into Jeanette Stock who I know personally, but it was great to see her at SAAS NORTH and to witness how much she continues to evolve and constantly grow, while working to make improvements in the world of diversity and inclusion. Another really interesting person I met was an older gentleman,seeing him at the conference to was the epitome of diversity and inclusion. The tech world has largely become dominated by straight young white men, so seeing someone from a different background and different generation was great. He was brilliant — he had really interesting perspectives, experience, and insights.
Read full article at www.getcrescendo.co.
