Meet the Board: Aaron Davis, Ecosystems Expert and Director of Operations at The Milwaukee Tech Hub Coalition
Community Manager, Ecosystems Expert and Champion of Gender Equality Aaron Davis is a board member of Her Product Lab, helping HPL with membership, growth, and design since its inception. He accepted the invitation to formally join the board this summer. Currently based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as the Director Of Operations at the Milwaukee Tech Hub Coalition, Aaron has had a lot of experience working with impactful organizations and nonprofits, making sure each team member feels heard and represented. So it’s completely understandable why he grew attached to the mission of HPL, empowering women in product.
We chatted with Aaron about how he got involved with HPL, why he’s invested in us and why more men should, well, lean in and get involved with gender equality initiatives.
How did you get involved with HPL?
I found the HPL team while I was the head of community at Alpha in New York. Co-founder Monica Rozenfeld was my first entry into the HPL world. I really just got to be Monica’s cheerleader. I was part of the initial group that put together the initial conference.
Our early conversations all keyed around this: There are some badass women in product, and we need to make sure that they know that they’re supported. We need to make sure that they know their voice is just as important as anyone else’s. And so whatever sort of form that took, we really connected and bonded over that. It’s been this great journey; there is a lot of value in just being supportive, in being an extra vote of confidence in someone’s corner.
That’s really special. Given your background in community organizing and directing, is that often what people come to you for — support and the energy to get started?
I think so. And anyone who plays that role, the thing you’re always balancing trying not to be controlling while still offering up ideas, suggestions, directions, and recommendations. Specifically for a lot of men that I’ve worked with, trying to strike that balance is always something that’s really critically important. If an idea is brought to the table, don’t try to co-opt it and make it your own, really actively be a supporter, a beacon and an adviser — in a way that encourages it.
If an idea is brought to the table, don’t try to co-opt it and make it your own, really actively be a supporter, a beacon and an adviser — in a way that encourages it.
Monica and I would talk about the high-level stuff as well as get into the weeds and ask, ‘How is this program going to be structured? Who does it serve? What role does it play in the ecosystem of other tools that are available?’
What does it mean to be an ecosystems expert?
The simplest definition of community is a group of people with similar characteristics all gathered together for a common purpose. An ecosystem is a collection of those communities where there is an exchange of currency — money, time, service, anything of value.
The connecting thread is the ability to see an ecosystem in its entirety and ensure that everyone who represents those connected communities are served and, more importantly, are heard. We hear a lot about communities being left behind and communities not having a seat at the table when it is crucial that their voice is heard. I think people who actively identify with that term, ‘ecosystems expert,’ really have that mandate to see the different groups who are a part of that ecosystem and make sure everyone is represented accordingly.
I’m just going to be honest — that’s a lot to think about. Like, that’s a lot of different things happening in your brain all at the same time and a lot of people to consider, a lot of different roles, a lot of different problems to prevent. This can be on or off the record, I’m just really curious: What is your personality and attention span like, and what about that makes you best equipped for this role? Because you’re very good at it obviously. What is it at your core that makes you a good fit for this type of thing?
This can certainly be on the record, because I think there’s a lot of vulnerability in this sort of space, a sort of space of like, all that sounds good, but what the hell do you actually do? I think regardless of what role you’re in, that’s always really the question that pops up.
Regarding what I do very well and why this work really speaks to me, I stick to a phrase that a mentor of mine, Scott Pollack, who used to run business development at WeWork, said. I once asked him, ‘What makes you a great sales person? What makes you a great partnerships expert?’ And he said, ‘Aaron, I’m empathetic to a fault.’ [Editor’s note: Empathy! It’s a secret weapon, we swear.] I feel like I’m in a very similar spot. People who find themselves in these roles, they find that they get there because they just care. It just, it comes out of their ears.
Regardless of whether you’re someone who is more organized, someone who is more visionary, someone who is more of an influencer or an encourager, I think it’s always very much rooted in a deep empathy.
Pivoting from there, why did you get involved with HPL?
Monica and Lina have a perspective from a hyper-empathetic lens: ‘I am a woman in product and I’m going to take the resources and learnings I’ve found incredibly valuable throughout my experiences, and start to evangelize those for others.’ It’s the importance of specifically women in product putting brand new things into the world, and not just what that brings to us as stakeholders, but what that’s going to bring to everyone who those new ideas will touch.
Absolutely. Okay, this next one is kind of big, and you’ve spoken a little bit to this already, but just in general: Tell me about your thoughts on feminism and equality.
Well, the thing that sticks out in my mind is not original to me. It’s a quote that just sticks in my brain and I think it frames why I find this work so important. It’s from Tanya Mosley. It’s quite simply that diversity is a fact, inclusion is a practice, and equity is the goal.
Regardless of whether you’re someone who is more organized, someone who is more visionary, someone who is more of an influencer or an encourager, I think it’s always very much rooted in a deep empathy.
There is no shortage of badass women. They are everywhere and the inequality we have is not for a lack of those individuals. It is a lack of individuals taking up the practice of inclusion that’s leading toward equity as the overall goal.
In the same way that people need to train their brains to learn new skills or train their bodies to do new feats, I think we all need to be in a training mindset of how we influence greater representation. I’m really actively hungry to build up my practice for inclusion and I encourage anyone else who’s in a very similar spot to mine, who I think is very historically privileged, to do the same.
Yeah! Why should more men be more involved in gender equality initiatives?
I think everyone weighs the initiatives they get involved with always from a lens of, what value will it bring to me? Well, the value it brings to you is also the value it brings to people around you. Your life can be made better by the people around you being heard, being empowered and being engaged.
What I love to share with other men in viewing these equality initiatives is a reframe that it’s definitely not us-versus-them. The more you take a step back and listen and be a part of a broader coalition that is bigger than yourself, you’re not doing it at the detriment of yourself, your career, your profession, your stance as a powerful member of society, you’re doing it to empower really incredible women.
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