Failure Report: A look at some of our biggest learning moments in 2017
Written by Kylie Toh
We’re wrapping up our fiscal year at Chic Geek and it’s a great time for reflecting. Often, we celebrate the wins, accomplishments and milestones. At Chic Geek, we have an internal manifesto. It helps remind us of our core values at Chic Geek, align our intentions as a team, and guide us in our search for volunteers. One of the qualities in our manifesto is a willingness to Experiment.
A commitment to Experiment means that Chic Geeks are fearless when it comes to risks, making mistakes and facing failure. We iterate, prototype and pivot because it makes us better. Chic Geek is a science lab — a place where each and every one of us can get messy and gain hands-on experience and that will move us forward in our careers.
In light of our manifesto and a commitment to Experiment, we are doing a year-end Failure Report. In sharing our mistakes, it’s an opportunity to be vulnerable, humble and recognize our most significant learning experiences this year.
Gender Pronouns: Being inclusive at all times
I’m a cisgender female. Cisgender is a term that applies to the majority of people — it means your gender identity matches the sex you’re assigned at birth. Being cisgender also means I fall into the mainstream category for gender identity and with it comes privilege. It means I don’t need to question which bathroom I use in public places. It means when someone refers to me as “she” I’m not uncomfortable because they’re using the wrong gender pronouns.
We made a gender pronoun mistake on Instagram when sharing one of our blog posts. While unintentional, it was thoughtless. We’re not proud of it, but we need to own up to that mistake and take accountability for our actions. So here’s how we addressed it:
- Fixed the social media post (made it gender-pronoun correct)
- Apologized profusely
- Asked what we could do better
- Implemented gender pronouns on all of the Chic Geek nametags we use at events
- Integrated information about gender pronouns and gender inclusivity in the opening remarks of all our events
This mistake has made our organization more aware of gender pronouns, the content we share and how we share it. We’ve put practices in place as a commitment to be better and help educate our community on these issues.
A Tech Scare: Backups, Controls and Information Management
We’re big Google fans at Chic Geek. We use Google for Non-Profits, a program that provides G Suite for free (email addresses, calendar, file storage). We keep our files, documentation, plans (basically everything) on Google Drive. We like it because 1) it’s free and 2) it helps us collaborate. We can work on documents simultaneously from different places.
This year, we learned the downside of Google for Non-Profits. There are few controls we can put in place on Google Drive, with regards to permissions to delete files (this isn’t the case for paid enterprise customers). Some of our team members are new to Google Drive and one night, over half our files disappeared. You can imagine the panic we experienced the next day when we were looking for design files, planning documents and notes.
Luckily, Google Drive keeps a history of changes and does regular backups so you can restore your files to a certain date. It took us half-a-day, but we were able to recover everything that was missing.
It’s scary to know that anyone on our team can delete all of our documentation and historical data. We’re looking into controls and Google Drive training to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
Geek Store: Managing Expectations and Understanding Limits
We launched the Geek Store this summer and I thought it would be an easy task. How hard could it be to find products, get them on a website and ship them to customers? I underestimated the work and energy required to launch an online store.
We ran into troubles with our original suppliers — two of the products we had sourced were discontinued and we needed to find alternatives. This lengthened the process and early purchasers experienced long wait times for the products they ordered. We also hadn’t thoughtfully established a process for fulfilling orders and didn’t have the volunteer power to fulfill orders in a timely way. I’m embarrassed to share that some community members had to wait months for their packages.
This early experience customers had with the Geek Store doesn’t align with the Chic Geek brand experience. We want to be friendly, accommodating and put our community first. The Geek Store experience made people feel like an afterthought. I’m grateful for the patience and understanding of our first customers, and I’m committed to serving you better.
The Geek Store is a work-in-progress for us. We’re trying to find a balance between running our regular programs (MeetnTech, Mentorship Program and Geeky Summit) and the Geek Store. Another team member has joined us on the Geek Store, but we need more support to run it properly. Now I understand that running an online store is a big role, not something that thrives as a side project. For the Geek Store to succeed, it needs to be a priority at Chic Geek.
One of our Chic Geek values is to Be Brave. Sharing our mistakes is an act of courage — it’s scary to put your imperfections out there. As I write this, I worry that Chic Geek will be judged by our community, our partners and our supporters. There’s a small voice in my head that’s afraid people will turn their backs on us when they know we mess up.
But I am hopeful that our community is understanding. By sharing our failures, we create spaces where it’s okay to make mistakes. Mistakes are how we innovate and improve. They help us be better. For some shortcomings, we’ve established quick and clear solutions; boundaries so we don’t make them again. For others, they’re a longer process, and we’re committed to working on them.
I hope you’ll join us on the Chic Geek journey into 2018 and we’ll see you at an upcoming event. If you haven’t joined our community yet, sign up on our website.
