Chelsey’s story

My apprenticeship at Software for Good gave me the personal and professional foundation that I needed to succeed in the tech community. The mentors and team members at SfG taught a holistic approach to programming, ensuring that every intern participating in the program would experience every aspect of the operations of a tech company.

The environment was positive and affirming for a junior developer like me, a recent coding bootcamp graduate, who was working for a tech company for the first time in her career. The first major difference between bootcamp and the apprenticeship was the language stack. I had no previous experience with Ruby on Rails before starting the apprenticeship, so the mentor in the program spent considerable time with all the apprentices in my cohort to make sure that we were supported in our learning. That immediately gave me confidence when it came to learning new programming languages.

With this partnership between SfG, New Vision Foundation and Ramsey County, I believe that the apprenticeship program will lead in a new direction that transfuses some of the classic program elements that I experienced with new elements, making the apprenticeship program more robust for the incoming class.

Mentoring SfG apprentices has given me the opportunity to continue to provide sponsorship for developers of color looking to join tech. I look forward to championing this next cohort of future techies!

— Chelsey McKinney, Software Engineer

Yasmeen’s story

My apprenticeship at Software for Good set me up for success by helping me bridge the gap between what I was learning in school, and what I would need to know to enter the tech workforce.  The learning curve for Ruby on Rails was steep, but I had support the whole way through, and ended up feeling super accomplished by the end of the summer.

I really appreciated the holistic approach that the program took. I got to work on skills beyond programming, and develop an appreciation for the soft skills that are needed when interacting with clients, working as a team, and operating within the company.

The other apprentices and I each got to take on a lot of responsibility and ownership over our project from the jump. This made me nervous at first, but with guidance from SfG full-timers, it quickly began to feel much more natural — and I actually was able to build a lot of confidence in my skill set. By the end of the program, I felt very empowered, and was able to land an offer from a big-name tech company the summer following.

— Yasmeen Awad, Junior Software Engineer

Annie’s story

Mentoring the next cohort of Software for Good apprentices is coming full circle for me. I got so much out of my experience as an apprentice here in 2017! I had a dedicated SfG mentor, who was devoted to the program, so I was always really supported. I needed the support, too — my project was building a Ruby on Rails app, and I’d never touched Ruby or Rails in school. My mentor really held my hand.

In this next iteration of the program, I’m looking forward to spending more time supporting the apprentices, one on one. It can be hard to get your foot in the door of the tech world, and working individually with apprentices helps them understand what’s happening on the other side.

I’m most excited to follow up with people after they’ve completed their apprenticeships with us. It’s awesome to see people getting full-time jobs after their time here at Software for Good. I’d like to see even more apprentices hired. When I asked my SfG mentor to help me find a job, he told me about this one — and I got it!

— Annie Tran, Senior Software Engineer

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At Software for Good, love means more than coding pretty apps or having good intentions. Following visionary Black feminist scholar bell hooks, our team is trying to reimagine the work of building software by thinking of love as the active choice to nurture humanity’s highest good. We want to build software in exactly that way.

This Valentine’s Day, the SfG team wants to share some ideas from a recent conversation we had about building software with love. Our hope is to start a dialogue with other do-gooders and technologists about what that might mean in practice. As Chelsey put it during our conversation, you never really know if love is being received — “you just put good energy out into the world, and hope it comes back.” That’s what we’re doing now.

Four ways to build software with love

Prioritize human beings. 

From day to day, most of us in tech “don’t relate love and software really at all,” as Jared pointed out. But the thing about building software, as Colleen said, is that “it’s never just about the software” — it’s about the human relationships that the software makes possible. For Lori, building software with love means “thinking and acting beyond myself, having an awareness of other people.”

By expanding beyond ourselves in this way, Yasmeen said, we’re “looking at all the people who are involved — the people building it, the people affected by it — and what the impacts of it are.” When we focus on how our work touches the lives of human beings, Alex said, the process of software development itself can be “a loving relationship.”

Design with, not for.

Too often, technologists — particularly those of us who want to do good — think of ourselves as helping people. But that’s not what love means to us at all. “Supporting others’ spiritual growth isn’t charity,” Thena explained. “It’s not ‘giving people what they need,’ but lifting up the people we’re working with.” When we’re lifting our collaborators up in that way, Ryan said, it sometimes even feels like being “in love” with them, sharing moments of excitement and discovery.

Like anyone who’s in love, we want to learn as much as we can about our partners. At Software for Good, we practice human-centered design strategy to do just that — so we’re never building for the people and communities our projects serve, but rather co-creating with them. That’s why we designed Housing Hub together with the renters, landlords and property managers who actually need and use it.

Like any kind of loving relationship, though, co-creation can be difficult. “When the people who have a stake in what we’re building feel valued and heard,” said Wendy, “they feel able to tell you things you don’t want to hear.” Being open to troublesome feedback isn’t enough, though. “If you’re not hearing negatives, that doesn’t mean things are working,” Devin pointed out. “You have to reach out and ask.” And who we ask matters, too. “The point of contact we have may not be the actual people who are impacted the most,” said Antonio.

Welcome discomfort.

“Love can be messy,” Casey reflected. “It has challenges, highs and lows.” Co-creating software, like every form of loving relationship, isn’t always comfortable. In fact, Sarah added, “the discomfort is important.” Cassi went farther: “It will be uncomfortable,” she said. “That’s how we’ll know we’re building software in love.”

The same goes for our clients: choosing to support their growth is sometimes as uncomfortable as parenting. “​​I love my two children more than I can describe, and one way I love them is by pushing them — recognizing their genius and pushing them to live and operate fully in that,” said Sharon. “When we’re building software in love, we can do that for our clients as well.” That means “being able to recognize everyone’s full humanity,” Edith explained, “and having the psychological safety to have difficult conversations, raise questions, challenge ideas.”

Discomfort happens when we’re in loving relationship with each other, too. Laney talked about “what it means to ‘do love,’ to love-as-a-verb, in a professional setting. How can we show each other compassion and loving-kindness and grace as we build the software? That’s a practice,” and we’re working on it every day.

Maximize human liberation.

Love, as we understand it, isn’t just about how we feel — it’s about the growth we enable for ourselves and other human beings. And to grow, people need to be free. “If we’re building software with love,” as Kevin put it, “it’s freeing people to do things other than focus on the software.” That’s exactly what Sharon means by software with soul — it’s tech that “helps people dream, build, create and care for each other, as only human beings can do.” The soul comes from human freedom.

Liberation is also at the heart of the Declaration of Digital Autonomy, which Eric helped create. Digital autonomy, as the Declaration says, requires  technology to help the people who are affected by it, allows informed consent, empowers individual and collective action, and protects human rights by design. “If we’re doing all these things,” Eric said, “that’s core to developing software in love.”

Here at Software for Good, we’re still figuring out how to build software with love. In fact, as Annie pointed out, figuring it out is an act of love in itself. “It’s hard to know that the love we put into things is received in the way we hope; but we put the effort in anyway.” Happy Valentine’s day!

The post How to Build Software with Love (A Conversation) appeared first on Software for Good.

The “next big thing in tech”

A little while back, the moderator of a panel asked me a question I’ve heard many times: What’s the next big thing in tech?

That question, as it’s been posed to me over the years, is usually an invitation to name some disruptive innovation that’s just on the verge of changing the world. At the beginning of 2023, there are many next big things that fit that description — above all the revolution that is generative AI. But now more than ever before, in this moment when artificial intelligence is making dramatic new strides, I believe the next big thing in tech is not a thing at all. It’s the return of the human soul to technology.

What gives technology its soul

What I call technology with soul liberates human beings to live freely and fully. Technology with soul helps people dream, build, create and care for each other, as only human beings can do. The lines of code that make up databases, internet protocols, and search engines, for example, expand the scope of human freedom and compassion. You can recognize software like that the way you recognize soul music. Soul music is a blend of gospel, R&B, and jazz — music that creates harmony, connection, call and response. Software with soul blends different languages, frameworks and protocols to create a living relationship with the people who use it. When you hear soul music, you feel the lived experience in the lyrics, and you feel hope and joy in the listening. When you use software with soul, you interact with the lived experiences of the people who created it — and in using it, your life gets richer, more connected, more free.

The trouble is that building technology with soul is often very inconvenient — because it can only be built in ways that prioritize human wellbeing above everything else. As Bernice King reminded us this Martin Luther King Day, “We can no longer afford the convenience of technology without the inconvenience of moral integrity.” Soulless technology, which puts the convenience of some over shared wellbeing, lacks moral integrity — and it’s leading us to our destruction.

Convenience and soullessness

AI in particular can certainly make life more convenient by automating activities that only humans were capable of before. Today AI-enabled software can compose poems, paint pictures, create videos, and even write code — applications of software that can liberate human genius in truly transformative ways. But AI is also making it more convenient for state power to deprive people of their liberty by automating law and punishment; more convenient for banks to deny women access to capital; more convenient for healthcare companies to deny people of color the care we need to live. These applications of AI are convenient for people with more power, and oppressive to people with less. They are soulless.

That’s because of how they’re built. As Joy Buolamwini explains, “The underrepresentation of women and people of color in technology, and the under-sampling of these groups in the data that shapes AI, has led to the creation of technology that is optimized for a small portion of the world.” She founded the Algorithmic Justice League to make sure that software built on AI is optimized for everyone, not just those who have the most power — to make sure, in other words, that it has soul.

Tech leadership with soul

Buolamwini is one of the Black women who’s leading the global effort to return the soul to the software we live by. Another is Ruha Benjamin, who is teaching the world how software supports and reinforces the violence of racism. Another is Timnit Gebru, who is leading the effort to reimagine how AI software can be built, trained, and used to benefit the whole human community. In these courageous and soulful women I recognize the lineage of Black feminist thought that formed me as a college student and continues to guide Software for Good today.

With guidance from these prophetic activists and intellectuals, people of goodwill all over the world are building the next big thing in technology: returning the soul to the software we live by. That’s exactly what we’re doing every day here at Software for Good. But even if you’ve never written a line of code, you can help bring soul back to your own technological life by looking beyond the intent and convenience of our tools while remaining curious about the impact they have by asking some simple questions about the software you use.

Does the software you’re using have soul? Four questions to consider

Why was it built? Software with soul exists to empower the people who use it, but most software actually exists to enrich the people who own it. Software owned by publicly traded companies or funded by traditional venture capital has to prioritize making money for investors — and often, it does so at the expense of the people who build it and use it. Open-source software, like the code that powers Software for Good’s CommitChange platform, has a lot more room for soul, because it prioritizes its creators and users from the start.. Learn about what’s motivating the software you use by finding out why it was built — and consider open-source alternatives.

Who keeps it running? Often, soulless software seems “magical” by exploiting hidden human labor. OpenAI, the for-profit company behind DALL-E and ChatGPT, is currently valued at $29 billion — and in order to make the datasets its neural nets learn from safe for consumption in the global North, it hired Kenyan workers paid $2 an hour to view horrifying text and images from the darkest corners of the internet to remove them from the AI’s training dataset. If a piece of software feels like magic, get curious about how that works — particularly when it comes to AI.

What effects does this software have on human lives? When I joined social networks, it connected me in a whole new way to people I love and care for. It still does, and for me it feels soulful in that way. But even as social media makes my life better, those same lines of code are injecting disinformation into our politics, leading children to take their own lives, and facilitating genocide around the world. When you interact with software, ask whose life it’s making better — and whether it’s making other lives worse. 

Who’s in the code and who isn’t? Software and datasets don’t come from nowhere: they are written and generated by human beings, who bring with them their histories, biases, and ways of seeing the world. That’s why diversity and inclusion in tech are so profoundly important — and why Software for Good is  prioritizing a team with as many different kinds of experience and identity as we can. Blind spots for the dominant culture become visible when we have a diverse set of people building software together. Ask yourself this about the software you use: Who wrote the code for this? Who decided what datasets would be used, and who’d be represented there? And who isn’t included?

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As Software for Good welcomes the new year with our new vision and values, I feel the humbling sense that I have come full circle.

When I went to college, I learned how to imagine what Black liberation would mean for the world, to dream of what we humanity could achieve in a world free from racism and misogyny. Pursuing that vision was the work I longed to do, as a scholar and teacher like my mentor. But as a young mother, I had to put my dreams of liberation on hold to support my baby — so I learned to build software. Back then I never imagined, as I coded websites by hand, that technology itself could be a force for liberation.

As I grew as a technologist — almost always in spaces where I was the only person like me (the only Black person, or the only woman, or the only Black woman) — I often felt as though I were getting farther and farther away from the work of liberation that my soul still longed to do. But whenever I despaired, my mentor would remind me that technology can make it possible for human beings to live more fully and freely — and sometimes does. So I started pursuing opportunities to use tech to power liberation in academia, in the public sector, and in community with like-minded technologists wherever I went.

Still, in every job I’ve had, there have always been obstacles to building the kind of technology I dream of. Over the years I gradually resigned myself to separating my life’s purpose, the pursuit of liberation for everyone, from the day-to-day work of managing teams and shipping code.

Then I joined Software for Good.

The challenge: deep questions

This summer and fall, when I gathered with Casey, Cassi and Kevin to plan our company’s future, I discovered a group of people who are as excited as I am about the power of technology to liberate human beings. Thinkers like Robin D.G. Kelley and bell hooks formed my political consciousness in college, and I found myself drawing deeply on that lineage as the four of us planned a strategy around liberation and love, centering people who have been historically excluded from full humanity. On Google Meet or around whiteboards at The Coven, I found this team welcomed my biggest hopes and most sacred dreams — not only for our company, but for humanity.

The vision we articulated for our shared work took my breath away:

At Software for Good, we envision a  world where all communities can use the power of data and technology to cultivate shared abundance and liberation. To bring this world into being, we build software with love.

This is a mission statement for a company that can and will build technology that liberates.

When the leadership team  brought this vision to the whole SfG team, they responded with an outpouring of joyful enthusiasm, intellectual engagement, and a whole lot of very deep questions. How can we tell if the apps we build are actually making the people use them more free? How do we shift from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset? How can a software agency love our people as human beings in a labor market that’s built on exploitation? How should we balance the needs of our own team with the demands of our clients and our duties to our communities and the world? How can we allow time and space for  our own team to learn and grow in an agency that bills by the hour? How will we know if we’re building software with love, anyway?

Trying to answer deep questions like these together is the work before Software for Good in the years ahead. As CEO, it’s my job to bring our expansive shared vision back down into the day-to-day reality of software engineering. Creating the conditions for love, abundance and liberation to flourish in a software agency is an immense and continuing challenge — especially because my team is united in believing the challenge is worth taking on.

Fortunately, I know I can count on the strength of my team’s shared vision for technology that liberates — and on our curious willingness to try new things, experiment, and support each other as we learn. My father, a farmer, always told me that “scared money don’t make none,” and I know he was right. Cultivating shared abundance, like growing crops in rural Georgia, is an act of hope over fear. Here at Software for Good, shoulder to shoulder with my whole team, we’re already building software that liberates human beings to live more freely. We’re only just getting started.

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For 2021, we shared highlights from our work on community first public safety, accessible and transparent affordable housing, driving inclusion in the tech industry, and participating in conversations about the future of tech for good.

Take a look at our impact report:

Tech for inclusion and transformation

In 2021, we continued to feel the acute potential and responsibility of using technology to support positive impact. From the earliest days of the year, we witnessed threats to the future of democracy and the planet. We continued navigating a global pandemic and marked the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder, shortly after hearing guilty verdicts for Derek Chauvin. We watched billionaires take self-funded trips to space and new tech trends dominated by people focused on making money, while inequality and climate crises continue to grow.

These challenges call us to constantly consider Software for Good’s impact and how we can improve. As a public benefit corporation, we don’t measure growth and success by profit alone. For us, growth means helping human beings solve bigger problems and build stronger solutions for the benefit of people and planet.

Within the team, we’re envisioning what the next few years look like: working on bigger, more complex projects; supporting democracy, justice, and community action; using human-centered design to ensure anything we build is ethical and inclusive; and ensuring that our team and contractors can maintain a high quality of life.

Naturally, we can’t do this alone, and we’re eager to keep partnering with organizations doing good and learning alongside fellow practitioners. This report shares highlights from the past year and our ongoing commitment to pursue benefit to people and planet as well as profit.

In 2021, Software for Good…

• Supported positive parenting skills for families who have experienced trauma by launching two new websites and a Learning Management System for our client ADAPT

• Helped Shelter Animals Count improve animal welfare nationwide by launching their new data portal, which captures information from animal shelters and rescues that the organization uses for analysis and reporting

• Launched the website for ConnextMSP, a growing program of GREATER MSP that helps ensure career opportunities for young BIPOC professionals

• Evaluated the City of Saint Paul’s supplier platform, where vendor companies can bid to work on projects with the city, and recommended ways to make it more accessible and inclusive

• Helped our client Tanka Fund meet their goal of raising more than $50,000 during the Support the Return campaign, which funds projects that restore buffalo to Native lands and communities

• Enhanced developer teams at several companies using tech to deliver health and wellness coaching, diabetes care, and more

• Explored the future of public safety with our client The Black Response as they prepare to launch a holistic alternative emergency alternative response (HEART) program

• Continued to partner closely with HousingLink as they roll out Housing Hub, a platform we built to make affordable housing waitlists simpler and more accessible

• Partnered with The Coven, Techquity, and Open Twin Cities to host a Q&A with Shalini Kantayya, director of the documentary Coded Bias

• Was featured in Twin Cities Business Tech 20 as founder and CEO Casey Helbling was recognized alongside other Minneapolis-Saint Paul leaders

2021 marked the fifth year of Software for Good’s giving and internship program, which pairs up-and-coming tech professionals with mission-driven organizations to provide hands-on, for-good experience. This summer, the program was awarded a competitive grant as part of the State of Minnesota’s Department of Employment and Economic Development Tech Training Pilot Program!

The grant funding allows us to expand our apprenticeship program in software engineering and human-centered design, and to create more opportunities for young adults who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color.

That’s why we’re now calling it an “apprenticeship.” Because of the goals of the DEED funding and the work experience our program offers, we see working with Software for Good as a step between learning tech skills and being ready for a full-time job.

Apprenticeship highlights from 2021:

• Our summer interns met with Mayor Melvin Carter to present their work on the Budget Game, an online version of an activity that helps Saint Paul community members understand the city budgeting process and share their priorities

• We partnered with Prime Academy and the City of Saint Paul’s Right Track as part of their first-ever UX Academy program, which trains young people in UX design and research skills and places them in internships — we hosted one intern from the program during the summer

• We met with DEED Commissioner Steve Grove, fellow Tech Training grantees, and partners like 30,000 Feet and Black Tech Talent to discuss how this program can equip young BIPOC professionals to pursue careers in tech

In 2022, we plan to:

• Achieve the goals of the DEED grant by working with up to 20 new tech professionals and helping them find full-time work in the industry

• Share what we’ve learned with fellow tech companies and organizations that work with apprentices

• Look ahead to the future of the program, including continuing to partner directly with training programs, employers, and mentors to ensure that participants are prepared for successful, fulfilling careers

Exploring the future of public safety

In 2021, conversations about the future of public safety continued to draw new attention in response to police killings and oppressive practices. Software for Good had the chance to jump into these discussions firsthand — and consider how technology can play a part.

In April, we were introduced to The Black Response Cambridge, a grassroots group in Massachusetts leading calls for an alternative, non-police emergency response option in their city. After meeting with the coalition of organizers, nonprofit professionals, and elected officials, we began researching and exploring how tech could support a new program called Cambridge HEART — Holistic Emergency Alternative Response Team.

Software for Good’s team interviewed service providers in Cambridge, from established nonprofits to volunteer street teams; reviewed community surveys and reports; and talked to alternative response teams in other cities, such as Oregon’s long-running CAHOOTS program. We explored partnerships with tech solutions that already exist, including RAHEEM, a company building tech infrastructure to support non-police emergency response.

During the project, we presented our findings to the Cambridge City Council and the members of the HEART coalition, helping the team advocate for funding and support as they launch.

Currently, the HEART program is training first responders, working on a partnership with the City of Cambridge, raising money, and preparing to officially start responding to calls this year. We’re excited to see them grow — and to keep applying what we’ve learned about alternative public safety programs as these initiatives expand around the country.

Reimagining 911 at Code Switch

In September, we partnered with Techquity and Open Twin Cities to host the sixth annual Code Switch, a hackathon focused on disrupting inequity and driving community-led change. Code Switch coincides with the National Day of Civic Hacking hosted by Code for America, so we shared their theme for this year: Reimagining 911.

For the second year in a row, we kept Code Switch virtual and encouraged teams to work for up to a month on projects involving open source tech, open data, and/or human-centered design. For the kickoff event, we assembled a powerhouse panel of Minneapolis–St. Paul leaders:

• Acooa Lee Ellis, Greater Twin Cities United Way

• Mitra Jalali, Saint Paul City Council Member

• Irene Fernando, Hennepin County Commissioner

• Rox Anderson, Relationships Evolving Possibilities (REP)

The speakers invited participants to explore many ideas about 911 and safety: What would you want to happen when you’re in an unsafe situation and need support? How do you want help to show up? How do we define what success and accountability look like when introducing new ideas? What would it mean for public safety and emergency response to be life-affirming?

The speakers noted that there are many ways to innovate on 911, including iterating on the current system and exploring alternatives. Next, participants continued brainstorming and shared pitches about specific projects — from developing an open data standard for 911, to prototyping an Uber-style star rating system for first responders.

In the month after the kickoff, participants had the option to continue working through Open Twin Cities’ Slack workspace and weekly virtual meetups. At the end of the month, we gathered virtually again to share results and discuss how to carry these insights and ideas forward.

“The power resides in the hands of the people,” said Sharon Kennedy Vickers, Chief Information Officer at the City of Saint Paul and co-founder of Techquity, during the wrap-up event. “As technologists, we have a real opportunity in putting information out.”

The challenges with public safety remain active and urgent — and so do the opportunities for us all to use our skills for change.

Sharing insights about tech for housing relief

In 2020, we worked with our partner HousingLink and the State of Minnesota to support the state’s distribution of millions of dollars in COVID-related housing relief — launching the software in just a few weeks.

In 2021, we sunset the software after the COVID-19 Housing Assistance Program wrapped up. And we began sharing the lessons we’d learned from collaborating with government and a nonprofit to build something quickly and iterate over time, such as:

• Trust and flexibility. Because of our previous work with HousingLink and their relationship with the state — and given the extremely short timeline — we were given the trust and flexibility to build toward the ultimate goals of the project, rather than being prescribed detailed specifications.

• Meet people where they’re at. We worked to support people throughout Minnesota who may not have add access to internet or a printer. While the state initially insisted on an ink signature for the application, talking to program administrators after launch made it clear that this was a barrier, and we updated the software to support digital signatures.

• Evolve in response to new information. At first, the software was designed for families to receive assistance just once, but as the pandemic and its challenges went on, some people needed additional support. A few months after the initial launch, we rolled out a major update to allow for returning applicants.

2021 speaking appearances:

We shared the lessons of the COVID-19 Housing Assistance Project alongside HousingLink’s president, Sue Speakman-Gomez, at the following virtual conferences:

• Code for America Summit (watch the video)

• Good Tech Fest

• TechConnect (hosted by Minnesota Technology Association)

• Tech Forward (hosted by TechImpact)

• Code for All Summit

• Minnesota Community Action Partnership (MinnCAP)

The project is also featured as a case study in the Civic Design Library, curated by Rosenfeld Media and the Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University.

Our team also spoke at:

• Genesys Works–Twin Cities’ College & Career Connections Conference

• Career Pathways for Women in Tech (hosted by Minnesota Technology Association)

• Twin Cities Startup Week

Want to partner with us to use technology for impact in 2022? Send us a note.

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If you are familiar with the Gallup StrengthsFinder framework, you would guess that neither my coworker nor I have the strength of “Woo,” or Winning People Over. And you would be correct.  People with the Woo strength can walk into a room and quickly convert anyone to a friend or follower. They aren’t kale or kohlrabi, they are a vine-ripened heirloom tomato or maybe a really sweet carrot dipped in ranch. Everyone likes them, right away. Two of my favorite people — Jenna Carter and Bryan Bass — are known Woos. My guess is that many of our most beloved politicians and celebrities, like President Obama and Oprah, have Woo as a top strength.

Gallup StrengthsFinder is asset-based. The purpose of the assessment and framework is to identify strengths to build upon, not weaknesses to ruminate on. But since first taking the assessment I have envied those with Woo. Or rather, the Woo label provided a way for me to think about part of myself that I have always found lacking. Throughout my life I have felt awkward, like I missed part of the manual for how to show up with new people. I can be overly friendly, ask too many personal questions too quickly, and maybe invite your dog for a sleepover right when we first meet (true story). Or I get feedback that I seem standoffish and uninterested. I am missing the modes of operation between RBF and weird-dog-sleepover person. There are so many times throughout my career that I’ve felt like everything would be easier — fundraising, public speaking, people leadership — if I just had more Woo.

Something hit me during the icebreaker, though, that made me think about my Woo-envy. My colleague who defined herself as Kale is amazing. She is wicked smart, listens deeply and then can deliver to a team the perspective and framing they need to take the next steps in solving big, important problems. I assume if she were trying to Woo people she may not be using her superpowers of deep listening, systems thinking, and clear, concise communication of complicated concepts.

My top strength is Individualization. Individualization leads you to be intrigued by the unique qualities of each person. Gallup says that people with this strength “instinctively observe each person’s style, each person’s motivation, how each thinks, and how each builds relationships. [They] hear the one-of-a-kind stories in each person’s life… Because [they] are such a keen observer of other people’s strengths, [they] can draw out the best in each person.”

My mission is to lift up the brilliance of each person I work with, be they a teammate or a participant in a strategy or design process. The accomplishment I am most proud of in my last leadership role was building leaders and teams by getting the right people into the right places for their talent to shine. This can be extra challenging in government, where position descriptions and job paths are inflexible, but our IT department leadership team worked hard to find creative ways to staff our work in a super competitive tech talent environment by honing in on each person’s superpowers. Talent development — my passion — is a long game and doesn’t necessarily require big Woo energy. (To be fair, my favorite Woos also excel in the area of talent development.)

So, tl;dr: I am making strides in overcoming my long, complicated relationship with Woo. I love my strength of Individualization and want to lean further into how I can harness it in my work. My other top strengths are Input, Relator, Command, and Activator. Have you completed the StrengthsFinder assessment? What are your top strengths and how do they show up in your work? Are there any strengths that aren’t at the top of your list that you envy?

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As a newcomer, I feel like I am in a unique window of opportunity to boldly harness my not-knowing into value for my team and our clients. I am asking questions every day about how and why we do things the way we do them and what assumptions we are making as we engage with partners. This week we have had in-depth discussions about terms like “dashboard,” “reporting,” and “interface.” What does this mean to you? What comes to mind when you think of this? What does it look like? How is it used?

My experience tells me that a great deal of design and strategy work is just this: unpacking assumptions and developing shared understanding about the language we use and the outcomes we seek. It is humble work because as strategists we have to ask questions that seem simple. Our expertise is feeling comfortable not being the expert in the room.

Software for Good as an organization has also been having conversations about what “for Good” means in the context of our work. How do we increase our impact and surface the harm and unintended consequences caused by technology? How do we unpack the assumptions we make in the course of work as a result of the identities, experiences, and world views of the human beings who write our code? How do we ensure that our teams’ identities, experiences, and world views reflect those of the people we serve so that our code is adaptive to community needs? I feel fortunate to again be a part of a team, as I was in my last team at the City of Saint Paul, who sees this work as the core to our mission.

I am curious about your experiences of being a new person in an organization. How have you navigated this transition time? What helps you learn about team culture? Have you been able to keep your not-knowing as you became more seasoned in your role? How is your organization surfacing ways that your team culture, experiences, and world views inform the policies, practices, and products you develop?

The post Starting a New Job Is Hard appeared first on Software for Good.

Kevin talked about what that title change means, and how his work connects to building software for good.

How does your job connect to what we do for clients?

Part of how my job connects to what we do for clients is ensuring that we are developing quality software for them, that meets the needs they have, or that fits the use and product that they’re trying to create.

It’s also about setting us up as a team to succeed in developing a product in a way that’s an efficient use of our time and is maintainable. It plays a role in keeping clients’ costs reasonable, and in our ongoing relationship with the client and the ongoing maintainability of what we develop for them.

The other way that my job connects to what we do for clients in a broader, more strategic sense for the company is shaping how we develop things for clients — helping shape the makeup of our team, helping shape our process, and helping clients understand it.

How does your job connect to building “software for good”?

Of course we want to build good software, so all of the stuff from the last question applies, but I would say part of my responsibilities as Director of Engineering are to look for the ways that we can use technology to make an impact in new ways, and to help our clients envision what that can look like in their domain.

It’s also keeping up with the trends that are happening in the tech industry as a whole — to help us as a company think about where we see tech being used for good, that we can pick up and run with, and where we see tech not being used for good, and continuing to understand the difference.

You can follow good engineering principles and still work for, say, a defense contractor. That said, we want to have the greatest impact that we can, and so in order to do that, we need to follow good engineering practices. We need to keep our eye on what the end goal is so that we’re not getting stuck in the technical needs, but are able to pivot a project if we need to in order to get to the impact that we want to make.

What does becoming the Director of Engineering mean for your responsibilities and day-to-day work?

The biggest impact on my day-to-day work is that I now have regular one-on-ones with the whole engineering team. Apart from that, my job is pretty much the same. I was already doing a lot of mentoring, which happens outside one-on-ones, in the context of actual software development. The one-on-ones are more managerial, a chance to check in about how developers are doing, goals, professional development, all that kind of stuff.

What’s your favorite part of your job?

I like many parts of my job, but one of my favorite parts is collaborating with other developers, whether it’s mentoring, helping people learn the next thing or figure out what that next thing is in their career development, or working to troubleshoot a problem.

What’s been your favorite Software for Good project so far?

There have been many good ones, ones that I enjoyed working on technically, ones that I’ve enjoyed working with the team. But I think my favorite project overall was the Housing Hub project, because it has a clear goal for impact on people’s lives, it was a large project that we were able to organize a team of several people around, it was a client that was really well involved in the development process and understood how we were trying to develop it. A lot of different pieces came together on that one.

What do you wish more people understood about software engineering?

That technology may or may not be the right solution to your problem. Throwing more software at a problem doesn’t fix it magically — but it’s often worth spending the time, money, and effort on a technical solution when you can have a really big impact.

What excites you about the field of software development? Are there trends you’re excited about?

I’m excited about the new crop of programming languages that has come up in the past few years, that are bringing what have been more academic concepts into the world of everyday programmers. I’m excited to see the new possibilities that that opens up in terms of the impact that we can have with software development.

I’m also excited to see robust conversations happening around the ethics of technology, and how we use it and where we apply it and who it benefits.

What kinds of projects are you hoping to work on in 2020?

I am excited to work on shaping our team more, on growing the organization and the size of projects that we can do. I’m excited to work on a bigger project than we’ve done before.

Anything else you’d like to add?

What I’ve been saying about my change in title is that it means more day-to-day in terms of the impact to Software for Good, than it does to my role. This represents a shift in how we are organized as a company, and so it’ll be interesting to see how we can collaborate on the future direction of the company.

The post Building Software for Good — Kevin Bullock, Director of Engineering appeared first on Software for Good.

We talked about what that change means and how her work connects to building software for good.

You’ve been with Software for Good for a little over a year, but recently updated your role and title. What does that mean for your responsibilities and day-to-day work?

User experience can take on a lot of different forms, so it can mean things like creating wireframes for a client, creating prototypes and testing them with end users, doing some initial research work like surveying users, or even conducting interviews with users before we start building anything. A lot of my work with clients will also be about taking all of that work and making sure we’re building the most impactful thing, usually for the least amount of money, because our clients tend to be nonprofits and social enterprises who can’t afford to spend a lot. So my contribution will be to work with clients to figure out how we can build something impactful with the resources they have.

On the product side of things, it’s helping clients build out backlogs and roadmaps for development, and having that be a continuous, collaborative process that I’m doing with clients to say, okay, this is the roadmap that is going to serve their needs.

How does your job connect to what we do for clients?

I’m still going to be working with clients, but before my role was definitely focused a lot more on project management and account management work, and now a lot of my communications with clients are going to be about the user experience we’re trying to build with them. It’s going to be about the overall product goal we’re working towards, and so in my opinion it’ll be a deeper relationship because we’re going to be making decisions together and not just setting up timelines and milestones.

It’s going to be about holding space and influencing to make sure users’ voices are heard throughout the building process.

How does your job connect to building “software for good”?

There’s a lot of times when I think people assume that they know what to build, or that they have all of the information to build something without considering groups that might not be in their direct view. The responsibility of UX in general is to ask, “Are we considering all of the people that could be impacted by this work?” and “Are we considering all of the ramifications of what we’re trying to build?”

I see part of my role as making sure our products are accessible and available to marginalized communities. Most of our clients are already thinking of doing stuff for good. I don’t doubt that that’s already on their mind, so making sure that we’re maximizing the good that they’re already doing in the world.

What’s your favorite part of your job?

I love hearing individuals’ perspective on things. One of the main reasons I got into UX was that right after college, I did this “how to figure out what you want to do with your life” bootcamp. They gave us a small project that made us go out and explore how to redesign how people experience coffee, because it was loosely affiliated with Starbucks in Seattle. We went out to a bunch of coffee shops and asked people questions like, “Why are you sitting in this coffee shop? What do you like about coffee shops?” and then synthesized all of that information into a proposal for how to make coffee shops more of a third place for people, a space outside of work and home. So that taught me that I really enjoy talking to people about what they’re experiencing and what they want, and trying to build that into the product we create. I even love doing that with our team internally.

So the empathy aspect is my favorite. Usually, in any story, there’s this “aha moment” where you think, okay, I know what direction I’m going and what I need to build.

What’s been your favorite Software for Good project you’ve worked on so far?

One of the recent projects that has been really fun is our project with Forest Carbon Works. Because they have so many different types of users and a really long process that we had to make simple and straightforward, that felt really exciting. And because the organization as a whole is trying to reduce the carbon footprint of society, it was a really good combination of something that was exciting to work on and has a good impact on the earth.

The other project that comes to mind is the City of Saint Paul, because I’m getting a chance to effect change on a local level and work on software that will eventually impact hundreds of thousands of residents.

What do you wish more people understood about UX and product strategy work?

I wish more people gave it a chance, because I think sometimes we come across clients with limited time or money to spend on a project, and they assume we can’t spend time on user experience or product strategy work. We’ve found that when you take the time upfront to do that work, what you’re building is going to be more impactful and better fit within a certain budget.

What excites you about the field of UX and product strategy? Are there trends you’re excited about?

Accessibility is a trend I think is exciting. Civic tech — there are so many great organizations like Code for America or Data for Democracy that do really great stuff with open source tools and projects.

Maybe this isn’t UX-related or a trend, but a general thing that excites me is the idea of how to become a good listener. One way I’ve been learning to do that is through nonviolent communication. The exact framework of nonviolent communication, I’ve been working on for about a year now and really trying to practice it intentionally. It’s basically the idea of understanding emotions that are happening and identifying the underlying needs. It’s something you can practice on yourself and other people, and ultimately the goal is to create space to allow whoever you’re communicating with to be themselves, which I think helps with the empathy piece of UX work.

What kinds of projects are you hoping to work on in 2020?

Continuing a lot of the City of Saint Paul work that we’ve been doing over the last couple years. We’re also kicking off a project with Shelter Animals Count, which hopefully will allow more shelters to get access to data so they’re making good decisions for the animals they’re helping.

Anything else you’d like to add?

It’s great being in an environment that helps me grow as a UX and product person!

The post Building Software for Good — Bridget Lally, Product & UX Strategist appeared first on Software for Good.

The first time I went to Washington, D.C., I had a super awesome beige coat I was really proud of. While walking around, though, I realized right away that no one in D.C. wears anything but black. I immediately felt like a tourist. I was self-conscious to the point that I changed my behavior — I was quieter, less confident, and less excited to go out and enjoy the trip.

This goes for anyone walking into a job or a project or an industry where they’re “the only one.” You’re constantly aware of the fact that no one else looks like you, and you might not express your full self because you’re worried people are judging or making assumptions about you.

Towards the end of my trip, I was in a cab and started lamenting to the driver about my coat and how I was so embarrassed. We were at a stoplight, and he turned around and said, “It’s okay, we accept coats of all colors here.” Right away, my attitude changed. I was reassured, and felt proud of my coat again instead of being self-conscious about it.

That cab driver played a role for me that is valuable for anyone who feels like an outsider. Just having one person say, “You belong here, we appreciate you,” makes a huge difference in helping someone feel more accepted.

You can play that role if you work with someone who is one of the few women or people of color in your industry, or who might otherwise be underrepresented in the room. Thank them for being part of the team, acknowledge their great work, and ask for their opinion if they’re not speaking up in meetings. Make an effort to include people, because they’re there for a reason: They’re talented at what they do.

Everyone has been in a situation where they felt like they didn’t belong. You may not know what it’s like to be the only woman or the only person of color in a room, but you’ve probably had an experience like my trip to D.C. Those moments allow you to understand what it’s like to be an outsider, and remind you to help others feel a little less alone.

The post Being an Outsider appeared first on Software for Good.