Theme: cross-cultural teams
Quotes
Global UX, ch. 5
“An organization’s culture both reflects and influences the policies, practices, and processes that are followed by individuals and work teams in an organization.”
I have definitely experienced this at OfferUp during my internship. The company’s values are reflected in everyday work life (interactions with employees, employees themselves) and influence how employees approach their work. OfferUp has 3 main values: driven, neighborly, and adaptable. Each employee at OfferUp demonstrates at least one (if not all) of these values, and I believe that leads to how employees are able to exemplify the company’s values and create a great company culture.
Global UX, ch. 6
About time difference: “This move to make everyone more equal pays off in better working relationships.”
I haven’t worked for a global company yet or for a team that has members all over the world. This perspective of making everyone more equal regarding to when to schedule meetings with various time zones is worth considering because it can be easily missed if you’re only thinking about yourself/your day/your schedule.
Global UX, ch. 6
“Another way that teams come together is through individuals who can act as a bridge between different cultural groups.”
I think being a cultural bridge would be such a unique and exciting opportunity.
Meredith Davis, Core Values Matter
“Research shows that quality, reliability, and transparency are the core values people around the world feel are most important for brands to embody. Honesty and authenticity are particularly important to younger audiences.”
I find it interesting to be reading about the values people care about. This past week in my Theoretical Foundations in HCDE class we talked about values in design, and related theories on this topic that have contributed to HCI. A common theme in these readings is that each person has their own values, and sometimes values among stakeholders (direct and indirect) differ, so we need to consider these different perspectives and think about how can we cater to these different values (weigh out importances, etc.) or how we can create a system that can be adaptive to these values.
Exploration
I wanted to research more about global teams and found this medium article: https://uxdesign.cc/handling-a-global-ux-team-taking-the-bull-by-its-horn-a73bd1b3d957
This article is about how the author bootstrapped a global team of UX designers. He provides examples from this work to what he calls his six essentials when working with remote teams: cultural divide and design culture, team engine, collaboration, peer-review mechanism, and team language.
I connected the “Core Values Matter” reading to an article I had read recently about “data violence” and cultural harm written by Anna Lauren Hoffmann, an associate professor in the iSchool here at UW. “Core Values Matter” talks about how consumers view brands and companies, and how what a company does can affect relationships with consumers. I’m connecting these two readings because I believe incidents of data violence and cultural harm can affect a company/brand, and if the company doesn’t bother to acknowledge their mistake or strive to be better and change the way they approach projects, then what values do they uphold? How can consumers ever trust them again? https://medium.com/s/story/data-violence-and-how-bad-engineering-choices-can-damage-society-39e44150e1d4
Hoffmann describes “data violence” as unintended consequences of biased datasets, unfair algorithms, and researchers constantly reproducing ideas that are harmful to vulnerable populations and communities which end up reinforcing injustices. Hoffmann quotes J. Nathan Mathias: “To evaluate the risks or benefits of an algorithm, we need to study its impact in people’s lives, whether in controlled lab conditions or in the wider world.” She suggests a variety of ways to fix this reoccurring issue such as having diverse employees, asking questions about assumptions and who’d be impacted by these assumptions, and engaging with these communities to listen to them and gain a better understanding about them.
Professional/Personal Inspiration
I want to make sure I instill values into the work I do that take into consideration all stakeholders whether direct or indirect.
I also hope that I get to work in a cross-cultural team sometime in my career.
Sketch
Hannah's Process Book 