This week’s Women in Business spotlight features Connie Yee (she/her), Director of Product Management at Deep North AI. Connie graduated from Wellesley College in 2011 with a B.A. in political science and a minor in economics. Though never having a formal training in data analytics as an undergrad, her unique path to data analytics began as a Research Analyst at Kantar Retail. After only three years, Connie moved up the ranks to become the Director of Research & Analytics at the firm. Wanting a more agile work environment, she made the pivot to a product management role at 1010Data, a data warehousing start-up that provides a unique, cloud-based platform for Big Data discovery. Connie found time for her professional development as well, earning her MBA at MIT’s Sloan School of Management in 2018. Her current responsibilities at Deep North AI include working across stakeholders to develop and launch Deep North’s products, identify new use cases and applications for computer vision, and drive core metrics across industries.
Read more about our conversation on Connie’s non-traditional background, the future of workplace automation, and the disproportionate number of women of color in tech.
August 13, 2020, 11 am EDT
Written by Sarah Chu
The Benefits of a Liberal Arts Background
SC: I’m intrigued to learn more about your passion for technology. Did you take any computer science courses at Wellesley?
CY: Haha, I did not. As you can imagine, going into the tech industry was both challenging and exciting. At the start of my career, I didn’t have many applied skills, but a liberal arts degree gave me a deep understanding of human behavior and the ability to think holistically.
SC: How does a liberal arts background translate to your current position?
CY: Most problems that exist in the world are human problems, and technology is one of many tools used to address these problems. But, to understand human problems, you need to understand how humans operate. People often focus on the novelty of technology, yet fail to recognize that technology is only a means to an end.
Product management is fundamentally about the process of decision-making. I had to gain hard skills like coding and work experience across the product lifecycle, but I bring an interdisciplinary perspective to problem-solving, a type of comprehension that combines social, political, technological, and economic viewpoints into a single worldview. It’s my ‘secret super-power.’
The Future of Workplace Automation
SC: I have never thought about technology that way! You compared technology as a ‘tool’ that drives solutions, but in some cases, people think technology is a ‘tool’ that kills jobs. In your opinion, what role does technology play in the labor market?
CY: Automation displacing workers is a real concern, which is why an interdisciplinary background is so important — while considering the monetary benefits of technology, we must also consider the people implications for society. Technology has the ability to be both a positive and negative force, which is a multiplier of prosperity and a replacement for old ways of operating.
SC: Right – people often focus on technology taking away jobs, but they often don’t acknowledge that technology also creates them.
CY: Exactly. Personally, I’m pro-technology. Automation is not a trend that will go away, but we must recognize the human cost of displacing workers. To ensure that we’re foreseeing the social problems that come from technological advancement, we need to address this issue across all levels, which includes the private sector and through public education.
Women of Color in Tech
SC: Diversity in tech has always been a huge problem. Women make up 47 percent of the U.S. labor force, but as of 2015, they only hold 25 percent of computing roles. I can imagine this number being even smaller for women of color. If you’re comfortable, I welcome you to share your lived experiences in the industry.
CY: It’s hard to be a woman of color in the industry. Albeit more on the micro side, I have faced gender and racial bias in the workplace. For instance, there is a tendency to think that women in the office do more tactical work, like taking notes during a meeting versus strategic or vision-building work. Or that they’re responsible for the 'caretaking' of the office. On the racial front, the Ascend Foundation had a well known study a few years back that showed an incredible disparity between the number of Asian professionals in the workforce and those that actually make it to executive roles (a phenomenon known as the 'Bamboo Ceiling'). I’m not alone in facing these challenges and it requires constant work to dismantle existing biases.
SC: That is unfortunate…I’m sorry to hear that. I personally have faced microaggressions as well, so I completely empathize with you. I think that to prevent this from perpetually happening, we especially need more women of color in the industry. How can we close the diversity gap in tech?
CY: Though companies have implemented policies that push for diversity, women of color are only 4.7 percent of executive positions. I’m a huge advocate for women in tech, but also greater diversity across all tracts, such as ethnicity, socioeconomic background, and sexual orientation. Tech has largely embraced these values, but the business decisions don’t always align with the ideals. While the diversity issue is tough to solve, I am hopeful that aggressive policy focused on increasing pipeline into tech companies and then into executive roles within these companies can help get us to a better place. I’m lucky to have a few amazing mentors who have intentionally opened doors so that I could walk through. We need more people like this!
SC: I think so too. I am so grateful to have had this opportunity to speak with you, and I am confident that readers will see you as an inspiration, as do I!