Case Study: Kicking Off Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Goals for Boston-based Tech Company

mabl is the intelligent test automation company that empowers software development teams to create a culture of quality by tightly integrating automated end-to-end testing into the entire CI/CD development lifecycle. mabl users benefit from a unified platform for easily creating, executing, and maintaining auto-healing, reliable tests that result in faster delivery of high quality applications. Pooja Samuel is the People Operations Lead for mabl.

Why did you initially reach out to SGO?

We reached out to She+ Geeks Out to host a training on unconscious bias for our team as one of our first DEI goals.

What was your experience like?

Our experience was excellent. It was the best decision for our team to have the unconscious bias training held “in person”(we hosted it via Zoom) and our team had nothing but positive feedback about the content and our facilitator, Felicia. One of the challenges mabl faced with hosting this training was accommodating different time zones including India, France, the US West Coast, etc, but SGO was flexible and worked with us to host the training via Zoom so our team could all attend at once. Our team even asked for follow-up training around microaggressions and more time to chat with Felicia. The training really helped open our team’s eyes to the biases we carry and minimizing bias has been embedded into our DEI work.

How has our service made an impact on you/your company?

Since we hosted the unconscious bias training with SGO, our team keeps what they learned in the training top of mind when we discuss initiatives around DEI.

What are some DEI goals that your organization hopes to achieve in the near future?

2020 will be the year mabl really focuses on creating diversity in our pipeline, inclusivity and reduced bias in our hiring process, and creating leadership opportunities for all mablers at any stage of their career across the company.

How are you centering DEI work during the COVID-19 pandemic?

mabl is not decelerating our diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives during this pandemic. We are fortunate to have co-founders who recognize the importance of DEI and continue to uplift the work our DEI Committee is doing. During this time, we’ll continue to refine and crisp up our initiatives for 2020 and roll them out as soon as we can.

What advice would you give to other organizations who may be struggling to support their teams and keep DEI at the forefront right now?

The best advice I can give is to just start! Diversity, equity, and inclusion work doesn’t have to be done on a grand or expensive scale to be effective. Start with small, low, or no-cost changes.

For example, read through the literature you have for your company; does it feature gendered language? Change that language to be gender-neutral. Are certain voices in your meetings not heard as loudly as others? Create and implement meeting guidelines for equitable meetings. Meet with your team and work to define what diversity, equity, and inclusion mean at your company as it’s a great jumping-off point to designing a DEI framework that fits your team and your company.

One of the challenges mabl faced with hosting this training was accommodating different time zones including India, France, the US West Coast, etc, but SGO was flexible and worked with us to host the training via Zoom so our team could all attend at once.

Pooja Samuel

People Operations Lead for mabl