Being the Image You Want to See in the World

Some of you may remember that last year I participated in (what turned out to be) a rather controversial Male Allies panel at the ABI’s Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference.  This year I was honored to be asked to return to the main stage to speak about GoDaddy’s push toward gender parity in a plenary session to all 12,000 attendees.

When it comes to gender diversity, on the surface GoDaddy is not much different from the rest of the tech industry. We’re slightly above average in the number of women we have in tech roles and I think a bit behind in some other areas.  No one in the industry has great numbers and no one should be satisfied. But at GoDaddy we’ve made a pledge to bring unprecedented transparency to the challenges we face in building a gender balanced workforce—from salary parity to promotion trajectory.

I’m convinced that bringing the real numbers out into the light – even when we’re not proud of them -- is the only way to spark real, lasting change.  My talk at Grace Hopper was all about what GoDaddy is doing to bring everything into the light and challenging other tech leaders to follow suit. 

If you missed the broadcast, here’s a link to the low-res stream.   I’ll update it to a better quality stream when one’s available.  I’ve also included the full transcript below. 

I’ll be around in the evenings to answer your questions in the comments.  Let me know what your companies are doing and how it’s making a difference.

Transcript: Hi I’m Blake Irving, CEO of GoDaddy and I know what some of you are thinking because I’ve read your tweets.  It’s the same thematic as last year.  So let me just say it.  Why in Gods name am I here and what am I doing taking time on your stage?   Aren’t you representing the company that objectified women in your advertising for years … 

Yes that was GoDaddy and as painful as it is, in the name of complete transparency, I’m putting them all on the table - because it’s important background to understand the transformation that’s underway here…

One of my first orders of business as CEO in early 2013 was to change these ads – but memories are long and these ads hauntingly follow us today.  When I announced that I had taken-on this role, I could see the impression those ads made on the faces and in the comments of friends, family and long time colleagues.  “You did what?” And for academics like Maria Klawe, President of Harvey Mudd, it was even clearer. When she told her husband she was meeting with the CEO of GoDaddy, his comment was “GoDaddy?  They’re a horrible company.”  That was all about those ads.

With all that and what’s truly bothersome and what should bother all of us is that these ads brought in a massive amount of business. Now, based on the ads, you’d assume that GoDaddy didn’t have any women working there.  But it turns out they had as many women as most technology companies – which isn’t many, but they were there.  

How can that be, and why was this? 

Well there were two brand truths at the company – and I had experienced both of them.  One was the ads, and the other was the experience as a customer.  I had been a customer for years, and as a customer it was all about helping folks like me who had an idea and wanted to turn it into something bigger.

Before I said yes to taking this role, I had to discover which truth was real and so I traveled to GoDaddy and met the people.  Never in my life had I encountered a company that was so different inside than the external perception they were painting.  At the end of that visit the truth I found was all about compassionate employees that loved their customers.  And the opportunity for me as CEO was going to be about scaling that pride around the world and infusing the company with world class tech.

To have one brand truth our ads needed to reflect the values of our employees and our customers who are mostly very small businesses.  And as it turns out, most very small businesses in the U.S. are run by women.  

"The image that we portray to the world now is aligned with our true identity"

This is Gwen Dean, a GoDaddy customer who was featured in our 2014 Super Bowl ad where she literally announced in front of 100 million people that she quit her job as an mechanical engineer to pursue her dream of being a full time puppeteer and puppet maker.  Today, her business is thriving, she has employees and we’re helping her, and that’s what we’re all about.

Now the company is reflecting “our actual” brand truth in advertising and our employees are seeing their work reflected externally and that is incredibly energized. 

So we’ve pivoted our advertising to be more aligned with who we are, but it doesn’t stop there. 

There is empirical evidence that tech products built by diverse teams are just plain better.  As a technologist and a product guy, I like better.  Robin Hauser Reynolds documentary, Code: Debugging the Gender Gap has examples from cars to software.  If you haven’t seen the documentary screening here on Friday.  It’s clear diversity in our industry matters.

“It is also true that when you see a problem and you do nothing to fix it, then you didn’t really believe it’s a problem in the first place.”

As a CEO in this industry I can’t stand on the sidelines and just watch.  I have to do something.  So, at GoDaddy we are forging a new path.

It’s a path that is taking us step by step into a future that everyone can proud of...and it starts at the the top…

Top Down: We need great mentors and we need them at the highest levels which has a thawing effect on the middle of the organization.  At GoDaddy we have great female leaders, who have great networks and they hire from them. Our CTO Elissa Murphy, Our CCO Karen Tillman, Our product excecs like Debra Weisman and Lauren Antonoff. They all pull people up and in.

Empower:  We need to make it safe and OK for people to do what is right and know it’s always rewarded.  For me it meant setting a tone of empowerment.  I remember a company town hall I was holding and telling the room that we weren’t going to have GoDaddy Girls anymore, but rather GoDaddy Women. There was a cluster of women to the right of me and I said by the way you’re it.

Grass Roots:  Within weeks women at GoDaddy, led by Irana Wasti had started a GoDaddy Women in Technology Group, our First Employee Resource group and within months this group had grown into hundreds – including a lot of men who were looking to have an active role in this transformation.

Inspire:  That grass roots effort has brought us incredibly inspiring speakers like Telle Whitney, CEO, Anita Borg Foundation, Maria Klawe, President of Harvey Mudd College, Madeline Denonno, CEO of the Gina Davis Foundation, and Joy Buolamwini, a Rhodes and Fullbright Scholar with a passion for computer science and boundless energy for driving change.

Speak out:  This isn’t about me telling you to speak out.  This is about tech leaders putting this on their agenda and doing something about it and being vocal – even when it isn’t easy or popular – did I mention “I read your tweets.”

I fundamentally believe that bad things live in the dark and it’s our job as leaders to provide transparency and shine light on where we are in this industry as uncomfortable as it makes us feel. Shine light on the state of women in our industry.   Shine a light on real problems across our industry.  Shine a light on the numbers and the statistics.

GODADDY DIVERSITY STATISTICS

So here is what GoDaddy looks like statistically between 2014 and 2015.  What I see here is a positive trajectory with a very humble change.  Even when you’re vocal and putting your shoulder into this, the numbers move slowly.  Now I’m stoked to see such a big leap with new college graduates, but that’s a relatively small population and easy to move in big percentages.  You’ve seen this charts like these from other companies which is important but it doesn’t tell the whole picture – there’s a lot more we need to bring into the light.  

This past August, we pledged at the White House Demo Day to publish our salary parity numbers by gender, good or bad.  So let’s talk salary equality.  Here’s a chart, the likes of which you haven’t seen.

GODADDY SALARY EQUALITY STUDY

Company wide – and we’re looking at median here we’re basically at parity in both technical and non-technical roles, which we feel pretty good about.  In technical roles the difference is only a quarter of one percent lower for women.  In non-technical roles the difference in salary is less than three quarters of one percent higher for women.  And only a .3 percent delta companywide in favor or women.  Basically at parity. 

As we dug more deeply into the numbers we found something interesting, though not surprising, based on what we’ve all heard in the industry.  Salary parity for managers isn’t quite so rosy. At median male managers are paid 3.6% more at GoDaddy than women.  We are going to be testing a number of hypothesis against these numbers.  Potential differences with time-in-role, promotion pacing, and attrition.  Another potential cause may be the practice of basing a new candidate’s salary, in part, on their previous compensation. We describe this as “paying it backward,” meaning the lower salaries are passed on as women move from one job to the next over the course of their career. We’re going to be digging into all of these numbers and releasing these numbers every year – so you’ll see them.

A little more detail to fill that out, and again something we’ve seen in the industry, when you look at the higher level software engineers whether SDET or SDE we see a zero population.  We believe the same issues exist here that exist in the manager population, but it’s manifesting itself differently.  We have a lot of work to do over the coming months to figure out what’s going on here and figure out how to tackle it.

There is a lot of work going on at GoDaddy to become the image we want to see in the world.  We’re bringing it out into the light, being transparent, and working to make a positive difference.  This is very important to me for a very personal reason. 

LORI’S STORY

“For me this is more important than tech – it transcends industries, and how we solve this challenge will matter deeply to the generations that follow.”

This is Lori Irving, my sister.  Lori was a brilliant clinical psychologist and Professor at Washington State University.  Suffering from eating disorders as a high school student, Lori became obsessive about helping women fight this illness.  Through her research, passion and intelligence, Lori became one of the foremost authorities on the negative effect of media on women’s self-esteem and the link to eating disorders.  She was my female doppelganger, my wife’s best friend and she helped thousands of women. 

14 years ago, my sister Lori, while 9 months pregnant with her first daughter suffered an aortic dissection, and passed away.  The next morning we lost her daughter McKenzie as well. I made a promise to her then that I’d do all I could to advance the cause she championed within my own chosen field, and it’s lead me here today. 

This is the work that matters—it’s why we’re here on earth.  It’s why we’re alive.  I hope to do her justice. 

I’m not going to end by trying to offer you advice, I’m not a woman in the technology industry.  I do however want to publically challenge my peers at other tech companies to shine a light on their practices. I want to speak to them now.

If you’re a leader of a tech company, be vulnerable, again and again, and learn to lift the problem out from the dark instead of hiding it. Go public with your diversity statistics. Publish your salary & leveling audits. Invite 3rd parties like the Clayman Institute into your talent reviews to help.

If you’re a leader of a tech company, commit to top down and bottoms up change.

Maybe give your PR diversity budget to grass-roots organizations in your company to drive change instead of spin. Do the research, find your issues, and work to create an environment where all talented people can thrive.  Surround yourselves with people who will remind you daily about what’s in front of your nose.

“To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle” – George Orwell

If a company with the reputation GoDaddy had can make real progress toward closing the gender gap, the rest of the Valley (and the world) can … The industry and the world, will be far, far better for it.

Thank You ABI and Thank you all for allowing me to tell my story. I’m looking forward to hearing many more of your stories during my time here this week.