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Empathy for Tech Innovation with Christian Idiodi
75 Plays1 month ago
Christian Idiodi is a leader in the product industry and a Partner at Silicon Valley Product Group. For over 15 years, he has developed teams that build innovative, disruptive, and market-transforming technology products. He has worked with organizations such as CareerBuilder, Merrill Corporation, Microsoft, Starbucks, and Squarespace and teaches product management and innovation at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Christian is passionate about creating practical tech solutions for Africa's social and economic issues, such as unemployment, poverty, healthcare, insecurity, and financial exclusion. He has founded several companies in Africa and is the Chairman of Innovate Africa Foundation, a non-profit organization that enables tech innovation for social good in Africa. Through these initiatives, he aims to empower and inspire the next generation of African tech leaders and entrepreneurs.
Sponsored by CodeCrafters - discount link
LINKS
- Product Therapy Podcast
- Christian’s LinkedIn
- How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
- Innovate Africa Foundation
- Silicon Valley Product Group
HOSTS
- Andrea Goulet LinkedIn | andreagoulet.com
- Ray Myers LinkedIn | Craft vs Cruft on YouTube
ABOUT EMPATHY IN TECH
Empathy in Tech is on a mission to accelerate the responsible adoption of empathy in the tech industry by:
- Closing the empathy skills gap by treating empathy as a technical skill.
- Teaching technical empathy through accessible, affordable, actionable training.
- Building community and breaking down harmful stereotypes and tropes.
- Promoting technical empathy for ethics, equity, and social justice.
Learn more at empathyintech.com
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Transcript
Empathy in Technology
00:00:00
Speaker
Companies don't care about people. People care about people. If you want your products to reflect care, thoughtfulness, reflect kind of good in some ways, the individuals that are making the decisions every day on what we do, how we do it, have to be connected to what that is.
00:00:15
Speaker
Welcome to Empathy in Tech, where we explore the deeply technical side of empathy. And the critical need for empathy in technology. I'm Andrea Goulet.
Meet Christian Idioti
00:00:25
Speaker
And I'm Ray Myers. Today on the show, we have Christian Idioti. Christian is a leader in the product industry and a partner at Silicon Valley Product Group.
00:00:34
Speaker
For over 15 years, Christian has developed teams that build innovative, disruptive, and market-transforming technology products. He's worked with organizations such as CareerBuilder, Merrill Corporation, Microsoft, Starbucks, and Squarespace, and teaches product management and innovation at Virginia Commonwealth University.
00:00:51
Speaker
Christian is passionate about creating practical tech solutions for Africa's social and economic issues such as unemployment, poverty, health care, insecurity, and financial
Christian's Journey to Tech
00:01:01
Speaker
exclusion. He's founded several companies in Africa and is the chairman of Innovate Africa Foundation, a nonprofit organization that enables tech innovation for social good in Africa.
00:01:11
Speaker
Through these initiatives, he aims to empower and inspire the next generation of African tech leaders and entrepreneurs. Thank you so much for being here, Christian. Thank you for having me. It's such a pleasure.
00:01:22
Speaker
So we're um excited to learn more about you and your work. Tell us ah what got you interested in in product development. I will probably argue the idea of product development, at least from the lens of solving a problem, has just always been ah passion of mine, kind of in my blood. I was actually going to be a medical doctor as a career. and But ah the way my parents would describe it, I wanted to solve hard problems like get rid of malaria and HIV or cancer in the world. That was kind of what led me into falling love with medicine. So I probably wanted to solve very hard ah medical or health-related problems as a child.
00:02:01
Speaker
um And I kind of stumbled upon product management while um the taking an off year from medical school. i You know, I kind of got into sales and then I won an innovation competition that had me at 23 kind of starting a business, building a product. um And my career has ever since still been solving problems.
00:02:23
Speaker
ah Maybe I'm making a full circle in my journey back to looking at healthcare problems, but not as a doctor.
Investing in People
00:02:28
Speaker
And so ah the whole product development work has just been solving a problem, has just been something I've been passionate about my whole life.
00:02:37
Speaker
Yeah, I love that. What kind of problems? You said like the really gnarly ones, right? And I'm reading through your um kind of a little bit more of your bio and doing some of the research.
00:02:48
Speaker
One the things that you've kind of really specialized in are the large digital transformation projects that, you know, can take a long time, require a lot of people to coordinate.
00:02:59
Speaker
What are some of the things that you've found have helped you be successful in those types of environments? You know, it's yeah we kind of call hard problems, wicked problems, these challenging problems. and Some people are drawn to them, some people run away from them, some people drive in the chaos.
00:03:16
Speaker
I think people always say, always say all problems are people problems. And I think if you look if I look at the root of my success in hard problems, I think there two things. One is i recognize very early on that products or solutions or anything in the world, are delivered by people.
00:03:35
Speaker
Most of them are ordinary people. ah doing extraordinary things. And if you want kind of a better product, you want better people building a product. And if you focus on the people, you will get the outcomes you want if you focus.
00:03:49
Speaker
ah So I learned very early in investing in people. ah to do good work, and secondly, in investing in creating an environment in which good work could occur. So, ah you know, I don't think the world is for lack of hard problems. They've always been hard, different problems in many organizations, and over time,
00:04:09
Speaker
what I've recognized in terms of how I've been able to help companies transform two is by two things, investing in people that are transformation agents, but also are builders and creators of value.
00:04:22
Speaker
And two, creating an environment where good work can occur from those people. So that's probably in a nutshell been a big essential element of my success in transformations.
00:04:35
Speaker
So tell us a bit more about your work in Africa.
Tech Gaps in Africa
00:04:38
Speaker
What drives you there and what kinds of outcomes have you seen? Yeah, you know, Africa is a significant passion of mine. and I was born in Nigeria. I kind of came here for college. Like I said, I was going to be a medical doctor and that's different path than I am on today.
00:04:55
Speaker
And, ah you know, I started going back to Africa. My parents used to live there and to visit them. And I started to recognize I had this false assumption, one that the problems that were solved in North America, in the West were also solved in Africa. Like, oh, yeah, you know, um one of the very first technologies I worked on was moving people from finding jobs in the newspaper to finding it on the internet, you know. And so you kind of go back and you're talking to friends or people in Africa and you're like, yeah, I found my job in a newspaper.
00:05:25
Speaker
You're like, people still do that, you know, in in some ways. And you start to recognize in so many sectors, financial services, healthcare, over just basic infrastructure, um some of the significant innovation strides that have been made in other parts of the world were not happening in Africa.
00:05:43
Speaker
um But I also recognized I was very disconnected from the the realities on the continent. So I made an investment in TOR in Africa and by, you know, through a different lens, you know, of like, let me learn about the ecosystem of community.
00:05:58
Speaker
What does it look like to solve a problem in Africa? What are the gaps and the issues? On one end, you know, there's a talent gap or a skill gap. On the other end, it's an access gap.
00:06:08
Speaker
There's a lack of ecosystem. There's a lack of true access to to technology. I'm learning what it means to start a business, run a business, solve a problem. What are the challenges? you know, this is different than other parts. We were just joking earlier before this call about ah the technology.
00:06:25
Speaker
Winter storm creating a lack of water in in Richmond, Virginia. That is very normal in Africa. I mean, we have people without power, without access, without roads. So, you know, we don't have people that go to build tech in America that says, well, I don't know if the Internet is going to work today or if the computer will have power to run the computer. But those are the real challenges of trying to solve a problem in Africa.
00:06:48
Speaker
So on one end, there was a significant rediscovery of the challenges in innovation ah in Africa. On the second end, I've always had a truly transformational view of what technology could do in Africa. I visited Malawi over 25 years ago.
00:07:11
Speaker
i was taking a group in Africa and this a person who ran the telecom company had just introduced ah technology to his village that connected a bunch of kids to the internet for the very first time. And I could still remember the glee on their faces and how well they could see the world and feel connected.
00:07:30
Speaker
And I've always believed in the transformational power of what technology could do in Africa.
Innovate Africa Foundation's Vision
00:07:34
Speaker
And so I started the Innovate Africa Foundation really with the goal of accelerating the the use of technology for good on the continent.
00:07:45
Speaker
And we see these waves in Africa of, like we've seen in in in Asia or South America over the years, where you lose your talented people to better opportunities in other parts of the world.
00:07:57
Speaker
And you know the second wave is where other people recognize this talent in your continent, and they start to build hubs in your market. and And really the third wave is where societies and ecosystems start to solve problems themselves by their people, for their people. So, you know, you have your own Facebook, you have your own iPhone, you have your own company, like you're starting to build for your ecosystem.
00:08:20
Speaker
And so part of our vision is accelerating that in Africa. How do we create and equip a society with the means to be able to leverage technology to solve problems in their environment for their environment, not to serve the world? So ah the crux of my whole work in Africa on that bedrock of a vision.
00:08:40
Speaker
I do an annual conference in Africa, the Inspire Africa Conference. where I invite friends and executives from tech companies and coaches all around the world. We come, we give back, we coach, we train for free to build that ecosystem. um We bring speakers and do workshops in there.
00:08:57
Speaker
um I do my annual Africa product, Inspire Africa product. I'm about to do one again in ah in about two months where I go around to regions in Africa to rebuild the ecosystem and connect of ah teams to to technology.
00:09:13
Speaker
And then we now have our Product Leadership Accelerator, where we're training the next generation of product and tech leaders in Africa and building schools to equip them to
Supporting African Founders
00:09:21
Speaker
to do that. So those are probably some of the big efforts in there. I launched a fund last year to to create a early access or it be a catalytic fund for for you founders, not just to give them capital, but to connect them with real coaches.
00:09:37
Speaker
So having one of you say, hey, look, you've been there, done that, you have access to resources, let me pair you with a founder in Africa, and you will advise them and coach them on what it means to to solve a problem. So that's another big venture for our mind.
00:09:50
Speaker
Yeah, that's a lot. And I love it. It is. it's amazing.
Empathy in Product Creation
00:09:56
Speaker
Right. And I think that's one of the things like and when i listen to you speak, the work that you're doing sounds so grounded in empathy, especially how you were talking about going there and listening first, because I think sometimes a lot of us, you know, have really good intentions. This comes into the product world, too, where it's like,
00:10:18
Speaker
Okay, I'm going to build this thing, but then you don't talk to customers early enough or you don't talk to the people who actually are needing that solution. It sounds like you've kind of really bridged your ideas around product development and really fused them some into your philanthropy efforts.
00:10:38
Speaker
Now, ah yeah there's a question in here somewhere, but I think part of it is really, that's the thread I see is empathy. Have you ever thought about that? Or like, is empathy something that um kind of is front and center in the work that you do?
00:10:54
Speaker
I'm gonna probably push the envelope on the response and empathy and product work in that I don't know of any good product work. that is not grounded in empathy. um In know the same way in which like, you know I don't know how you build something for customers without customers, without a deep understanding of them or deep care.
00:11:17
Speaker
ah Some of the best products in the world that I have ever seen, when I talk to the team or the engineer or the people behind it, they can almost call a person by name.
00:11:29
Speaker
They can almost in their head when they come to work every day, see somebody who they are serving. as they could they don't walk from ticket number five six four or some kind of spreadsheet that that's not how they get their work or what fires up what a good product is it's from this deep connection to a problem a deep connection to the people that have that problem and a deep sense of responsibility to their contribution as tech people in solving that problem so
00:12:01
Speaker
yeah I went early in my career where there was a streak of failures that I had. When I first won an innovation competition, I knew nothing. I was 22 then. I was young. I was just asking questions, trying to learn. And I had a great idea and it became a successful business.
00:12:18
Speaker
Then I went through a string of like 17 failures and I was trying to discern what was different. And one of the things that I learned very quickly was, you know i was i always I always say I was making decisions from a conference room.
00:12:30
Speaker
you know I was very disconnected to the people I was serving, even with the people that were working with me. you know I'm like sitting in Chicago, my engineers were in Atlanta, I was telling them build this for me, do this for me.
00:12:42
Speaker
Customers want this, maybe I send a customer an email, very, and when i And I've not had a single product failure since then, but people kind of ask me, what do I attribute that to? I say, it's nothing to do with me.
00:12:53
Speaker
There are set of principles that are true. But in some ways, I recognize that knowing what I did not know was very important, some sense of humility and taking the ego out of it.
00:13:04
Speaker
But I started to come to terms with, I'm not building a product for me. I'm building it for somebody else. You might have a fancy word for them and call them customers, ah but they're humans.
00:13:17
Speaker
And if I don't care or understand those humans well enough, how in the world do I think my product will solve the problem well? So in every aspect of my life, whether that is in product development work, in building tech products or solutions, in philanthropy and stuff,
00:13:33
Speaker
ah It all exists in service of a group of people. Forget what we want to call them. You know, they are humans, customers, users, whatever it is, but in service of humans. And a deep understanding of those humans, a deep understanding of the problems they have, a good, clear understanding of the impact or outcomes you want in their lives is key to building good products or solutions. So, you know, part of the product that I do every year is like a discovery tour. I go out in the field.
00:14:02
Speaker
I find, you know, small company, whether you're like, I'm trying to provide a better way to sell tomatoes to a village. I go out with them. you know We go to the farm, we go harvest, we go to the village.
00:14:13
Speaker
I walk in the field with them. I do the discovery with them. I immerse myself because I want to understand the challenges. you know I'm not looking to them to tell me I have this problem. it I have to feel it. I have to engage in it.
00:14:25
Speaker
you know i have to be restless at night because every decision I will make has to be filtered through that feeling. that I had there in the field. and And I want that to be reflective in everything I do. It's just, you know, I don't know if it's a secret. It's kind of, this is what is an essential piece of any good product, any good solution, empathy.
00:14:47
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. There's been a couple of technical aspects of empathy that I've learned that have helped me really think through like how to, because I started my career in copywriting and the idea is you need to speak to one person and, you know, those kinds of things.
00:15:04
Speaker
But what's interesting is the way that our brains, you know, operate with empathy. There's two different quirks. The first is what's called compassion fade. Which is the larger that a group becomes, the less we are able to be moved to help them. Yeah. and this definitely plays in the philanthropy world, but it also plays in the product development world. Because if we're only trying to say, oh, our customers are this du group of demographics with a stock photo, like we can't create that emotional connection. Yeah.
00:15:39
Speaker
And recognizing like, oh, i'm I'm in compassion fade right now. I you know am thinking about like, oh my gosh, there's 100,000 people who are impacted by this. What can I do?
00:15:50
Speaker
The other is the identified victim effect, which is we tend to get drawn in to stories of one person's individual suffering. And sometimes this can be a challenge because we get really drawn in and then don't think about the broader group.
00:16:04
Speaker
But to me, I sometimes think of these as like, DJ levels where if I like am getting too drawn into one story, it's like, okay, I'll become a little bit more objective. But when I noticed myself like really struggling, I'm like, okay, I need to know the story and the emotional connection of one individual person. And that's been something that I hear in there.
00:16:25
Speaker
And just as the, you know, technical side of empathy, that's been something that's been really interesting to me.
Maintaining Empathy in Development
00:16:31
Speaker
That's insightful. And I love the framing with kind of that compassion feed and As a DJ, I will confirm that this analogy almost works.
00:16:42
Speaker
No, and and look, there's this idea of reinforcing it. I think people also get complacent in connecting to a problem or kind of having some recency bias or when some songs cause fallacy in their stuff and you're tired or exhausted or beat up in that way. um And, you know, people say you must spend a long time in your discovery. I say, well, I don't think I do. I just don't think I go five minutes in my life without trying to reconnect with that in some ways. You know, it becomes a lifestyle, meaning, you know I...
00:17:12
Speaker
ah you know, it's kind of anchor with people like it's impossible for a company to care. Like it's not, you know, companies don't care about people. People care about people. Companies don't have, you know, like is but like the reflection in here is that if you want your products to reflect care, thoughts, thoughtfulness, reflect kind of good in some ways, the individuals that are making the decisions every day on what we do, how we do it, the best way to do it, have to be connected to what that is.
00:17:40
Speaker
And it's not a one-time thing. You know, it's not like, yeah, I spoke to someone in 1998, they had this problem. you You kind of reinforce it every day. So, you you know, you need to have an anchor of like, I can see and feel what that problem is, but you need to continue to not, you don't want to get complacent.
00:17:58
Speaker
with that one story, but you also don't want to get to what you call compassion for, oh, too many people have the problem. It's a big market statistically. yeah And there's a place for that. That's what businesses want you because they need a market to justify the ability to do that.
00:18:12
Speaker
But I always thought when I coach teams all time, say, look, you're hired already. By nature of your job in a business, the business is going to take care of itself. Your job is to make sure it works for your business. But the real job is to solve the problem so well that the customers love you, that they give you something back in return.
00:18:32
Speaker
Whether that's revenue, engagement, referral, gratitude, whatever it is, that's your measure.
Practicing Empathy in Community
00:18:38
Speaker
Your measure is you're not just solve the problem, but it's so compelling.
00:18:44
Speaker
That someone is like, you have thought about my needs well enough that I can give you back something. you know Some businesses want revenue from it. Some want the referral, engagement, loyalty. they are different things we can get back.
00:18:56
Speaker
um so So that's the core of what the walk is. Yeah, I think one of the things I'm most inspired in hearing you speak is how you've connected your product development skills to address a social concern that you deeply care about.
00:19:10
Speaker
And we have a lot of people who listen to this show who are mission driven and want to make an impact. So what maybe one piece of advice that you would give to folks who want to take those skills and really make a positive impact on the world?
00:19:25
Speaker
Oh, great, great question. I think a group of people got every, I think, group of people to Africa and, you know, maybe as gratitude for follow all of their work, we might do a safari or something fun afterwards. And we might go to a village and volunteer. and Without a doubt, always our last dinner always gets a little emotional and people are always like, man, how can I help?
00:19:46
Speaker
What can I do to make a difference? You know, like what do you need from me? You know, it's very, um and I always kind of respond the same way. People often be like, oh, maybe make a donation. Come on, volunteer. And I always say, you know, start,
00:19:58
Speaker
in your home. thats you know and And I always do something like, what do you mean? I say, you know, ah the wall, your wall got a little smaller because you got exposed to something different than what you may have seen or known, or you feel a connection to a group of people that don't look like you or think like you feel like you. Now you're feeling inspired by a mission to do good in some ways.
00:20:22
Speaker
um And I say, you've got to equip your community, your environment. You've got to build muscle. that you need to practice doing good by doing good in what you control.
00:20:34
Speaker
um you know And and you know every time I take my kids, we we spend a lot of summers in like Costa Rica or some, we immerse in communities. you know They come back, you know we eat everything now, we're not picky anymore, we clean our room.
00:20:47
Speaker
It's kind like you've always seen some situation worse than yours. All of a sudden you're like responsible, but it often doesn't last long because then you're immersed back into your environment and you become more privileged and complacent.
00:20:59
Speaker
and And I always say, look, you don't need permission. You don't need something big and lofty. to have mission-driven purpose in your life. I am calling out like a deep sense of empathy and care for other people um and being committed to trying to make a dent or difference is a muscle.
00:21:19
Speaker
And, you know, if you want to live a life in that way, start with your neighbor, start with your kids, start with your friends, be at your PTA, at your church, at your environment, whatever it is that you're at your circle, volunteer in some ways.
00:21:33
Speaker
Practice the muscle of what it means to translate a care for somebody else, or some other problem as your own and what you can contribute to doing that.
00:21:43
Speaker
ah and And I did not... recognize, you you know, one, ah you know, the kind of very first nonprofit that I ever did. and And, you know, it's kind of a relevant story in framing this.
00:21:55
Speaker
I was in Puerto Rico during the big hurricane that hit Puerto Rico. And I had gotten to an Airbnb type of stuff. It's kind of a nice Airbnb. I was really affected, you know, but like everybody's grounded and staying indoors and it's bad. And I get a knock on this door and, you know, it's kind of this gentleman and he's like, hey, how can I help?
00:22:14
Speaker
And I said, oh, we're fine. We're all great. I'm like, dude, you know, this is a nice fenced house. So like, where you know, we have everything we need. I'm like, I'm sure there are people that need more help than I do right now.
00:22:27
Speaker
And he says to me, he's like, you know, kindness does not care about anything. your, you know, your status, your wealth, your house or your door, what you have or stuff like that. Like, you know, yeah I just, I'm going to every single door, regardless of whether it's a nice door, a happy door, and stuff like that. And I'm asking the same thing of how can I help?
00:22:51
Speaker
And it moved me so much. I said, you know what? I'm going to go with you. You know, and I packed up my stuff and I spent the whole day with him out in Puerto Rico and we knocked on every single door asking how we can help regardless of what it was.
00:23:07
Speaker
And, you know, we started the first campaign. It's called, ah yeah it's called today the Happy Giver. It's kind of a be kind campaign. You kind of see those shirts that say be kind in that way. And he,
00:23:17
Speaker
It almost struck me like, you know, in the same way of kind of what that empathy mindset is or or caring is. ah You don't need it to be well structured. or The guy just understood. He's like, you're going to need something. I don't care what you need.
00:23:32
Speaker
but You know, my heart to serve today to give back on kindness is not filtered by something. it's It's creating a call to action.
00:23:42
Speaker
And my action now is to knock on doors. So but you know people kind of ask me how do I start? How do I see start? do Take away all the filters, the mental models in your head of it has to be big, it has to be some small, has to be structured.
00:23:56
Speaker
you know Just care in your community, in your home, in your friends, in your neighbors, in your staff, volunteer groups. Bring more heart and kindness and thoughtfulness and care into discovering problems and working on solutions.
00:24:10
Speaker
um What are some of the books or podcasts or other resources that have inspired you? Oh, boy. i that's that That's a very long list, Ray. yeah I mean, it depends on it towards what that end. The product development space, obviously, our books have been ah foundational ah by Silicon Valley Product Group, Inspired, and Empowered, Transformed, and Loved, which is a product marketing book, too, as well. I do do a podcast now called Product Therapy, where I do talk about the the human side of building product work, similar to what you're talking about, because I truly believe that, you know, all problems are people problems and, you know, companies cannot care about their customers, you know, it's just, they're all a reflection of the people in those companies. So I have to walk through those things.
00:24:58
Speaker
Um, but you know i I know many people have started to write things around ah customers and users. and i have even have a bias towards Windows naming conventions.
00:25:10
Speaker
There are fundamental books you know like How to Win Friends and Influence People and things like that that are just more human-centric books ah that have more business application and life application across disciplines.
00:25:25
Speaker
um I do always want to train my teams and coach my teams to remember customers are humans. It's almost like a land thing again, or users are humans, or buyers are humans. They lose sight of all of that. So most of the resources that I tend to recommend these days are things that will take people out of the technical and into the human aspect of things.
00:25:51
Speaker
um This is such an inspiring conversation and I wish I could chat with you all day, but we do have one final question that we ask of all of our guests. I'm really interested in hearing your thoughts.
Human Skills in AI Era
00:26:02
Speaker
What is the most important thing that you think should happen at the intersection of empathy and technology right now? Oh, boy.
00:26:14
Speaker
Someone was just asking me about kind of AI and the impact of that and tech and I was... My kids happen to be, I was like, you know, if I'm kind of advising people and I said, and I was telling my kids, you the only two things now that I want you to really go embed in the world of AI, one get really good at telling AI what to do and and and the other end getting really good at interpreting what AI does as it being good or relevant to humans or to the solution or to the problem it's trying to solve.
00:26:47
Speaker
And I was telling someone like, you know, In the reality of things, AI will never replace the purest form of the discipline of product management if you understand what it is, which is solving problems for humans.
00:27:01
Speaker
If you are just saying solving complex problems in some ways, yeah there are many cases AI will absolutely outdo what a human brain can process. But AI cannot feel, cannot in itself interpret the complexities of the choices that as little as they may be in the context within an environment will impact people.
00:27:22
Speaker
So i I actually think there's an increased role of empathy in tech we do ah with what AI or the acceleration of of AI in its involvement in technology, because it's truly what separates the value of humanity and humanness, which are very different in the work that we do.
00:27:49
Speaker
So, you know, the element or the critical aspect of what you cannot teach, the self-awareness, social awareness, the management, the aspects of EQ and the idea of what true empathy means in connecting to people, that is ever evolving and can only be reflected in humans.
00:28:13
Speaker
So if you're kind of asking me, my my answer is almost, we need to talk more about it. We need to, be very candid with ourselves about it's important.
00:28:29
Speaker
um I often don't like the word now, soft skills. I actually like collect the framing of human skills. There's nothing soft about it. you know We need more human skills in technology than ever before.
00:28:44
Speaker
Because a lot of that those hard skills, technology itself is finding way to address. to you know You can talk now to AI and it can build your whole website.
00:28:57
Speaker
But can it reflect the feelings, the emotions, the stuff that you like? You need more humanness in technology. You need more you more empathy in technology than ever before um because it is becoming a highly competitively cold, dehumanized environment ah with some of the technology innovations that we see.
00:29:18
Speaker
So I could not think of a better, more meaningful topic to heighten or elevate. and things like empathy you know in our work today and particularly in technology.
00:29:32
Speaker
I couldn't have said it better. Christian, how can people get in touch with you and learn more about your work? Sure. You can follow me on LinkedIn. You could follow us on our website, svpg.com.
00:29:46
Speaker
um And feel free to follow our work with inspireafricaconference.com, innovateafricafoundation.org. These are all great resources to follow our work ah in the States and and in Africa as well.
00:29:58
Speaker
Awesome. Thank you so much for coming on the show, Christian. This has been such an enlightening conversation. And thank all of you for listening. As a reminder, Empathy in Tech is on a mission to accelerate the responsible adoption of empathy in the tech industry by doing four things.
00:30:15
Speaker
closing the empathy skills gap by treating empathy as a technical skill, teaching technical empathy through accessible, affordable, and actionable training, building community and breaking down harmful stereotypes and trope, and promoting technical empathy for ethics, equity, and social justice. So if you found this conversation interesting, please head over to empathyintech.com to keep the conversation going, to listen to more episodes, and to join our community of compassionate technologists.
00:30:44
Speaker
Thanks for listening. We'll see you in the next episode.