Week #1 Update
Celebrating our exciting first week together as a community
👋 Hello! You’re reading the newsletter for ✨ product qties ✨, a community for LGBTQ+ folks in product. We aim to help members connect, share experiences, and build a network to share support, knowledge, and resources. To stay up-to-date on community events and what we’re doing next, sign up below and say hi in the comments!
What a week it’s been!
46 Community Members 🎉
A humble Google Form initially generated 27 new signups to become community members. I soon realized we needed a scalable way to communicate with the community. This newsletter followed shortly thereafter.
I imported the first 27 emails so I could easily reach out to you, and then a bunch more of you followed soon after. 46 members in only the first 7 days! 🤯
Survey Results
Those who answered the survey shared their preferences about ways to participate.
As an online meetup was the most popular option, I quickly reached out to a few people who had earlier said they would be willing to pitch in on this idea somehow. This led to a hastily arranged first community event in the form of an online panel!
Community Slack
As the second most popular way to participate was Slack, I’m happy to share a signup link for our brand new community Slack!
Organizing Events
Many of you were interested in helping out with events!
7 people voted yes and volunteered to help organize events, and I’m meeting most of them through March to discuss organizing remote and/or local, in-person meetups on 3 different continents. 🎊
Now that there’s more of us, this poll needs a refresher!
Why This Community
But what struck me above all were your responses to this question:
What interests you about a community such as this one?
Without sharing anyone’s personal details, I think what you said is really powerful and deserves to be shared with the community. I omitted any details that might help identify anyone.
As a queer nonbinary […], it just fills my heart with joy and hope for the future, because especially in my country, it doesn’t look really bright for us. So I hope to find some people to remind me that there are opportunities for us and that we can succeed too in this cisheteronormative world.
Representation is really important and I would love to meet other LGBTQ folks in Tech and product to learn how they navigate spaces as well as their careers while holding onto their identities.
The possibility of teaming up and building a better world together. Also I am myself queer and would like to work with people that share my same traumas, hope and fears.
Imposter syndrome has never affected me as much as it does since switching to Product (from marketing) […]. Would love to hear if other trans ppl have experienced the same thing and ways to cope.
Being trans in this area of work can be lonely!
As a gay person in a tech startup that doesn’t value diversity, I’m looking for a community I can learn from.
I think, inclusivity on each and every level is a key. Whether it's about some product, team, or community. I'd love to be a part of something what drives this approach and moreover welcomes me as who I am.
We need more lgbtq+ folks in tech and product. Communities like this can help bring more people in and make us all feel welcome and heard.
Recap of the First Week
So let’s recap our first week together:
46 new community members 🎉
7 co-organizers on 3 continents 😮
3 panelists for our first event with 28 attendees (so far!) 🔥
A new domain 🌐
Planning a second in-person event in Berlin in April 🗓️
4 offers to provide an event space, sponsor a part of the costs, or offer product and leadership coaching to community members at zero cost 🏆
Not too bad for a first week as a brand new community! Not bad at all, dear product qties! 💖
Next Steps
There is so much more to come. Let me know what you’re interested in and please leave comments sharing your ideas, proposals, and thoughts!
Yours,
Mirza