When will more product and engineering teams look like this?

Last week, I did a week-long women’s surf camp in Sayulita, Mexico with my daughter (far right). Surfing is a very male dominated sport, so one of our first lessons was on wave etiquette. They explained how important it was to make it when you paddled for a wave at a new break or male surfers would thereafter take your waves. Our mellow, sunshiny coaches shared how aggressive they needed to be, “You wouldn’t recognize us out there,” they confessed.

It sounded so much like being a woman on many product and engineering teams. Gotta nail it to have the ‘right’ to be there. Feeling like you need to be strongly assertive to be seen. Even though we all know how much better teams are with more diverse perspectives, it is challenging to get there. The work can feel daunting.

That’s why we started Seat @ the Table back in 2017, Costanoa’s annual event to spark action so more women earn more seats at more tables at every level of management. We’re excited to finally bring Seat @ the Table back in person this year (yay!), with special thanks to LinkedIn for hosting us. Our focus stays on women builders: those leading product and eng.

These remarkable women leaders will share what’s helped them most in their leadership journeys.

Margaret Francis, former Chief Product Officer at dbt Labs
Ritika Kalia, Engineering Manager at Runway
Rukmini Reddy, SVP of Engineering, Platform at Slack
Jessica Williams, Product Lead at YouTube

It’s happening 5/18/23 at 6 p.m. at LinkedIn’s office in San Francisco. There will be open networking time with food and drink before the panel. It’s a great opportunity to meet more product and engineering peers who can support you in your journey.

The event is open to anyone who wants to learn more about what it takes to be a strong leader or ally for women in product and engineering.