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The problems described here aren't just limited to startups: Support personnel is often neglected in large companies too. A couple of years ago, I was working at a very large company that was also suffering from high turnover. Calls were made first by business analysts, who really didn't understand what the heck was going on, and implemented in some fashion or another by developers like me, who were far removed from the realities of the software. With all that turnover, nobody that was actually working on the software understood what the real use cases were, so if a decision actually matched what a user wanted, it was probably by accident. Having worked at better shops, I realized this was only going to lead to dismal failure, so I started asking around for real information on what was going on. And guess what: There was a support team, 90% female, who nobody actually consulted for anything, and was paid peanuts. And yet, they actually had more information about the practical uses of the application, and where to take it, than the PhD totting analysts. After a few weeks talking to said support team, and explaining how to actually make sense of what we were doing, I was seen as some kind of Messiah by management, when all I actually did was actually pay attention to the people that had the actual knowledge. As far as sexism, yes, it's very sad that most of us view so few females that are even put in a position to succeed that it's easy to make assumptions about people's knowledge. I've been lucky to have worked with a couple of extremely good female programmers, and about a dozen women doing support work, so that I am at least not astounded when a woman at a user group isn't just a recruiter. But that doesn't mean I won't make wrong assumptions. The best most of us can do is recover quickly, and remember that while there are few women in the industry, their skill and knowledge is no different than the one of men. |