[throwaway54984]

If diversity matters so much and it should reflect the customer population, then perhaps Google (or any other company for that matter) should hire less smart or even dumb people. After all 47.5% of the population has an IQ between 70 and 100.

[notduncansmith]

As early product testers, absolutely. It's one thing to put yourself "in the user's shoes" as far as unfamiliarity with a product, it's another entirely to pretend to have 30-50 fewer IQ points. This could produce some valuable insights :)

[wutbrodo]

I think you might be missing the point of his comparison. The claim he's discussing is that your workforce overall should reflect your customer base, not that your product testers (much more directly related to the customer base) should reflect it. What throwaway54984 is saying is that this claim doesn't seem to hold water, through the counterexample of diversity of IQ. Dismissing it with "it only works if you limit them to product testing" is really just strengthening his argument.

[notduncansmith]

I wasn't disagreeing with the assertion he was making; my comment was intended to complement the point, not refute it. Apologies for not making that more clear.

[wutbrodo]

oh my b. Totally agree with your comment without the underlying point I (wrongly) assumed it was making.