Women in technology continue to lag behind their male counterparts in terms of representation, leadership roles, and pay. Many systemic issues must be addressed for women to achieve greater equality in technology, and devmio wants to help by providing an opportunity for inspiring women to introduce themselves and share their stories about why they chose a career in technology.
Every Wednesday, we celebrate women in the tech world. This week, we’d like to introduce you to Alexis Roizen Harris, Principal Product Designer at Sysdig.
Today's Woman in Tech: Alexis Roizen Harris, Principal Product Designer at Sysdig
What first got you interested in technology?
It’s funny, I’m not innately interested in technology. In fact, I’m a bit analog, but what I’ve always been interested in are tools – how people use them and for what ends. So from that perspective, I landed in technology through a back door since some of the world's most powerful tools these days are digital.We tend to arrive at first solutions by answering the question “what can we build?” In a digital world, this amounts to being an engineering-driven organization. Whatever the new “thing” is we build, the people who use it must bend and mold to fit the tool.
But as a designer, I’m more interested in what someone wants to do and then build a tool to solve that problem. Design is historically late to the product development game. Instead of having a person mold to the tool, I want to shape the tool to be designed to the person. So, these are some of the interesting things I see in my work.
What path did you take to get to your current position?
Today, I am a principal product designer but spent a lot of my career in graphic design, web design and design work for startups. My mother was a professional painter, but she never made much money. She encouraged me to try graphic design so that I could grow up and support myself. After one class in college I was hooked, and started doing freelance work even before I graduated.Continue reading: https://devm.io/careers/women-in-tech-roizen