Guest Lecture: Timothy Bardlavens
Last month, MFA Products of Design was proud to host cultural strategist and Facebook Product Design Manager, Timothy Bardlavens. Timothy spoke to us about navigating Whiteness and implicit bias through the lens of product design.
Timothy starts his lecture by sharing, "My entire career, if not my entire life, I have navigated Whiteness." He goes on to explain, "Whiteness is the homogenous structure of power and authority, which compels us to conform. Which hands down a set of morals and ethics for all to follow. Which illustrates and justifies conventions which are agreeable into and unto itself and expresses dissent for anything stepping outside of those bounds. Whiteness is power, privilege, systems, actions, mindsets, expressions, outcomes, and more."
Timothy shares his thoughts on how to navigate Whiteness within product design—boiling down to the central point which he calls “getting out of the way.” As he thoughtfully explains, "It is our job as designers to give power back to communities and not only include them in the product design development process, but to make sure that they are heard, respected, and paid for their efforts." Timothy’s virtual lecture concludes with a generous Q&A session.
Timothy Bardlavens is Product Design Leader, a Cultural Strategist, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) specialist, a Fellowship Co-Founder, and International Speaker & Facilitator. Currently, a Product Design Manager at Facebook, Timothy supports Community Experiences within the Facebook App, leading teams focused on new Member Experiences and Ecosystem Growth. Previously, he has led teams for Zillow’s newest venture, Zillow Offers, and at Microsoft, where his leadership focused on core UX and Intelligent (AI/ML) experiences in Outlook across all endpoints, platform experiences that span the O365 Suite and core browsing experiences in Edge. As a Cultural Strategist, Timothy specializes in Organizational Culture through the lens of Human-Centered Design. His work shifts the focus of DEI from a Human Resources to a User Experience challenge, helping organizational leaders understand teams, organizations and companies are designed entities that need unique approaches to cultivate and thrive in an increasingly diverse space. Most importantly, Timothy works with these leaders to develop people-centric strategies with clear, actionable steps to increase diversity, create more inclusive spaces and design more equitable systems.