Creating a more diverse tech workspace requires a different kind of “pipeline” – one that creates tech curiosity and a sense of mastery in underrepresented teammates from an early age. Commodity hardware and DevOps principles can play a role.

I’ll share how $65 of pre-integrated parts, small batch sizes and limiting WIP resulted in squeals of delight from my six-year-old daughter as she learned she could code, deploy, test and iterate until the software and hardware did what she wanted it to.

The key (and not just with six-year-olds) is fast cycle time! In sprints of 5-10 minutes each, she was able to write and deploy code, test, and iterate (all without handoffs or waiting for resources).

I’ll end with a QR code for you to easily clone this idea for your own home and any community you are connected with.

Dave has three decades of experience in developer tools, developer communities and evangelizing sustainable software delivery practices. Dave grew up just “off-campus” from Stanford as Silicon Valley