Shutting Down the Pasifika Tech Network

Port-Mortem of a Failed Project

Talofa reader,

A few weeks ago, I made the relatively easy decision to wind down The Pasifika Tech Network.

"Failed project" may be a harsh way to put it, but I think there's value in calling something what it is, so you can better understand how _not_ to do it again in future.

This is a project that failed.

Ok, but what did it fail to do? And why?

To understand that, we have to go back to the beginning and look at why it was created in the first place; what its intended goal was; and the reasons it wasn't able to live up to this.

Genesis of the Network

When I started on the "how do I get more Pasifika into tech?" journey back in 2016, my first stop was trying to identify Pasifika already in tech and creating a network so we could help each other into various roles in the industry.

I started the LinkedIn group known today as "Pasifika in IT" (originally called the "Polynesian Tech Professionals"), to gather said professionals, and was dismayed that of the 300+ people who joined the group, only a handful were technical, and only 2 showed up to a meetup.

Digging into the root of the problem, I discovered a "pipeline issue".

I started running code clubs in 2017, and in 2019 "The Pasifika Tech Education Charity" was born, delivering code clubs and workshops for Pasifika primary through high school students to cater to the "pipeline".

The goal was always to get a direct line from Pasifika people to tech work and careers. With limited time and resources, I figured a focus on cultivating a network of Pasifika professionals would:

1. Develop and advance Pasifika tech workers careers

2. Those advanced tech workers would feed back into the code club volunteering for the next generation.

The group was filled with sales people, marketers, recruiters, people managers and generally "rubber neckers". Trying to get engagement (I guess like most/all LinkedIn groups) was like pulling teeth, screaming into the void, or talking to a brick wall - you pick what euphemism works for you.

Bottom line, it was a group of spectators waiting for the show to start.

I eventually found two engineers who joined the group, brothers, who were actually technical and were the target demographic for this group (shout out to the Sauni brothers). Before the group became a complete ghost town, we enjoyed a couple of meetups where we had coffee, traded career stories, and ate cake.

As I redirected my time and effort to my kids' code club programme in the community, I eventually handed the group over to a good friend Steven Paea, and stood down from any and all Pasifika in IT things.

2021 Post-Covid: A New Hope

Fast forward to 2021, the world as we knew it was forever changed by the pandemic.

Everyone had finally experienced and seen with their own eyes, the disparity between communities and groups of people in terms of wealth, opportunities and real-life realities. Coming out of the lock-downs and the country really coming to grips with how fragile and unequal our society was, it felt like there was a new-found hope, and drive to get the "have nots" i.e. communities like Pasifika, the hell out of the enduring poverty-riddled situation it's always been in.

This was the new hope that had me hoping for maybe a new result to an old play - can I start up another Pasifika Network?

Well, I did.

And it was called "The Pasifika Tech Network" aka PTN... and it was pretty good at the start...

To be fair, it was more organised this time. It had a proper registration form, a mailing list system, a Discord server; we eventually had a newsletter, a website and a GitHub account.

I'm a 24/7 geek, so being pathologically online and around to cultivate and grow the online community aspect of our network wasn't anything out of the ordinary for me. I was online, starting conversations, sharing information, organising the server with new features, bots (with the help of Luka Tauvae), and taking feedback from members to create channels and events to support our mission.

The Pasifika Tech Network in Action

The PTN was starting to pick up steam.

We had even formed a "committee" with a group of committed members, to meet once a month to discuss and plan things to make the server, and the network what we wanted it to be.

Over the next couple of years, the PTN ran regular online study sessions (complete with study bots, with timers, awards and task tracking), we had online meetups to catch-up with people who were around; we had several in-person meetups for both technical & professional presentations, as well as just social gatherings for a drink, cake and even board games.

We ran a discussion forum on the Discord that went deep into members experiences, good and bad as well as things like salaries, racism and workplace bullying. We even had a health-and-wellbeing channel where everyone posted their workout goals, or just encouragement for staying physical given our industry is pretty sedentary.

Our careers channel posted job descriptions of roles going at members workplaces, and I'm happy to say more than a few members landed roles successfully through the network.

In an effort to try to recruit more members to active roles within the network, helping with the mission of "getting more Pasifika into tech", we setup a Volunteering system where members could pick the activity they wanted to volunteer on - events, writing the monthly newsletter, being a volunteer with my charity (PTEC), promo team.

There were so many comments and sentiments to the effect of "grateful for this space, there's nothing like it". I even put it to the discussion forum once, during one of many "quiet" periods in the network, whether we should open up to non-Pasifika to join as well?

I got a resounding "no, this is our space, we can let our guard down here like we can't anywhere else".

Verbally, and occasionally in-person, there was a lot of consensus that this was an important and needed space.

So, why did it go the way it went after all this?

The Signs and Reality

When the activities online required constant initiation by the same people every time, fewer people would be "online" and contribute to the chat, it definitely felt like the momentum and interest was waning. Surveys to better understand what could make the network more valuable, emailed to members got little to no responses. Even the volunteering channels with people joining activities as low-maintenance as the promo team i.e. the "write something about the network on your social media" activities team got zero posts out.

That's not to say no one did anything, a couple of people really came through with their time and efforts - Luka with the discord admin, GT with the Study sessions and Charity, TJ with the newsletter - but the general consensus kept pointing out that I may be barking up the wrong tree.

Was there really a demand for Pasifika badly wanting to get into tech, where they were crying out for a network like this to help get them there?

The reality of the demographic in the PTN wasn't the cliche poverty-stricken Pasifika, but that's not to say they weren't without their challenges. The folks the network was fostering were those who were already in tech, they'd done the hard work or caught the break already in their niche interest, and gotten into tech.

They had their own places, even if renting, they were on better salaries, and weren't struggling in the same way their parents were/did. Yes, still very much involved in family and community, so time, space and money is shared.

Members had young families, trying to live and survive in Auckland, some even moving out of Auckland for that reason. A lot of folks were still in the junior end of their careers, so they were in a building phase, which I know from experience, takes time and energy. You don't have the flexibility of a more seasoned tech worker, or the opportunities that allow for it.

You also don't have the knowledge, or experience to roadmap your way there, so you're stuck in this stage for longer if not indefinitely.

I would think this is exactly why Pasifika, in tech, would lean into a network like the one I was trying to build; because it would expedite the process of advancing themselves to a place with less stress and more resources, provide community where our people were scarce, and to be able to stand on the few shoulders of people available to support and bridge this gap.

I was wrong.

Lessons Learned

I was raised by my mum to always look at myself and my actions first—the "log out of your own eye" before the speck of dust in someone else's, so to speak.

So here are some things I've thought about that were in my control and contributed to the PTN not working out.

Underestimated the Work Required

To an extent, I had expectations that I would invest x amount of effort that would be picked up at point 'y'—you know, like a mathematical equation. If I had the right parameters and got the graph trending to the required threshold, nature would take over and it would organically grow on its own. It didn't, so I might have underestimated where that line was and subsequently never reached it. This would explain why I had to keep investing x amount of effort over the lifetime of the PTN without it ever taking off.

Maybe I was aware that more of me was required to take it further and find that threshold, but that's something I've been aware of doing this work.

I have a finite amount of time, effort, and fucks to give about any one thing in my life, and I knew that I would give what I had to for this, and no more.

If what I had to give, was less than what was required, and no-one else could make up the short-fall, this was always going to be the natural conclusion.

Misunderstood the Demographic

This is another reason I think it didn't work out.

I didn't understand the demographic I was targeting. I thought I did; I thought I knew their motivations, drive, and intrinsic values. Even when surveying and parsing that data, I thought I had things on track. But the proof was in the pudding—whatever I was doing was not the "thing" that was going to get the result I was after from this group.

Maybe they just wanted to hang out occasionally, leave their careers in the 9-5 slot, and just be part of something in the background.

Funnily enough, I sent out a post-closedown survey to get feedback on how people felt about the network and what did and didn't work. Surprisingly, I got a few responses saying they wished they had participated more, that they were just happy something like the PTN existed and they could join in whenever they wanted to.

What kind of member is that?!

What kind of member is happy for something to exist that they can benefit from when they feel like participating, and were then sad to see it go?

I know this and the "just hang out" demographic was not my intended audience, and misunderstanding what I was working with is on me.

Not the Right Person

At the risk of sounding like a self-fulfilling prophecy, one takeaway I have to consider—or know is a possibility—is that I wasn't the right person for this work.

All things being equal, let's say the work was roughly what I thought it would be, time and energy investment-wise, and the demographic was keen, driven, and ambitious Pasifika engineers looking for a place to belong to, contribute, and grow—was I the right person to lead and do this work of starting and growing the network?

I would say yes. Under these circumstances, I think I would be.

But circumstances outside of this? i.e., circumstances as they turned out to be, could have benefited from someone with different skills. Someone who could have inspired this demographic from where they were to where they needed to be for this vision to succeed.

This, I think, is my shortcoming, my failure. I wasn't the right person for solving this problem.

I'm the person who can take a junior engineer and show them the way to senior, and play the corporate tech industry game.

I'm just not the person to make you *want* that for yourself.

Know When to Fold ‘Em

I maybe made a few "new venture" mistakes here, as you can tell already by "not knowing the demographic," i.e., my market or "customers". I didn't do enough to validate my thesis that this was something people wanted. I assumed, based on what I thought would be valuable and what has been a valuable experience for me in my professional network, that it would be valuable for my Pasifika tech community too.

Failing this, and continuing with the thesis long after the signals were there that this wasn't the case, I could have probably wound it up sooner and saved some time and energy.

That's on me.

Next Steps

Where to from here?

I'd be lying if I said this wasn't disheartening. As much as I know I'm no one's saviour, it sucks to put energy into something that doesn't pan out. When it's something like work and career, that's one level of sucking. When it's a plan you think could have far-reaching benefits for your community and this was just the first step, it's even harder.

For me, I still have a charity that has been going for 5-6 years now, with Pasifika volunteers that fit the description of the demographic I was targeting with the PTN. I think I got it right in this case because we are going strong, with outcomes and activities in the community to validate that claim.

I think, going forward, I'm going to validate and prioritise what I'm going to dedicate time and energy to more ruthlessly. I think it's best not only for myself but for all the other things in my life that require time and energy—it would be unfair to spend it unwisely again.

If it doesn't come across that way, let me say it here—I don't say all this to suggest anyone owes me anything; they don't. My hope was always that Pasifika would have seen the value in this thing and worked with me on it towards an outcome for our community.

I know there are even more organisations out there now, helping Pasifika towards tech pathways, and that's great. I just know there was nothing quite like what we had with the Pasifika Tech Network.

Onto the next one.

Thanks for reading,

Ron.