This letter was originally shared in the January Better Product Community newsletter. Join the community today to see words like this from fellow product leaders, every month. 

One of the best parts of our time working in product is the exposure we get to different leaders with unique ideas and solutions. Working alongside passionate entrepreneurs or an enthusiastic team to solve a problem that they deeply care about is sometimes challenging, but incredibly fulfilling.

We’ve also noticed how the cultural background of some of these leaders has prepared them to tackle problems in a way that’s more personal to their community.

As Hispanics ourselves, having grown up in the island of Puerto Rico (Laurimar) and the country of Panama (Yhareli), we know the value of being represented in the tech community—not just as the end-users, but also as practitioners and leaders.

Yet we’ve noticed there are few spaces for Latinx product people to connect over their distinct shared experiences.

So we started to ask, how can we be the change? How can we create an intentional space where Latinx product leaders can find each other? What stories haven’t been told that we can learn from and celebrate?

What We Hope To Achieve

To answer these questions, we went looking for where Latinx people in product currently meet. And guess what? We didn’t find one singular place where these two priorities connected—our love of product and our love of our culture. 

While there are several Latinx tech communities across the U.S., most are on the coasts and are unavailable where we live: in the Midwest. And none of them have an exclusive focus on product. 

But we don’t want to assume that we know everything the Latinx in product community needs. So we created a short survey to start the conversation. We chose the questions you’ll encounter in the survey to better understand what you value and how we can connect those in the Better Product Community who are interested in learning more about this Latinx initiative.

We Hope You’ll Join Us

We look forward to reading your responses and encourage you to contact us if you have questions. We’re here for YOU. This vision only works if we build together.

Con aprecio, 

Yhareli Chamboneth & Laurimar Garcia