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Isford: Most tech companies build products with an unconscious Western bias

Lauryn Isford · Lauryn Isford: Product Growth Secrets from Facebook, Airtable, BlueBottle, Dropbox & Notion | E1037 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings · Jul 19, 2023 · at 6:32

Lauryn Isford (Head of Product Growth at Notion, ex-Facebook) reflects on her experience working on Facebook's international initiatives like internet.org and the JioPhone launch in India.

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“I find that especially in technology, many businesses build with a Western bias and it's important to Really understand if you're serving all customer needs, especially when you have a big international customer base.”

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