Nikila Srinivasan leads product development for Facebook’s emerging markets monetization team, having built up a cross-discipline team from scratch at Facebook in London. She is responsible for building advertiser and consumer facing products that grow Facebook’s business in the developing world, and has spoken at several events including Cannes Lions about Facebook’s approach to building for the next billion people. Previously, she worked at several Silicon Valley startups. Nikila grew up in Chennai, south India, where she completed a degree in Computer Science and Engineering before moving to the US to pursue a Master’s degree in international development and technology. She was Editor-in-Chief of a music magazine and media company in India and currently serves as an advisor. In her past life in India, Nikila wore several hats from published author to Olympic torchbearer, and started the first Silicon Valley chapter of Women Who Code with a fellow coder during its early years in 2011. She continues to be passionate about building products that understand and appreciate the diversity in people, cultures, and technology, especially across the developing world.
Nikila will start with speaking about the context and opportunity in emerging markets, and talk through principles that we follow – as an individual, as a team, and in our products – to build for the next billion. She’ll cover 4 principles – be diverse, be local, be lightweight, and be flexible – and provide examples of how we’ve incorporated these into Facebook’s products.