When Pamela Rice (pictured) initially joined the Capital One Financial Corp. team, the company’s drive to incorporate emerging tech into its offerings took her by surprise. Nine months into her role as the organization’s head of technology, strategy and innovation labs engineering, Rice sees Capital One’s commitment to innovation not only in its product development, but throughout workflow processes and employee development as well.

“Capital One really understands that customer expectations are changing so fast and technology is changing so fast that they have to invest heavily in technology to really reach their customers and go where their customers are going to want to go,” Rice said. “We want to get there together with diverse teams. The way we build products is the way that we will connect with customers, and we want … all of our customers to feel connected to our products, not just one segment of the community.”

Rice spoke with Rebecca Knight (@knightrm), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing event in Orlando, Florida. They discussed Capital One’s strategies for ushering new technologies into the finance space and how a focus on diversity is at the crux of its strategy, the health of its business and company culture.

Examining everything through the diversity lens

With so many exciting initiatives on the way, Rice and her team have doubled down on ensuring diversity and cross-functionality are prevalent across every department at Capital One. “We have so many really big milestones underway. It’s no secret that we have heavy migration to the cloud. … We have a goal of getting into miscroservices more. We were one of the first financial institutions that … said we’re all in,” she said.

The company maintains a strong emphasis on diversity in its working processes by threading it through every aspect of its operations. “When you’re focusing on diversity you can’t just think of it from a program perspective. … You need diversity included in every conversation you have, whether it’s about who’s going to get promoted, who’s going to get a bonus, or how we talk about people,” Rice explained.

For those still seeking opportunities for inclusion like the initiatives being created at Capital One, Rice had some inspiring words of advice. “Know that you deserve this career; know that you deserve to dream big. You deserve a loud voice. You deserve a seat at the table. You deserve the whole table. … If you have voices in your head or external voices that are telling you-you can’t have it, quiet those voices and believe in yourself,” she concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.

Photo: SiliconANGLE