Foundational Principles

Inclusion and equity are paramount throughout the product development lifecycle. Product development encompasses a great range of design and development processes. This term can be used to describe physical products, digital products, services, and more. In this section, we share a range of moments in the product lifecycle with opportunities for inclusive approaches.

The lifecycle of product development is vast, from funding to design to launch and support. The approaches that teams take vary by industry, offering type, and the practices and beliefs of practitioners. 

Our work is strongest when done in collaboration with user communities, in all the phases of product development—including funding, research, design, engineering, QA, marketing, and support.

5 Foundational Inclusion Principles

1. Ensure the work represents diverse perspectives.

  • Include team members from a diverse set of industries & backgrounds.

  • Include team members with a diverse set of identities.

  • Audit team to understand what perspectives are missing.

  • Implement mechanisms to check biases in every step and aspect of the process.

  • Proactively identify unintended consequences/worst-case scenarios for all groups before committing to decisions, considering both short-term and long-term impact.

 

2. Take accountability for the impact on those who aren’t represented, and develop a roadmap to address these limitations.

  • Define a set of inclusion requirements to scope projects with an inclusive lens and avoid unintended consequences.

  • Work with project leaders to plan timelines that incorporate needed time and resources for inclusion during research and other moments (e.g., inclusive recruitments, budget, training, and relationship management).

  • In case of timeline shortage, communicate the tradeoffs and take formal accountability for any shortcomings of intentional choices made with stakeholders between inclusion negotiable vs. non-negotiable (must/need-to-have vs. nice-to-have).

  • Create intentional pause points in the process with self and bias-reflection. 

3. Consider the impact of decisions on physical, cultural, and environmental sustainability.

  • Balance the goals of the business with the value to people, with a focus on underrepresented groups.

  • Consider the physical, cultural, and environmental impact during the ideation process.

  • Consider the physical, cultural, and environmental impact.

4. Stay accountable for diversity, equity, and inclusion metrics.

  • Work with business leaders and DEI leaders to ensure inclusion-focused OKRs and KPIs are factored into the project plan.

  • Deliver on targets to meet internal DEI goals for designing and testing prototypes.

  • Run prototypes and products through a quality assurance process for accessibility and other inclusion considerations.

  • Track inclusion in the development process itself and iterate on the approach continuously to improve the results.

5. Each individual: Thoughtfully practice inclusion behaviors.

  • Challenge your assumptions.

  • Check your biases.

  • Confront hard conversations.

  • Know when you are not the right person to move the work forward.

  • Center on the community. Let them drive the research and co-create designs.

Additional information to keep in mind for most common phases in product development, which are stronger when done in collaboration with user communities.

    • What are the priorities of potential funding opportunities? What expectations of the leadership? 

    • Identify the extent to which the values of potential stakeholders align with leadership’s personal vision for the product. 

      • What could misalignment look like? 

      • A sole monetary focus from stakeholders restricting founders from fulfilling a product that aligns with their values in achieving an accessible product

    • Consider the degree of decision-making power granted to funding sources and the potential impact of a lack of diversity among the leadership. What could this mean? 

      • A lack of diversity could lead to decisions made with a disregard for various lived experiences impacting customers and the satisfaction of internal team members.

    • Ensure accessibility and localization requirements are included in the team’s definition of done.

    • Agree on the code of conduct for verbal and written communication and ways to call out bias on the team. Some examples include using “master” and “slave” within code, use of “whitelist” and “blacklist” in security, and using inappropriate memes within team communication. 

    • When launching and testing the prototype, apply the same considerations as during the prior research phase.

    • Consider the accessibility of collecting feedback

      • Meet people where they are and ensure that the mechanism for feedback fits the user needs (e.g., private vs. public forums)

      • Methods of collecting feedback could be anonymous surveys, polls, voting, etc.

    • Continuously identify ways to improve accessibility and inclusion within testing.

    • 4 P’s (3 Main Highlights)

      • Price - price discrimination + affordability + how segments are defined

      • Place - accessibility 

      • Promotion - representation of diversity + Inclusive language across multiple dimensions of diversity 

    • Marketing assets should be accessible. 

    • For all launched solutions, provide mechanisms for users to easily provide feedback so that issues can be identified and corrected. Be transparent in the issues discovered and discuss the underlying factors to improve the solution and the overall lifecycle process.

    • Train customer support personnel to interact with users with physical and cognitive disabilities. (see Customer service for people with disabilities for examples)

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How can we improve? Please share suggestions, questions, or a story on how Equity Army Principles helped you or your organization.

Email: theequityarmy@gmail.com