The 3 Ps for Inclusive Product Making

Today, along with some great Product builders, I presented at the UW Foster School of Business 's Inclusive Product Management Summit (uw.edu).

In addition to some examples, I covered the 3P framework for thinking about Inclusive Product Making.

As Product Managers, it is our job to think about Inclusion in the products we design and build. In fact, if you are not explicitly thinking about inclusion, you are definitely excluding someone. As PMs, there are 3 core things we need to think about, practice and influence, and I call them the 3Ps:

1) Product

2) People

3) Practices

Product:

This is probably the most obvious for Product Managers. At the core of this is really being obsessed about your users, knowing clearly who your target audience is. When thinking inclusively, it is important to consider the variations that could exist in your target audience, whether those variations are based on gender identity, cultural identity, geographic location, or disability. It is important to both focus here on defining your target audience, and being broad in your definition of who falls into your target audience. It is important to continue to validate your product during ideation, build, and testing with these users to get their feedback. You need to think through inclusion not just in product design, but also in the messaging embedded in your products or your value prop.

People:

Our own perspectives and lived experiences impacts the way we see the world. Hence it is very important for product teams to be diverse and representative of different perspectives. This is why investing in the hiring funnel is important to be inclusive about who you bring into your teams. Additionally, it is important for PMs to work with cross-functional professionals - be it UX Designers, Marketing, or Legal to factor in their perspectives and ensure you are thinking about the product holistically and in the broader context in which it exists. Also, when you have diverse teams, you need to be intentional about how you are going to support their growth and development to continue to improve and retain them. Finally, when you have diverse teams and opinions, it is important to be clear about the decision-making process - how are you going to ensure that all voices are heard, how are you going to ensure there's clarity in how decisions will be made.

Practices:

Practices and processes drive consistency and completeness. Whether it is principles around how to embed accessibility, checklists for inclusive design, or principles around Ethics and Responsible AI, practices are critical and serve as guides in your product making journey. Practices evolve over time, but capturing the principles and aligning teams to them ensures that you are leveraging the collective experience and driving cohesion into your products, and staying true to the core values you aspire for your product.