Community increases diversity and inclusion

Your product is more than your company. Empower the community who know the product to extend the reach of the product. You'll hand over part of the conversation to people who aren't employed by your company. It can be scary. It's also necessary.

Inclusion requires conversations about the value of your product and how it's developed. Involving the community in the development of your product empowers people and organizations to achieve more.

A note on inclusion

Johnathan Lightfoot is an active Microsoft community member. In June 2020, he was inspired by the Bias free communication article in the Microsoft Writing Style Guide. It starts by saying, "it's critical that all our communications are inclusive and diverse." And further notes, "Don't use terms that may carry unconscious racial bias." These words lead Johnathan to change the product in ways that Microsoft employees alone couldn't have.

As a writer and a community member, Johnathan is empowered to update our product documentation. He'd read an article on Microsoft Docs that used the word slave. So he sent the team a change. He added a note:

Bias-free Communication

Microsoft supports a diverse and inclusionary environment. Within this document, there are references to the word 'slave.' Microsoft's Style Guide for Bias-Free Communications recognizes this as an exclusionary word. This wording is used as it is currently the wording used within the software. For consistency, this document contains this word. When this word is removed from the software, we will correct this document to be in alignment.

The note was published on the same day.

Our shared connection to the community

I've been a Microsoft employee for almost 5 years. Before that, I was a member of the Microsoft community. For 10 years, I wrote 2blog posts about Microsoft products every month. Along the way, I started writing for Microsoft Press and met Johnathan. Together with a few others, we co-wrote Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 Inside Out.

Writing a book together can build a strong relationship. None of the title authors were employees of Microsoft. Instead, we all worked with customers who needed our knowledge to understand Microsoft products. We divided the books chapters up into areas we each felt most comfortable covering. And we worked together with the lead author, the only one with a published book, Penny Coventry.

After the book was published, 5 of us would appear at events together, signing copies and answering questions. None of us lived in the same town as any of the others. Penny lives in the UK. Johnathan lives on the east coast and Michael on the west. Troy and I were the closest and the only two who'd ever met in person. A 3.5 hour drive on Interstate 10 to shared community events was how we'd met. Publishing a book was a big deal for first time authors like Johnathan, Troy, Michael, and me. And we all became friends.

Impactful product change

What's more impactful than allowing a diverse community to rewrite your product documentation on-the-fly? Listening to those change requests and understanding where more impact can be made.

The note about the word slave was published the same day. What happened next was even better than a note. The product team changed the product to remove the word slave. The note wasn't needed after that!

When you restore in Azure Cache for Redis you no longer see the word slave, a word so hurtful to many. You also aren't exposed to the full master/slave connection that might imply that same hurtful relationship.

Empowering your product community increases the diversity of your product development. Including anyone from anywhere isn't easy. However, it has many benefits. If you want your product to work for anyone, anywhere, let them participate. Listen with empathy. And change the product so it works when they tell you it isn't upholding your company standards.