Hey Tech, Inclusion is Integral to Your Product

6 Questions that Inform Our Product Strategy

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The news around diversity in tech continues to be mediocre and disheartening. Despite good intentions and the flood of new positions dedicated to diversity, progress has stagnated. Perhaps it’s because of a growing fatigue among diversity advocates or too much emphasis on the wrong conversations? But there is also a critical element missing from the conversation happening at most tech companies: the connection between diversity and inclusion and the actual product. I’ve found that bringing the product into a company's approach to D&I can re-energize the movement and generate more of the changes we want to see.

One of the major barriers to making progress on the job is people’s inability to see themselves as a critical part of conversation–that is, getting them to see their place within the D&I conversation. When I start talking about D&I, eyes glaze over as people mentally relegate the subject to a narrow discussion of race and gender that is only important to “those people” instead of the majority.

As a result, much of my bandwidth is dedicated to breaking down the concepts of diversity, inclusion, belonging, and equity and trying to convince people that they do, in fact, have a role — and a stake — in these efforts. While that is not how I prefer to spend most of my day, it feels worthwhile when the lightbulb clicks for someone and they begin to process these concepts – and their role – differently. I get this response more often when we discuss how diversity and inclusion is critical to our product.

Companies should make the choice to approach their product through the lens of inclusion, diversity, and equity. This approach, gives you the opportunity to ask a different set of questions that help you understand the critical connections between your product, people, and the communities where you are present. Here are the six questions that you can ask across the organization:

1. Equal Treatment: Do we all feel valued interpersonally and economically? Beginning with our workforce, we have to ensure that people feel respected for who they are and what they bring, and are treated and compensated equally for the work they do.
2. Accessibility: Do we ensure access to the farthest corners of our target market? While our market may be narrow, we have to maximize participation of those in the market, as any good business should. This means ensuring our product is accessible to people with disabilities and underrepresented communities within our target audience.
3. Community Impact: What is our impact on the communities in which we are physically present? We must consider everything– from operating in accordance with prevailing sustainability standards to ensuring that we invest resources in supporting the most vulnerable people in these communities. We must continually look for opportunities for our product to be used for social good.
4. Customer Competence: Do we understand our customers? The composition of our workforce has to be representative of our customer base in order for us to make meaningful connections across demographics and advocate for product changes on the behalf of customers with the correct context of that community.
5. Compliance: Are we meeting and exceeding all of our global compliance obligations? Meeting the minimum in the applicable jurisdictions is not enough. From government contractor obligations to ethical standards of operation, our goal is to set the standard and surpass these requirements.
6. Values Alignment: Do both our workforce and our product reflect and demonstrate our values? Abandoning the flawed notion of “culture fit” gives us the opportunity to really think through our values as an organization, and to bring people into the organization that have a personal and professional connection to those values and enhance culture overtime. This must translate to the products we introduce to the marketplace.

Of course, asking these questions is only one step. Aligning your practices and processes to this change in mindset takes time and unwavering commitment from every executive and manager. To make that happen, D&I leaders need to have a cross-functional role that allows them to touch all parts of the company and have constant interaction with leadership. If your D&I leader’s role is confined to recruiting and unconscious bias training, your organization is doomed. To influence decision-making and to highlight the often-missed critical connections between employees, customers, and product, D&I leaders need the right resources and an engaged executive team.

Ulysses J. Smith is a D&I strategist and consultant. Connect with him on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Emi Tabb made this article what it is and is responsible for many brilliant pieces. Check her out on LinkedIn and read her other pieces on Mixpanel's blog: The Signal.