Nobody knows everything, which is why it's crucial to include a diverse team of people in product development and recognize the limits of our personal experiences. I pledge to seek outside help from experts and the impacted communities when I come across an issue I don't know enough about and be open-minded to diverse perspectives and needs. I will continue to learn about new experiences and perspectives.
I will think about:
- How diverse are my team and my company? Is the diversity of the people who use our product reflected in the company structure?
- How are employees who don’t fit the average profile treated within the company?
- Do we include diverse people when doing research and testing? (Both on the research/test team and among research/test subjects.)
- How could we modify our product to accommodate people with different backgrounds and experiences?
- What expertise are we lacking? Can we hire outside experts to learn about new perspectives?
Suggested actions:
- Review the structure of my team and company, our hiring practices, and how complaints are dealt with.
- Learn from colleagues with different backgrounds and back them up when conflict arises.
- When doing user research or product testing, make sure to include a diverse team of people on our research and test team and among research and test subjects.
- When talking to people with different backgrounds and experiences, focus on listening and not dismiss different experiences because I’ve never experienced something similar myself.
- Hire diversity and inclusion experts to learn more about topics we don’t know much about. Apply the lessons learned to product development and hiring practices and review internal HR processes.
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