Diversity and Inclusion to build better products from the front lines at Google
Establishing diverse and inclusive organizations is an economic imperative for every industry. Any business that isn’t reaching a diverse market is missing out on enormous revenue potential and the opportunity to build products that suit their users' core needs. The economic “why” has been firmly established, but what about the “how?” How can business leaders adapt to our ever-more-diverse world by capturing market share AND building more inclusive products for people of color, women and other underrepresented groups? The Product Inclusion Team at Google has developed strategies to do just that and Building For Everyone is the practical guide to following in their footsteps.
This book makes publicly available for the first time the same inclusive design process used at Google to create user-centric award-winning and profitable products. Author and Head of Product Inclusion Annie Jean-Baptiste outlines what those practices look like in industries beyond tech with fascinating case studies. Readers will learn the key strategies and step-by-step processes for inclusive product design that limits risk and increases profitability.
- Discover the questions you should be asking about diversity and inclusion in your products for marketers, user researchers, product managers and more.
- Understand the research the Product Inclusion team drove to back up their practices
- Learn the “ABCs of Product Inclusion” to build inclusion into your organization’s culture
- Leverage the product inclusion suite of tools to get your organization building more inclusively and identifying new opportunities.
- Read case studies to see how product inclusion works across industries and learn what doesn't work.
Building For Everyone will show you how to infuse your business processes with inclusive design. You’ll learn best practices for inclusion in product design, marketing, management, leadership and beyond, straight from the innovative Google Product Inclusion team.
Table of Contents
Foreword xiii
Introduction 1
Chapter 1 Building for Everyone: Why Product Inclusion Matters 11
Product Inclusion Team Approach 13
Understanding Who Your User is 15
Understanding What Exclusion Looks Like 17
Speaking a Common Language 20
Expanding Diversity and Inclusion to Products and Services 22
Recognizing the Need to Communicate with Underrepresented Users 24
Case Studies: Prioritizing Inclusion Across Industries 28
Going beyond default shapes and sizes 28
Designing comfortable virtual reality headsets for everyone 29
Ignoring the impact of airbags on women and children 30
How Google’s Product Inclusion Team Got Its Start 31
Chapter 2 Google’s Capstone Research: What We Learned 37
Understanding Our Research 38
Our research objectives 38
Our research questions 39
Definitions of key terms, parameters, and metrics 40
Desired outcomes 41
Examining the data 42
Drawing conclusions 43
Learning from Our Experience 44
Putting Our Research and Experience to Work in Your Organization 44
Chapter 3 20 Essential Product Inclusion Questions to Light the Way 47
The 10 Questions Every Team Needs to Ask and Answer 47
Has your team been exposed to product inclusion? 50
Have you identified a champion for your product inclusion efforts? 51
What’s the product (or business) challenge you’re trying to solve? 51
What is the inclusion challenge you’re trying to solve? 52
How do the product/business and inclusion challenges align? 52
Whom do you need to influence to unlock resources to solve the problem? 53
What’s your action plan for a test/pilot? 53
What partners need to be involved to execute, document, measure, and communicate the results of your test/pilot? 53
How can you build the resources to continue this work beyond this workshop? 54
What is your public commitment to documenting and sharing the outcomes of your work in product inclusion (both internally and externally)? 55
10 Questions Most Teams Ask Our Product Inclusion Team 55
Why should leaders care about team members’ personal backgrounds? 56
Why is culture important? 57
What part of product design is the most important? 59
Do you have insights specifically for [insert specific product/service]? 60
Can you come to my team meeting? 61
Which dimensions do I prioritize? 62
How do I get the most perspectives to the table? 63
I want my program manager/VP/marketing manager/engineering lead to care about this. What do I do? 64
Am I biased? 65
What’s the one thing I should focus on? 67
Chapter 4 Building the Case for Product Inclusion and Getting Buy-In 71
Building the Case for Product Inclusion 71
Building a human case 73
Building a business case 75
Bringing it all together 78
Building Buy-In: Top-Down and Bottom-Up 79
Getting buy-in from execs 80
Starting a grassroots transformation among employees 83
Chapter 5 Adopting Product Inclusion Principles to Guide Your Work 91
Checking Out Existing Product Inclusion Principles 92
Pinpointing Your Own Product Inclusion Principles 95
Putting Principles into Practice 96
Developing people, processes, and products 96
Chapter 6 Integrating Product Inclusion with Your Work 101
Holding Teams Accountable with Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) 102
Defining objectives 103
Defining and scoring key results 104
Modifying OKRs 104
Integrating Product Inclusion at Key Touchpoints 105
Identifying your product inclusion touchpoints 106
Specifying inclusive actions at each touchpoint 107
Applying an inclusive lens throughout the process 110
Staying on Track with the Product Inclusion Checklist 112
Using the product inclusion checklist 113
Modifying the product inclusion checklist 117
Chapter 7 Getting to Know Your Underrepresented Users 121
Building an Inclusive Research Team 122
Modifying Research Studies for Underrepresented Users 123
A Six-Step Inclusive Research Framework 124
Step 1: Explain the purpose of the study 124
Step 2: Establish your inclusion criteria 125
Step 3: Build your sample 127
Step 4: Choose a research method 129
Step 5: Conduct your research 130
Step 6: Share your results 131
Bringing It All Together: From Research to Product 132
Chapter 8 Integrating Product Inclusion into the Ideation Process 135
Conducting Inclusive Design Sprints 136
Identify and invite participants 137
Lay the foundation for a successful design sprint 138
Conduct the design sprint 139
Delivering Lightning Talks 143
Chapter 9 Starting Your Own Dogfooding and Adversarial Testing Programs 147
Creating and Managing a Dogfooders/Testers Pool 148
Recruiting employees 149
Choosing a dogfooding lead 150
Coordinating dogfooders with product teams 152
Following up with the product team 154
Following up with your dogfooders/testers 155
Case Studies on Inclusive Dogfooding/Adversarial Testing 155
Case Study: Owlchemy 156
Case Study: Grasshopper 160
Case Study: Google Duo 161
Case Study: Project DIVA 162
Chapter 10 Making Your Marketing More Inclusive 165
Inclusive Marketing Guidelines 166
Google’s Inclusive Marketing Consultants Task Force 168
Extending inclusiveness to all your marketing activities 169
Chapter 11 Measuring Product Inclusion Performance 173
Mastering Performance Measurement Fundamentals 174
Choosing the Right Performance Metrics 175
Evaluating your metrics needs 176
Classifying metrics 177
Considering some metrics to adopt 178
Combining Metrics with Objectives and Timelines 181
Chapter 12 The Many Shades of Nude: Product Inclusion in Fashion and Retail 183
Focusing on Inclusive Fashion 184
Considering color 185
Broadening selections for size and fit 185
Making sensitive product and marketing choices 186
Increasing gender diversity 187
Making Your Retail Store More Inclusive and Accessible 188
Brickandmortar establishments 188
Online stores 191
Product Inclusion at the Gap 192
Product Inclusion at Dyne Life 196
Chapter 13 Looking to the Future of Product Inclusion 199
Sharing Perspectives on the Future of Product Inclusion 200
Product Inclusion Across Industries 201
Eyewear 201
Medicine/Healthcare 203
Architecture 207
Fitness 207
Toys 208
Movies and television 211
Academia 214
Fashion 215
So What Does All This Mean? 221
Acknowledgments 225
About the Author 231
Index 233
