Aspen Digital’s Product Equity Working Group is excited to share a new, free LinkedIn Learning course, Equality & Equity in the World of Product. The course is inspired by conversations hosted by the Working Group between tech industry leaders, academia, and subject matter experts on how to approach the practice of Product Equity.
What started as an initiative to create a codified nomenclature for Product Equity led the Working Group to confront a more foundational question: What do equality and equity mean in the context of product development? This seemingly simple question prompted an in-depth examination of how these principles should be applied to product design and development processes.
Over the year, we hosted several collaborative working sessions with practitioners to explore these foundational underpinnings. Views from participating tech and civil society leaders spanned a wide spectrum, reflecting the complexity and diversity of perspectives on this topic.
Amid these discussions, the Working Group co-leads identified a particular approach aimed at increasing equitable product outcomes. Insights gained through the working sessions shaped their perspective, inspiring co-lead and LinkedIn’s Head of Equity, Imani Dunbar, to translate these ideas into a LinkedIn Learning course, which she unveiled at our Product Equity Offsite.
The creation of the LinkedIn Learning course exemplifies the spirit and purpose of the Product Equity Working Group, where companies collaborate together on pressing issues and then go on to implement collective findings in their own work. Initiatives like the LinkedIn Learning course are not official products of the Working Group but independent efforts to thrust our ongoing conversations into action.
What Does This Course Cover?
The LinkedIn Learning course unpacks the concepts of equality and equity within product development, focusing on the goal of improving product equity. To guide practitioners in applying these principles across the product development lifecycle, the course anchors its discussions on the Product Treatment & Outcome Framework, a theoretical model developed by the Working Group as the foundation for this exploration.
At its core, this course is built to empower product teams to not only understand but also act on the critical differences between equality and equity. The Product Treatment & Outcome Framework is a tool which aims to help practitioners make informed decisions about where and how to focus their efforts.
This course is not just a set of guidelines—it’s a proposed blueprint for reshaping how we approach product development through the lens of equality and equity. Furthermore, it’s an invitation to join a larger dialogue aimed at creating alignment and setting new standards in the practice of Product Equity through collective engagement. We view this course as just one step in the ongoing and evolving journey of advancing Product Equity, not the final destination.
Conversations Behind the Course
The Product Treatment and Outcome Framework
A central component of the LinkedIn Learning course is the Product Treatment & Outcome Framework, developed by the Working Group to address four key interconnected dimensions of product development: Treatment, Interactions, Environment, and Outcomes.
Understanding these dimensions enables product teams to identify the most effective leverage points in their design and development process. This framework empowers teams to apply principles of equality and equity where they can have the greatest impact.
Dimension & Degree of InFluence | Description |
---|---|
Treatment Most Controllable | The collective set of activities involved in the design, development, and operation of a product Includes: Research & Design, User Interface Development (UX), Policy, AI & ML models, marketing and customer service, and more Product teams have direct control over these elements and can intentionally design products to promote equitable outcomes. |
Interactions Uncontrollable, but can be highly influenced | The behaviors, preferences, and ways people engage with the product Includes: Product usage and engagement, user generated content, user-to-user communication, and more Product teams cannot control individual user behaviors, but they can design the product in ways that encourage or dissuade certain interactions. |
Environment Uncontrollable, but can be minimally influenced | The macro forces that influence how a person interacts and experiences the product Includes: Location, infrastructure, technical limitations, government regulations, societal norms, cultural preferences, and much more. It is critical for product teams to be aware of how an individual’s macro environment impacts Treatment, Interactions and Outcomes. |
Outcomes Uncontrollable, but can be moderately influenced | The impact and effects of the product on the people using the product Includes: opportunity to gain value, experience with the product, utility, delights, harms Although outcomes result from the interplay of product design, interactions, and the macro environment, product teams can still guide outcomes toward greater equity. |
Pursuing Equitable Product Outcomes: The North Star
Product outcomes result from the interplay of Treatment, Interactions and Environment. The end goal for product practitioners is to drive more equitable product outcomes for as many groups as possible. However, defining equitable product outcomes varies depending on the product, context, and user base.
In most cases, the first step is to define and clearly articulate the product’s intended objective. Once you understand how a product is intended to function, it’s easier to identify where an outcome “fails” for certain groups. An equitable product outcome gets you as close as possible to all people—especially those from systemically marginalized groups— realizing the product’s intended objective because all identifiable and controllable barriers have been mitigated.
The work towards equitable product outcomes in any given product is cyclical and continuous—there will always be room to increase equitable product outcomes and so there will always be a need to understand disaggregate impact for the most marginalized groups. The process of measuring impact across user groups, assessing existing gaps, and determining how to mitigate those gaps is the work.
Navigating Interactions and Understanding Environment
Interactions
Interactions refer to how people engage with a product. Sometimes, people use products as designers intended; other times, they use products beyond their intended purpose or for a completely different function. By analyzing Interactions, product teams can identify barriers and better comprehend why certain demographic groups engage with their product in specific ways.
Environment
Product outcomes can be heavily influenced by the macro environment of the person using the product and the environment in which a product is designed. For example, an individual’s location can impact the speed of their internet, government regulations can impact privacy settings and controls, and social norms—like how someone’s peer group uses a product—can influence how that person chooses to interact with it. Product teams must pay particular attention to existing social and cultural power structures and the barriers those structures create for systemically marginalized groups.
Additionally, accountability also lies with non-industry stakeholders, like government and regulatory bodies, advocacy groups, investors, and the media, who must also take responsibility for their roles. If technology operates in a macro environment that is not setup to support equity, changes in the products themselves will only take us so far.
Equal Product Treatment: The Highest Leverage Point
The course suggests that the highest leverage point in the pursuit of equitable outcomes is improving equal product treatment. That is, at the point where product teams have the most control, they should design, and ensure functionality, for a larger and more diverse group of people.
Treatment can take many forms, such as interface design, algorithm development, product policy, marketing, and other aspects within the design, build, and operation of a product. As suggested in the LinkedIn Learning course, achieving equal product treatment encompasses a broader concept: providing people with what they need to ensure everyone has an equal opportunity to gain value from the product.
Emphasizing equal product treatment with the goal of realizing equal opportunity to gain value highlights the inherently dynamic nature of the Treatment dimension. It promotes continuous iteration in order to understand and effectively serve all communities.
A Call to Action for Product Practitioners
Equitable product outcomes should not just be an aspirational goal; they should be the foundation of product development efforts. It’s important to remember that achieving equitable product outcomes is not a one-time effort but a continuous process of evaluation and iteration. The reality is that there is no single definition or formula for what constitutes an equitable outcome—it varies by product, person, and context.
With the release of this LinkedIn Learning course, inspired by the ongoing conversations of the Product Equity Working Group, we invite product equity practitioners—whether you’re just starting out or are seasoned in the field—to engage with the ideas and frameworks presented. We hope to spark new conversations, inspire action, and through collective effort and ongoing dialogue, set new standards for product equity. Product Equity, when done right, is necessarily an iterative process with no defined ending.
We look forward to seeing how this course empowers you to become agents of change within your organizations, and we look forward to continuing this journey together. Stay tuned for more resources and discussions as we continue to build on the work we’ve started in the Product Equity Working Group.