Aspen Digital

In early October, Aspen Digital partnered with Uber to host a hands-on convening of the Product Equity Working Group at Uber’s offices in San Francisco. The Product Equity Offsite united over 60 top leaders in Product Equity from across tech and civil society to celebrate our progress and set new goals for collective action.

Since hosting the Product Equity Summit this past spring, the Working Group has made a number of breakthroughs in defining and advancing the field of Product Equity. This month’s follow-up gathering was a great opportunity to keep the momentum going with a combination of inspirational stories about Product Equity done right and roll-up-your-sleeves workshops.

Inclusivity and Impact in Product Development

The Product Equity Work Sessions kicked off with a heartfelt conversation between Obinna Keke, Head of Innovation at SheaMoisture, and Oona King, Chief Diversity Equity & Inclusion Officer at Uber, on what the tech industry can learn about inclusive product development from other sectors, namely beauty and grooming within consumer packaged goods. 

Obinna’s achievements at SheaMoisture underscore the transformative impact of prioritizing Product Equity and centering the needs of historically marginalized communities. To expand the market for grooming products designed for Black men, Obinna learned he had to move away from a one-size-fits-all approach and instead amplify their underrepresented voices. His team’s research revealed that it was crucial to provide a platform to allow Black men to tell their own stories in their own voices because each participant “felt like the way he is perceived in culture is not indicative of how he sees himself.” Through intentional inclusivity and equity-focused innovation, Obinna deepened connections with consumers, developed better grooming products, and achieved remarkable growth, multiplying the business many times over in just two years.

Imani Dunbar, Head of Equity at LinkedIn, gave us a preview of the free LinkedIn Learning course, Equality & Equity in the World of Product, which draws from collective work done in partnership across tech companies, civil society, and academic institutions through participation in Aspen Digital’s Product Equity Working Group. The course presents a framework based on equality and equity as those concepts relate to product treatment and outcomes with an objective to give practitioners a better understanding of how and where they can control or influence Product Equity outcomes. 

We also hosted several collaborative breakout conversations focused on:

• Building out the Algorithmic Fairness Lifecycle, a framework for incorporating equity principles into every phase of Machine Learning development
• Coalescing the tech industry around equitable data practices
• Establishing standards for measuring progress on more equitable product design processes

Collaborating for a More Equitable Future

The day concluded with a super engaging and invigorating final work session that had participants generate ideas for collective action in 2025, turn those ideas into dreams, add some reality to those dreams, and then crush those dreams so out of the ashes fully formed next steps could shine.

Looking ahead, we’re energized by the momentum from these work sessions. The contributions from all participants helped strengthen some foundational work that Aspen Digital will publish in the coming weeks and months. Most importantly, they will expand the community of practitioners that we are fostering to advance the emerging field of Product Equity. 

The goal of Product Equity is nothing less than to reimagine how we build technology from the earliest stages of development to ensure innovation truly serves all. In that spirit, Aspen Digital is committed to working with as diverse a range of leaders as possible. Stay tuned for more updates, and if your organization or company is interested in getting involved don’t hesitate to reach out at TechAccountabilityCoalition@AspenInstitute.org. 

Cindy Joung (she/her) is a Product Equity expert and a consultant with the Tech Accountability Coalition at Aspen Digital.

Cindy is a Product Inclusion & Equity leader who combines a decade of experience as a product manager in media and entertainment with a mission to create inclusive, equitable and representative products for all. More recently, she served as the Head of Product Inclusion at Verizon Media and was the inaugural Product Manager for Product Inclusion at Snap.

Zaki Barzinji is a Senior Director for Aspen Digital, where he oversees a range of projects at the intersection of tech, policy, equity, and justice for underrepresented communities.

Zaki is a public affairs leader with a decade of experience in political campaigns, public service, and policy change at the state and federal level. He served in the White House as Senior Associate Director of Public Engagement and President Obama’s liaison to Arab-Americans, Muslims, Sikhs, and other minority faiths, where he worked to amplify voices and narratives seldom represented at the highest levels of government.