Product Equity 101

This primer offers a foundational explanation of key Product Equity concepts and explains the importance of Product Equity in a fast-paced digital world. Our primary purpose is to provide Product Equity practitioners with a practical platform to align their internal strategies and accelerate progress through cross-industry collaboration. It also offers a wider audience interested in building more equitable products—innovators, advocates, and others who may not yet be familiar with Product Equity—a place to start.

Who should read this

Product teams within tech companies that are directly responsible for product development
Current and aspiring Product Equity practitioners
Stakeholders in equity-centered functions such as Product Fairness, Responsible AI, Accessibility, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)
Teams in product-adjacent domains such as Policy, Legal, Trust & Safety, and Marketing
External stakeholders involved in shaping the discourse around Product Equity, including civil society organizations, academics and researchers, and policy influencers.

What is product Equity?

While Product Equity is still a nascent practice and lacks an agreed-upon definition, it generally refers to the intentional design and development of products to ensure inclusive and equitable outcomes for everyone using the product by taking into account their background, identity, and lived experiences.

It involves proactively identifying and addressing disparities that may arise from biases in data, algorithms, design processes or from the product teams themselves. Importantly, Product Equity is not only about avoiding harm and mitigating exclusion but also about creating positive impacts and greater opportunities for systemically marginalized and underserved communities.

“Product equity is the state in which every person, regardless of human difference, can access and harness the full power of our digital products, without bias, harm, or limitation.”
Adobe

In recent years, Product Equity has emerged as a critical discipline. Spurred by broader social justice movements and driven by an ever-growing awareness and demand for more equitable approaches in tech, organizations are recognizing the importance of addressing systemic biases in the design, development, and deployment of products.

“Product inclusion and equity is the ongoing work of building belonging through our products, by centering the most marginalized voices at every phase of product creation.”
Google

Product Equity is not a destination but a continuous journey that requires ongoing commitment and reflection. By fostering open dialogue and collaboration across the industry, we can advance our understanding of the work and collectively create ideas and solutions that evolve the product development process towards inclusion, equity, and justice.

Why is product Equity Important?

Technology is ubiquitous and integral to modern life. Many of us walk around with digital products in our pockets, using tech to pay for our groceries, track our health, and communicate with loved ones. Failing to design products that take into account the unique experiences of systemically marginalized communities is a missed opportunity to use tech’s immense power to even the playing field and remove barriers in the digital world.

Yet, innovations in tech are generally not optimized to meet the needs of a diverse range of people. Historically, products have been designed and built for a non-existent “average” person in an effort to reach the most number of people at speed—an approach that often fails to take into account the experiences of groups outside that profile.

THE Business CASE FOR PRODUCT EQUITY

Moral imperative aside, creating more equitable products also provides a clear business advantage. Equitable and inclusive products drive innovation and are more likely to resonate with a broader audience, leading to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.

It is a common misconception that equity goals and business objectives are inherently in conflict. Equity goals can be incorporated into company goals. Companies that prioritize Product Equity can differentiate themselves in the market, fostering trust and goodwill among consumers who increasingly value ethical practices. Moreover, designing for equity may help mitigate legal and reputational risks associated with biased or discriminatory products, contributing to long-term business sustainability and success.

product equity In Practice

The foundation of all Product Equity work is centering systemically and historically marginalized communities. But, who do we actually mean? And, how do we center them in the work?

Dimensions of Identity

When determining groups and communities that have been systemically and historically marginalized, the list is non-exhaustive. Dimensions of identity may include a person’s age, race and/or ethnicity, gender, sex assigned at birth, language, socioeconomic status, abilities and disabilities, body shape and size, religion, or whether they identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community. Marginalization occurs when someone is actively excluded or left out because of their identity due to imbalanced systems of power, privilege, and oppression. And, within each of these dimensions (again, non-exhaustive) are additional elements that may need to be considered when designing particular products.

KEY PRODUCT EQUITY PRINCIPLES

Design for inclusivity, early and often

At a Glance

Understand the social, cultural, and historical contexts of systemically marginalized and underserved communities.
Center these communities in the design process by engaging with them to understand their needs, pain points, and aspirations.
Ensure accessibility is considered from the beginning of the design process. This includes designing for people with disabilities, as well as considering factors like language, literacy, and technology access.
Identify, address, and mitigate bias at every stage of the product development lifecycle, from ideation to launch.

CO-DESIGN: Build With, Not For

At a Glance

Prioritize participatory research methods that involve communities in the research process directly, ensuring their voices are heard and valued.
Engage in co-design practices where designers collaborate with systemically marginalized communities to create effective solutions relevant to the specific needs of those communities.
Create digital curb-cuts by designing for user spectrums, not personas.
Provide educational opportunities for communities to become competent in emerging tech, to enable meaningful engagement and ensure informed feedback.

Measure, measure, measure. And repeat.

At a Glance

Collect and disaggregate data to understand how different groups engage with and use the product, ensuring that collection methods are ethical, transparent, and respect individuals’ privacy without reinforcing biases or excluding certain groups.
Develop metrics to measure the product’s impact on different groups, particularly those from systemically marginalized communities.
Use the insights gained from data collection and impact analysis to drive continuous improvement in the product and strive for equitable outcomes for all groups.
Build this iterative measurement process into the product development cycle—the goal line will keep moving, especially as people’s needs and societal contexts change.

Debunking Common Myths About Product Equity

Despite growing interest in Product Equity, practitioners face multiple challenges, including the lack of clarity surrounding its practical application. Misconceptions about the work directly impact decisions regarding both initial investments and ongoing support for Product Equity initiatives. We debunk some common Product Equity myths below:

Myth: Hiring one product equity expert will get the job done

A robust Product Equity strategy requires both systems and culture change, neither of which can happen without sufficient resources, leadership buy-in, and time. A lack of investment can lead to a piecemeal approach to Product Equity, where efforts, while well-intentioned, are inconsistent and fail to address root causes of inequity in product design and development.

The good news is that organizations don’t need standalone Product Equity teams to create equitable product outcomes. Anyone involved in the design, development, or launch of a product—whether designers, engineers, policy advisors, or marketers—has the ability to influence equitable product outcomes in their role.

Myth: Product teams just need to apply product equity best practices

As a field, Product Equity is still in its infancy. As such, there is little to no industry consensus on best practices, terminology, and metrics. This lack of standardization not only makes it difficult for practitioners to find established resources or benchmarks to guide their work, but it also leads to inconsistencies in application and outcomes across different teams and organizations. To add to the challenge, Product Equity work is always evolving—it is constantly playing catch-up to the rapid developments of the technology it tries to influence, as well as responding to socio-political shifts in real time.

As the field continues to grow, there is a need for ongoing collaboration and knowledge-sharing to establish common standards and practices that can be adopted across the industry. Aspen Digital regularly convenes tech companies, advocates, and impacted communities to drive collective action towards this goal.

Myth: Equity can’t be measured

While there is no definitive playbook, a key factor in evaluating equity is a product team’s ability to understand and analyze outcomes by demographic groups. The work toward equitable product outcomes for any given product is cyclical and continuous—there will always be room to improve 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 between groups, assessing existing gaps, and determining how to mitigate those gaps is the work.

Myth: Product equity, DEI, inclusive design, and accessibility are all the same

Within an organization, Product Equity may operate alongside a number of other equity-related functions.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI): DEI has a broader focus than Product Equity, with many DEI teams responsible for creating equitable environments within organizations. Product equity operationalizes DEI principles by applying an equity lens directly to the product lifecycle, ensuring that the organization upholds its DEI values in the marketplace. A strong DEI culture and strategy can provide a solid foundation for an organization’s Product Equity work to succeed.
Inclusive Design: Inclusive design is a design philosophy that aims to make products and services accessible and usable by as many people as possible, regardless of their abilities or demographic identities. The ultimate goal of inclusive design is universal accessibility, whereas Product Equity goes beyond merely ensuring that a person can use a product as intended. It focuses on improving how groups that have been systematically marginalized and historically excluded and underserved actually experience a product.

Accessibility: Accessibility focuses on removing barriers that prevent people with disabilities from fully accessing or using a product. While it falls under the umbrella of Product Equity, the latter takes a broader, intersectional approach, addressing bias and discrimination for a wide range of systemically marginalized groups. Significantly, thanks to the critical work of disability advocates, there are a number of laws, standards, and consumer expectations that exist and operate as both requirements and guides for product teams.

Product Equity is critical to the pursuit of a more equitable future in the digital world and beyond. This primer outlines foundational Product Equity principles widely accepted by practitioners currently doing the work. However, we need to go further. The absence of a unified approach to operationalizing Product Equity at scale threatens to hinder progress at a time when tech is evolving rapidly. There is a pressing need for Product Equity practitioners to align on how we talk about, and tackle, Product Equity collectively and at scale.

Getting started: A cheat sheet

Embedding product equity into the product development lifecyclE

Ideation

Integrate diverse perspectives and voices early in the brainstorming and ideation phase to ensure a broad understanding of needs and experiences from the outset.
Apply inclusive frameworks and equity-focused tools during ideation to proactively identify and mitigate potential biases before they influence the direction of the product.

Design

Prioritize inclusive design practices that address the needs of systemically marginalized communities, rather than focusing solely on the majority or ‘average’ persona.
Utilize co-design methods that actively involve diverse communities in the design process, gathering direct input to create products that are genuinely representative and accessible.

Development

Conduct regular equity audits during development to evaluate adherence to inclusive practices and to identify areas for improvement.
Utilize automated testing tools to identify accessibility issues in code, ensuring the product meets established inclusivity standards.

Testing

Conduct rigorous testing with diverse communities to validate that the product meets the needs of all individuals, particularly those from marginalized or underrepresented groups.
Use equity-focused metrics and feedback mechanisms to assess the product’s performance across different demographic groups, making adjustments as needed to ensure equitable outcomes.

Launch

Ensure the product launch strategy includes outreach to diverse communities, providing equitable access and support for all individuals.
Continuously monitor the product’s impact post-launch, using data and feedback to refine and improve equity outcomes.

We hope this primer serves as a starting point for Product Equity practitioners to advance their work and encourages engagement in this evolving discourse. We invite practitioners to share best practices and collaborate across disciplines to establish industry-wide Product Equity standards. Through collective effort, we can accelerate change and work toward a future where more people have access to all that tech has to offer. If you are interested in joining the Product Equity Working Group, please email us at TechAccountabilityCoalition@AspenInstitute.org.

For more Product Equity resources or to learn about the Product Equity Working Group, visit our Resource Hub.

Product Equity 101 by Aspen Digital is licensed under CC-BY 4.0.

Aspen Digital