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Roadmaps: Break the rules without breaking the principles

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From engineering to product management at Google

Mind the Product joins Pendo

As a certified Product Manager and freelance writer, Jon likes to bring clarity of communication to his work at BibliU - making digital learning more effective. Jon loves how fast the world of product management is evolving and is always interested in opportunities to be part of the conversation.

Product Manager

Jon Horvath

<p>In this November 2020 <a href="https://mtp2017stg.wpengine.com/mtpcon/digital">#mtpcon Digital</a> keynote, Cennydd Bowles, Designer and Author of <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Future-Ethics-Cennydd-Bowles/dp/1999601912/ref=sr_1_1?adgrpid=52639968185&amp;dchild=1&amp;gclid=CjwKCAiAkan9BRAqEiwAP9X6UWpeKDOcvyieiVkHTxFZ4w7wMNIwJ2JU6-XC6LgWZgDwYYypxVihCRoCho4QAvD_BwE&amp;hvadid=259059663995&amp;hvdev=c&amp;hvlocphy=9045901&amp;hvnetw=g&amp;hvqmt=e&amp;hvrand=12157921659360061081&amp;hvtargid=kwd-314397531267&amp;hydadcr=10774_1749342&amp;keywords=future+ethics&amp;qid=1605011388&amp;sr=8-1&amp;tag=googhydr-21">Future Ethics</a>, highlighted how, as an industry, we will not survive the 21st century with the over-quantified methods of the 20th and must prioritise ethical practice as a fundamental part of the product process.</p>
<p>Watch the video to see his talk in full. Or read on for an overview of his key points:</p>
<ul>
<li>From 2010-2020 we have witnessed the collapse of the “tech utopia”</li>
<li>Lean has become an ideology of over-quantification</li>
<li>Companies consistently cross the “ethical line”</li>
<li>We must create space for, and capitalise on, ethical practices</li>
</ul>
<p>Cennydd describes 2010 as “the heyday of tech utopia”, where “mobile had reached full pace”. And while we witnessed the “triumph of the connection age”, our hubris made us blind to the consequences of progress; “we knew full well that technology can have deep social impacts. We just assumed those impacts would always be positive.“</p>
<h2>The End of the Tech Utopia</h2>
<p>Today, as a result of industry failures, “the pace of innovation continues but that utopian narrative is gone”.</p>
<p>Cennydd lists some examples of “missteps”:</p>
<ol>
<li>Amazon&#8217;s racist chatbot</li>
<li>Uber’s semi-autonomous vehicle that killed a pedestrian after classifying her as a bike</li>
<li>The harassment campaign that wrote the playbook for the emerging alt-right</li>
<li>YouTube leading people down a rabbit hole of radicalisation</li>
<li>Facebook non-consensually manipulating people</li>
</ol>
<p>Cennydd connects how technological abuse and mistrust is reflected in our avid consumption of shows like <span style="font-style: italic;">Black Mirror </span>or the recent documentary <span style="font-style: italic;">The Social Dilemma</span>, (a film that was hugely popular but poorly received in the tech ethics community). Today, “data suggests people also feel disempowered, resigned to feeling exploited.”</p>
<p>“The risk is, of course, that things could get even worse”, Cennydd says, examining technologies that already threaten human rights: deep fakes, computer-generated audio and video, facial recognition, autonomous weapons systems.</p>
<h2>Exploring the Ethical Line</h2>
<p>So how did we get here? Cennydd highlights how the Lean framework has evolved into a widely adopted ideology, prioritising metrics above ethics. He describes “a common product illness of over-quantification” that “makes ethical mistakes more likely because ethical impacts are hard to measure.”</p>
<p>Tests on users become “tools of manipulation, and teams start talking about users of experimental subjects.” This manipulation is realised when you’re “nudging users to behave in ways to make us more money” or thinking “of users as aggregate red lines”. Non-users are also impacted, he says, describing that while “Airbnb is a fantastic service [&#8230;] All of the costs, harms, externalities fall on people who haven&#8217;t used Airbnb at all. Neighbours, local people and businesses.”</p>
<p>Product practices make us ignore emotional, social, mental and even democratic outcomes as we move fast and break things. “Breaking things is fine,” Cennydd says, “if you&#8217;re only breaking a filter you like, but not if you&#8217;re breaking relationships, communities, democracy.”</p>
<h2>Employing Ethical Practices</h2>
<p>Cennydd describes 2020 as a “huge opportunity to choose new directions”, emploring us to use thought and compassion and to acknowledge how our “decisions will change how billions of future users interact with technologies and by extension with each other.”</p>
<p>He lists 3 steps to better ethical practice:</p>
<ol>
<li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Anticipate</span> &#8211; Make space for ethical deliberation, after all, “moral imagination is a muscle”. You can use tools for risk mapping like the “ethical explorer toolkit” and should look to broaden your research and listen to unheard voices, like activists and advocates and minorities to prototype new approaches.</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Assess and evaluate </span>&#8211; Ask, which problems really matter? How do we weigh up competing benefits and harms?</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Act</span> &#8211; Be willing to act according to different priorities and avoid “ethics washing” (refusing to make the ethical changes that matter)</li>
</ol>
<p>Such practices will benefit both the world and our businesses &#8211; “companies with a positive ethical reputation can command higher prices and land better talent.”</p>
<p>Cennydd ends with a message to us all: “And I say to you, my product friends, you have a power to influence our futures that very few other professions have. All of these worlds are yours. You just have to choose which worlds you want.”</p>
<h2>Gain Access to More Content Like This</h2>
<p>Ordinarily, premium content such as this can only be accessed by <a href="https://mtp2017stg.wpengine.com/membership/compare/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mind the Product members</a>. However, following discussions with a number of our members at <a href="https://mtp2017stg.wpengine.com/mtpcon/digital" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">#mtpcon Digital</a>, where this talk took place, the team at Mind the Product decided to make this keynote available to all, to ensure that Cennydd&#8217;s important message reaches everyone in the community. <a href="https://mtp2017stg.wpengine.com/membership/compare/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Upgrade now</a> to discover more amazing content like this!</p>
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core/freeform

How To Prioritise Ethical Practice as a Product Manager

All These Worlds Are Yours by Cennydd Bowles

What’s the Worst That Could Happen? By Roisi Proven

Product, Society, and Ethics by Kathy Pham

The Next Era of Technology by Marie Louise Gørvild

How our Success is Killing us by Matt Stratford

Building Product in an Age of Distrust by Ryan Freitas

How can we Build Human-Centred Products by Kim Goodwin

First, Do No Harm by Mariah Hay

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