Naimeesha Murthy - Product Management Leader | Founder, Mentor and Investor | Products by Women.
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Gender diversity and inclusivity in the field of product management and innovation have been in the spotlight in recent years. We’ve seen that companies have taken active steps to ensure that diversity is being considered. But as much as we laud these leaps, we see that there’s so much more yet to be done.
ProductPlan received over 2,000 responses from product managers for their 2021 State of Product Management report and found out that, in terms of holding senior product roles, men were seen to hold senior roles at a staggering 64% compared to women, who hold merely 36%.
Diversity in a team provides various benefits in terms of experience, knowledge and skills. A diverse workforce can deliver positive outcomes in the different phases of the product development process. We’ve seen its impact—and neglect—brought to the forefront in a couple of real-life instances.
U.S. courts employ the AI support tool Compass, which estimates the possibility of a defendant being a repeat offender using a survey of 137 questions. However, research by ProPublica found that, on the basis of answering the survey, Black offenders were twice as likely tagged as high-risk than white offenders, even if the latter’s criminal history shows a higher propensity of being a repeat offender.
When Apple initially released its comprehensive health application, it faced backlash from women users by not including a feature for a period tracker. After the browbeating, Apple announced that the HealthKit now includes “reproductive health” tracking features in its iOS9 operating system.
These instances are often a by-product of the lack of diversity in a company’s workforce itself. Biases unconsciously arise and thus manifest in the company’s product or service, greatly impacting the experience that they deliver to the consumers.
There is bias in our subconscious, whether we are aware of it or not. It’s a result of our upbringing and environment and is completely natural. What needs to be done, however, is to objectively assess and recognize these biases and be able to look them in the eye. Recognizing their existence is the first and most important step because once you are aware of their existence, you can put the right measures and mitigation steps in place.
Diversity and inclusivity play important roles in a company’s healthy exchange of ideas and knowledge. While many companies are already making diversity and inclusion part of their talent recruitment and retention standard operating procedure, many are yet to appreciate what it brings to the table.
Nevertheless, data has nothing but positive results to show: Diverse teams make better decisions 87% of the time (registration required) compared to individual decision makers or companies with relatively homogeneous composition. Moreover, employees of companies with diverse leadership are 70% likelier to report that they have captured the new market for the company. And there are even more benefits a company can gain from diversity.
1. Diversity fosters innovation and inspires creativity.
When you have people from different backgrounds and worldviews, you have a wide array of perspectives that can greatly help drive your company’s creativity and innovation. These fresh perspectives can provide a different take on how to handle a certain situation and devise new ways to optimize how things are done.
2. Diversity creates more understanding of the consumer.
If you have a diverse team, the needs of the customers will be addressed from the moment the product or service is conceptualized simply because the diversity in your team is already representing the target audience. Members of the company can easily relate to the consumer, and therefore, the product or service developed will be more responsive to their needs.
3. Diversity unlocks a wide range of skills.
Coming from different experiences and backgrounds, a diverse workforce brings with it a diverse skill set as well. This fosters increased productivity and gives other workers the opportunity to improve their skills and learn new ones.
4. Diversity fosters employee satisfaction.
The more inclusive a workplace is, the more open and embracing it is. This results in employees who are overall happier.
5. Diversity enables higher revenue.
According to McKinsey, a diverse workforce is more likely than ever to outperform peers on profitability. Together with their satisfaction with the work they do, innovation, creativity and a diverse skill set lead to higher employee productivity. While this is not the end-all-be-all of any company, is it not something worth considering?
Taking a step back and objectively looking at your company can be the first productive step toward embracing diversity and inclusion if you haven’t already. More work needs to be done if we are to realize the full potential of a diverse and inclusive workplace and practice better product management.
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