Review

This book offers a solid introduction to inclusive product design. It leans toward implementation at scale in large organisations. The content focuses on the right areas, covering the practical steps required for successful implementation. The book remains relatively timeless as it avoids topics like accessibility standards that frequently change. Worth a read if you want to level up in this area.

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Key Takeaways

The 20% that gave me 80% of the value.

Product inclusion is applying an inclusive lens throughout product design and development to serve diverse audiences. If you do not intentionally include, you will unintentionally exclude. Good intentions alone don't prevent exclusion - deliberate actions are essential.

Product inclusion requires moving from "move fast and break things" to "move fast and fix things," reflecting accountability. The goal is enabling diverse consumers to see themselves in your products. This drives innovation, broadens markets, and strengthens customer connections.

Inclusion must be embedded into every development stage as a fundamental principle. This means rejecting assumptions about limited market value from underrepresented groups and instead recognising opportunities. Success requires "getting proximate" to diverse users to understand their experiences and needs. Organisations benefit by shifting from a mindset of fixing exclusion post-launch to preventing it from the outset.

Building a compelling case for inclusion requires both human stories and business data. Human stories resonate emotionally by highlighting real-life impacts on underserved users, while data supports rational decision-making by demonstrating market potential and untapped opportunities.

Google's Capstone research conclusively proved that diverse perspectives drive greater innovation, better product outcomes, and increased engagement from both majority and underrepresented user groups, with underrepresented users expressing particularly strong brand loyalty when products reflect their experiences.

Rather than requiring internal diversity to start, teams can design inclusively by proactively engaging external communities and embedding diverse perspectives through structured user research. This includes building representative user samples and running research thoughtfully and continuously throughout development. Inclusion efforts should always be connected to measurable business goals, supported by clearly defined success metrics that track both inputs (e.g., team diversity, testing volume) and outputs (e.g., user engagement, conversion rates, satisfaction).

A robust inclusion practice is anchored in practical frameworks. Tools such as OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), inclusive touchpoints throughout the product process, and detailed checklists guide teams to embed inclusion from early strategy to final delivery. At each development phase (ideation, prototyping, build, launch) teams must examine access, representation, and accessibility, ensuring products serve a wide range of abilities, backgrounds, and contexts.

Practitioners can adopt guiding principles such as "equal is not always equitable" and "designing for the margins benefits the mainstream" to frame their thinking and inspire intentionality. These principles should map onto clear actions across people (team composition), processes (how products are built), and products (what gets built).

Thinking about inclusivity during ideation is particularly high-leverage, allowing teams to shape product direction before making costly mistakes. Inclusive design sprints bring diverse internal and external voices together to co-create solutions, while short "lightning talks" help build team-wide awareness and momentum around inclusion.

Internal testing programmes play a critical role. Dogfooding (internal product use) and adversarial testing (stress-testing by diverse users to uncover blind spots) should be regular, resourced practices. These uncover problems early, reduce exclusion, and build empathy among product teams.

Marketing must also reflect inclusion, authentically representing diverse users and avoiding tokenism. Storytelling should be grounded in lived experience, with diversity present across creative teams, not just in campaign casting. Inclusive marketing resonates more deeply, strengthening brand perception and connection.

Ultimately, product inclusion is a disciplined, measurable, and empathetic practice that enables organisations to serve broader audiences, reduce risk, and drive sustained growth. It requires leadership commitment, team-wide participation, and a continuous feedback loop between users and product teams. When done well, inclusive design becomes not just a social good, but a competitive advantage.

Deep Summary

Longer form notes, typically condensed, reworded and de-duplicated.

Foreward

Successful product creation requires intentionally inclusive design. Inclusion means actively avoiding exclusion, especially for those different from us in identity, abilities, or experiences. By widening the lens to consider diverse customer needs early, organisations build products that resonate more broadly, driving innovation, loyalty, and business growth.

Practitioners must internalise that digital products, despite lacking physical form, demand the same level of customer-centricity and inclusive thinking as tangible products.

Product inclusion is now essential, moving beyond Silicon Valley into traditional industries like fashion, medicine, and entertainment. The outdated "move fast and break things" mindset has shifted toward "move fast and fix things," reflecting the necessity for accountability at scale.

Embracing product inclusion is not merely ethical but strategically beneficial, leading organisations to succeed by genuinely understanding and serving diverse human experiences.

Introduction

Practitioners must intentionally integrate inclusion into every stage of product development, from ideation through UX design, testing, and marketing. Good intentions alone don't prevent exclusion…

If you do not intentionally, deliberately and proactively include, you will unintentionally exclude.

Deliberate planning and proactive actions are essential. Employing the platinum rule ‘treating others as they would like to be treated’ helps create products that authentically resonate with diverse users.

By "getting proximate," or deeply engaging with users across varying demographics and intersections, practitioners build genuine empathy, enabling them to anticipate and address real user concerns.

Organisations should reject assumptions that underrepresented groups represent limited market value, recognising instead the significant untapped opportunities in inclusive design. Early and intentional inclusion practices reduce costly product missteps, enhance user trust, and improve brand reputation, as exemplified by Google's approach to developing Google Assistant. Continuous testing with diverse groups, including adversarial stress testing, helps surface potential issues proactively, reducing escalations and reputational risk post-launch.

Product inclusion basically boils down to listening, caring, and being humble.

Building inclusive products requires humility, ongoing learning, and collaboration with diverse teams. Embracing inclusion isn't simply ethical; it strategically positions organisations for sustained innovation, growth, and deeper connections with an expanding global consumer base.

Chapter 1: Building for Everyone: Why Product Inclusion Matters

Starting with a narrow demographic is okay, but product teams, with deliberate intent, must learn to broaden their scope and think through who else could use the product and in what circumstances or situations.

Inclusion in product design isn't just ethically right, it's essential for long-term business success. Companies that overlook diversity and inclusion risk losing market share, brand trust, and competitive advantage, especially as demographics shift and customers increasingly value authenticity.

Your goal in product inclusion is to enable as diverse a consumer base as possible to see their reflection in your company, your products, and your marketing.

Inclusion must be intentionally embedded from the start, rather than treated as an afterthought, since fixing exclusion later is costly and often ineffective.

Product inclusion is the practice of applying an inclusive lens throughout the entire product design and development process to create better products.

Diverse perspectives drive innovation, broaden markets, and strengthen customer connections. Teams should consciously challenge their assumptions and biases by actively seeking input from historically underserved groups and those with different lived experiences. Leveraging intersectionality, the interconnected nature of demographics, helps product teams identify deeper insights and broader opportunities.

Diversity is variation within a group of people; this variation includes differences in social identities (gender, race, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, ability, class, socioeconomic status, etc.); background or personal attributes (education and training, experience, income, values, worldview, mind-set, faith-based affiliations, etc.); and other differences (location, language, available infrastructure, etc.)

Effective inclusion goes beyond representation; it requires building empathy by directly engaging diverse communities early in the design process. Empathy helps teams better understand exclusion, how it happens, how it feels, and how to prevent it. Companies should treat underrepresented users not as edge cases but as central stakeholders whose inclusion improves products universally.

Organisations benefit from aligning their product inclusion efforts with measurable business goals, reinforcing the practical benefits of inclusion. Ultimately, building inclusive products isn't an additional workload but an integral part of creating exceptional products and services that resonate broadly, drive innovation, and deliver sustainable growth.

Chapter 2: Google’s Capstone Research: What we Learned.

Google's Capstone product inclusion research sought to validate the business value of inclusive practices through a nine-month study involving user research, surveys, simulations, and testing. The research proved conclusively that diverse perspectives drive greater innovation, better product outcomes, and increased engagement from both majority and underrepresented user groups, with underrepresented users expressing particularly strong brand loyalty when products reflect their experiences.

Practitioners emphasised several key pieces of actionable advice:

• Integrate inclusion early and continuously across all stages of product development, especially ideation, UX design, user testing, and marketing. Inclusion should be deeply embedded, not treated as an afterthought or checkbox activity.
• Be intentional in addressing the needs of underrepresented users. Without deliberate planning, historically marginalised groups will consistently be overlooked or deprioritised.
• Diverse internal team representation is valuable, but not mandatory to succeed. Teams without extensive internal diversity can still create inclusive products by proactively seeking external perspectives and feedback from diverse user groups throughout the process.
• Gather firsthand insights rather than relying on theoretical empathy. Direct engagement with diverse users uncovers meaningful insights and reduces unintentional bias.
• Measure and track inclusion as a core business priority by defining clear metrics for success, which reinforces accountability and demonstrates concrete business value.
• Frame inclusive design as both socially beneficial and profitable, recognising that building for historically underserved users opens significant untapped market opportunities.
• Expect broad appeal from inclusive products. Majority and minority user groups alike prefer products built inclusively, enhancing overall customer satisfaction and market reach.

Ultimately, practitioners advise that inclusive design is a disciplined practice that demands ongoing intentionality, measurable goals, and genuine empathy to achieve meaningful social and commercial impact.

Chapter 3: 20 Essential Product Inclusion Questions to Light the Way

1. Teams must assess their level of familiarity with product inclusion to identify learning gaps and areas for improvement.
2. Having a champion at a senior level is crucial for unlocking support and resources necessary for successful inclusion initiatives.
3. Clearly articulating the core business challenge you're aiming to address through inclusion helps focus efforts and gain stakeholder buy-in.
4. Identifying which user groups are being underserved and understanding the nature of their exclusion provides direction for improvement efforts.
5. Connecting your business objectives directly to your inclusion goals creates greater impact and ensures alignment with organisational priorities.
6. Pinpointing decision-makers who control resources (funding, time, expertise) needed for inclusive design is essential for implementation success.
7. Drafting a practical and clearly defined pilot plan allows teams to test inclusive solutions before wider implementation.
8. Clarifying roles and responsibilities of cross-functional partners (e.g., product, marketing, UX) establishes accountability and ensures comprehensive support for the initiative.
9. Planning for long-term resource allocation helps maintain momentum beyond initial efforts and ensures sustainability of inclusion practices.
10. Making explicit commitments to document and communicate your inclusion efforts internally and externally creates accountability and spreads best practices.
11. Leaders should understand personal experiences of team members to foster authentic inclusion and create psychological safety.
12. An inclusive culture allows diverse perspectives to surface naturally, significantly improving innovation and creative problem-solving.
13. Inclusion efforts are most impactful when started early in the product development process, ideally during ideation phases.
14. Always gather your own data by directly engaging with target users rather than relying solely on generalised insights or assumptions about user needs.
15. Managing your limited inclusion resources effectively by prioritising teams committed to action ensures maximum impact with available resources.
16. Instead of choosing only one diversity dimension, identify where intersectionality and greatest user needs converge to address multiple inclusion challenges simultaneously.
17. Broaden perspectives by actively involving diverse stakeholders and communities throughout the process rather than tokenising representation or seeking input only at specific stages.
18. Making a compelling human and business case helps influence leaders who may initially resist inclusion initiatives by addressing both moral and commercial imperatives.
19. Recognising everyone has biases is essential; seeking external perspectives and direct user feedback helps mitigate blind spots in product design.
20. Prioritising genuine relationships with underrepresented users allows teams to deeply understand their experiences and needs, leading to truly inclusive solutions.

Intentional design emphasises proactively and deliberately embedding inclusion into product development from the outset, ensuring products serve diverse audiences effectively and respectfully. Teams must consciously identify biases and blind spots early, understanding that the absence of intentional inclusion inevitably results in exclusionary outcomes, harming brand trust and market reach.

The Four Pillars of Designing Accessible Products:

1. Equip teams with insights, guidelines, and accessible design systems to simplify inclusive design.
2. Regularly evaluate product usability through user testing with diverse and disabled groups.
3. Actively design products and features from the outset to specifically meet the needs of people with disabilities.
4. Transform organisational culture by training teams, outreach, and embedding inclusive design principles in educational curricula.

Chapter 4: Building the Case for Product Inclusion and Getting Buy-In

Building a successful product inclusion effort requires buy-in at all organisational levels: leadership for resources, vision, and accountability, and grassroots support for energy and execution. Practitioners must build two cases: a human case, grounded in compelling personal stories that highlight the real-life impacts on underserved users, and a business case, supported by data and insights about market potential and untapped opportunities.

Human stories resonate emotionally, driving empathy, while data supports rational decision-making, ensuring that inclusion becomes embedded in business strategy. Practitioners should interview real users from underrepresented demographics to gather authentic insights, rather than relying solely on hypothetical personas or assumptions. Presenting these narratives clearly, highlighting who is affected, how they are affected, and their emotional response, helps secure genuine buy-in.

The business case emphasises the financial upside of inclusive products by showcasing unmet needs among diverse consumer segments. It highlights purchasing power and opportunities for increased market penetration among underrepresented communities, demonstrating that inclusive products not only benefit marginalised users but can also attract broader audiences, improving overall product quality.

When seeking leadership buy-in, practitioners should clearly understand executive priorities, build tailored presentations that succinctly combine human stories and business opportunities, and conclude with specific, actionable requests. Executive support unlocks critical resources, accelerates adoption, and reduces organisational resistance.

Grassroots buy-in is equally essential because employees drive daily product decisions and implementation. Engaging grassroots employees involves empowering them to co-create strategies, highlighting how their specific roles directly contribute to inclusion goals, and holding them accountable to tangible actions. Amplifying grassroots support can be achieved by creating visible platforms (such as internal listservs or flyers) that regularly communicate inclusion successes, opportunities, and actionable tips.

Ultimately, building organisational buy-in requires consistent effort, repeated communication, ongoing visibility, and strong internal champions dedicated to ensuring that inclusion becomes a sustained, integral part of the product design and development process.

Chapter 5: Adopting Inclusion Principles to Guide Your Work

Practitioners must adopt clear product inclusion principles to guide their decision-making and foster intentional inclusion. Strong principles directly name exclusion to unlock opportunities for inclusive solutions. Some examples:

• Naming exclusion unlocks the potential of inclusion: reminds teams to address gaps intentionally.
• Designing for a minority also benefits the majority: emphasising inclusive solutions often enhance the overall user experience.
• Equal is not always equitable: clarifies the need for products tailored to specific user needs, rather than merely equal access.

Organisations benefit from principles highlighting that "team diversity is reflected in product diversity," meaning diverse teams naturally design more inclusive products, and that "diversity accelerates and amplifies learning and innovation," reinforcing diversity as critical to growth. Principles emphasising that "everyone is biased" help teams remain vigilant against unconscious assumptions.

Practitioners should formulate principles aligned with their specific challenges, user demographics, and moral imperatives, then translate them into actions through a clear framework such as the "3 P's" (People, Process, Product). Developing inclusive people (diverse perspectives), processes (structured inclusion practices), and products (designed intentionally for underrepresented users) ensures comprehensive implementation of these guiding principles.

Chapter 6: Integrating Product Inclusion with Your Work

Key insights for practitioners from Chapter 6 focus on integrating product inclusion into organisational workflows using structured frameworks: Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), inclusive touchpoints, and a detailed product inclusion checklist.

OKRs provide teams with clear, measurable goals for product inclusion initiatives, allowing accountability and progress tracking. Practitioners should define objectives (e.g., "Improve functionality for visually impaired users") supported by quantitative key results (e.g., "Conduct inclusive UX tests with 100 visually impaired users by end of Q2"). OKRs should be ambitious yet realistic, reviewed regularly, and adjusted carefully to maintain morale and focus.

Identifying inclusion touchpoints ensures product inclusion is embedded consistently throughout the design and development process. Typical touchpoints include ideation, UX research and design, user testing, and marketing. Practitioners must intentionally involve diverse perspectives at each stage, recognising that strong inclusion early on reduces costly corrections later.

The Product Inclusion Checklist provides a practical roadmap to guide teams through each product development phase, ensuring thorough consideration of inclusion.

Phase I: Ideation, Specification, and Design

• Product:
• Clearly define the product being introduced and identify the needs it addresses.
• Determine if any product policies must change to ensure inclusivity.
• Define the exact user interface (UI) changes or additions introduced by your product or feature.
• Clearly articulate the core problem the feature or product aims to solve, explicitly including consideration of diversity.
• If using machine learning, ensure training datasets are diversified across age, gender, race, location, etc.
• Establish clear metrics to detect and prevent biases.
• Representation:
• Identify who the product is for and explicitly consider overlooked groups.
• Evaluate how the product might unintentionally exclude or fail to represent different cultures or societies.
• Determine whether multiple languages need to be supported.
• Explicitly consider diversity dimensions, including age, ability, culture, education, literacy, gender identity, geography, income, language, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and tech literacy.
• Gather early feedback from internal inclusion champions representing diverse consumer segments.
• Identify your target user explicitly and specify groups intentionally included or excluded (with a rationale).
• Explicitly consider typically underrepresented groups that could benefit from the new feature.
• Access:
• Evaluate how product availability might be limited by factors such as geographic location, infrastructure, income, or company policies.
• Examine how existing policies or limitations in infrastructure might exclude potential users.
• Accessibility:
• Review and follow guidelines and standards, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
• Proactively go beyond mere usability standards, aiming for full inclusivity.
• Identify groups who might be unable to use the product due to physical, cognitive, or perceptual disabilities.
• Consult with internal accessibility experts or champions.

Phase II: Prototype and Evaluate

• Product:
• Verify that the prototype addresses all inclusivity issues and concerns raised during the ideation phase.
• Define how the prototype will be tested to ensure these concerns are adequately resolved.
• Representation:
• Review all language and documentation for inclusive wording, ensuring appropriate gender pronouns or neutrality.
• Ensure images, graphics, and avatars represent racial and ethnic diversity.
• If referencing gender pronouns, include non-binary options ("they") or consider gender-neutral wording.
• Ensure imagery and graphics represent racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity, accompanied by inclusive descriptive alt-text for assistive technology users.
• Provide support for multiple languages where possible.
• Ensure speech recognition or speech-driven features account for varying accents and dialects.
• Verify that all written content maintains readability standards at or below a 7th-grade reading level to ensure broad comprehension.
• Access:
• Continue evaluating whether infrastructure limitations (like low bandwidth) or product design exclude certain groups.
• Ensure geographic and economic diversity is accounted for in testing.
• Offer multiple currency options where applicable.
• Accept at least three major payment types to maximize economic inclusivity.
• Accessibility:
• Conduct a thorough accessibility audit, ensuring design elements have sufficient contrast (text, icons, backgrounds).
• Confirm the user interface supports multiple input methods (keyboard, mouse, touch, speech).
• Ensure the interface is navigable using assistive technologies like screen readers, magnification tools, or speech input.
• Perform testing with colorblind users or simulators to diagnose color-contrast issues.
• Confirm visual design elements have high contrast, suitable for visually impaired or colorblind users.
• Avoid relying solely on color or audio cues to communicate critical information—pair visual/auditory cues with explanatory text.
• Ensure complete functionality using assistive technologies, keyboard navigation, and screen readers.

Phase III: Build and Test

• Product:
• Confirm the build-and-test plan incorporates solutions to previously identified inclusion concerns.
• Validate anticipated adoption and usage by diverse users through targeted testing.
• Representation:
• Include diverse individuals (across gender, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, age, and abilities) explicitly in testing scenarios.
• Pay close attention to demographic groups previously overlooked or underrepresented in early phases.
• Access:
• Ensure geographic diversity among testers, considering multiple countries or regions.
• Thoroughly test product performance with low-bandwidth or slow-internet environments.
• Evaluate whether the product can be adapted or modified to be accessible to lower-income users.
• Accessibility:
• Test thoroughly with assistive technology users (e.g., screen readers, magnification devices, alternate input methods).
• Ensure all buttons, links, and images have clear and inclusive labeling (including appropriate alt-text).
• Confirm the product can be navigated using only a keyboard (without mouse or visual cues alone).
• Conduct personal user testing using a screen reader for at least 60 minutes to better understand practical accessibility issues.

Phase IV: Market, Measure, and Monitor

• Product:
• Measure actual product usage against initial expectations to assess how inclusivity objectives are met.
• Identify unexpected issues or unanticipated product use-cases that reveal additional opportunities for inclusion improvements.
• Document and share learnings within and beyond your immediate team to scale best practices.
• Representation:
• Assess the audience to verify it reflects diversity in demographics, including age, gender, race, ethnicity, ability, socioeconomic status, and sexual orientation.
• Ensure ongoing feedback loops from diverse user groups and adjust accordingly.
• Access:
• Monitor how language localization features are actually being used by users globally, ensuring diversity across markets.
• Continue evaluating geographic distribution and infrastructure limitations (like internet quality or device compatibility), adjusting strategy if necessary.
• Accessibility:
• Regularly reassess accessibility features, checking continuous compatibility with evolving assistive technologies.
• Maintain adequate contrast ratios in content updates or new marketing materials, and ensure that accessibility audits are regularly scheduled and completed.

Chapter 7: Getting to Know Your Underrepresented Users

To effectively design inclusive products, practitioners must directly engage with historically underrepresented users by conducting thoughtful research to gain deeper empathy and understanding. Organisations should build inclusive product research teams by recruiting members who represent the communities being studied, enabling the team to rapidly recognise insights and patterns and quickly identify gaps. If internal diversity is limited, collaborate closely with internal volunteers or external experts who represent these communities.

Six-step inclusive research framework:

1. Explain the purpose of the study by performing landscape analysis: define what you're building, for whom, why, the core challenges you're addressing, and the market opportunities.
2. Establish clear inclusion criteria covering dimensions such as ability, age, education, ethnicity, geography, gender, income, language, religion, and sexual orientation. Intersectionality (where multiple diversity dimensions overlap) should also be explicitly considered.
3. Build a representative sample by actively recruiting diverse participants. Broaden participant pools beyond typical online signups to reach less tech-savvy or underrepresented groups, such as via outreach programmes or physical research units (e.g., Google's UX research vans).
4. Choose appropriate research methods matching study goals, such as in-person interviews (for nuanced insights), online surveys (scalable and fast), focus groups (for multiple perspectives), or remote user studies (quick demographic-specific feedback).
5. Conduct your research thoughtfully, ensuring multiple feedback points throughout the product development cycle, not just early or late, and involve participants who reflect multiple dimensions of diversity. Ensure researchers or moderators are knowledgeable about participant groups, avoiding biased or ambiguous questions.
6. Share your research broadly within your organisation to foster widespread understanding. Summarise findings in a clear research paper or engaging formats like infographics, user stories, short presentations ("lightning talks"), or design sprints, thus embedding inclusive insights into ongoing product design.

Finally, translating research insights into actual products is critical. Research should clearly shape product strategy, target user definitions, visual design choices, accessibility considerations, and interface usability, ensuring genuine inclusion of underrepresented users throughout the product lifecycle.

Chapter 8: Integrating Product Inclusion into the Ideation Process

Integrating product inclusion at the ideation phase is essential because it's the most effective moment to influence product strategy, ensuring fewer costly corrections later. Inclusive design sprints (collaborative sessions that rapidly validate product ideas) are powerful tools to bring diverse perspectives into early product development. Successful sprints involve diverse stakeholders, including underrepresented user representatives, marketing, customer service, product designers, technology specialists, and decision-makers. Participants should ideally be drawn from outside the core product team to ensure fresh perspectives and prevent overlooked assumptions.

A successful inclusive design sprint includes seven essential steps:

1. Introduce Product Inclusion by clearly defining the concept and presenting both the human and business cases for why it matters.
2. Map user experiences and pain points through customer journey maps or empathy maps to identify overlooked opportunities.
3. Sketch potential solutions collaboratively, refining initial ideas into detailed concepts.
4. Decide collectively on the most promising ideas through group critique and structured voting methods, such as "heat maps" and "supervotes."
5. Prototype realistic models that bring selected ideas to life for user testing.
6. Test prototypes directly with users, gathering detailed, real-time feedback through interviews and direct observation.
7. Capture learning and plan next steps clearly documenting insights, setting follow-up actions, and planning additional sprints as needed.

Another highly effective way to integrate inclusion is by conducting short "lightning talks," quick (15 minutes or less) educational sessions to introduce product inclusion concepts and motivate teams. Effective lightning talks clearly define product inclusion, showcase compelling human and business cases, and provide specific actions teams can immediately take, such as joining working groups, using inclusive checklists, or engaging diverse users for feedback. Lightning talks are especially effective in building initial enthusiasm and clearly communicating the value and necessity of product inclusion, particularly when conducted early in the product development cycle.

Chapter 9: Starting Your Own Dogfooding and Adversarial Testing Programs

Dogfooding and adversarial testing are critical practices for creating inclusive products. Dogfooding involves having internal users test products early, ensuring diverse perspectives are captured during development. Adversarial testing specifically involves diverse testers intentionally trying to identify and "break" products before launch, revealing any potential exclusions or usability issues for underrepresented users.

To build an effective dogfooding and testing programme, organisations should create and manage a pool of internal "inclusion champions" (volunteers representing historically underrepresented groups). Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) can serve as a valuable source for recruiting these volunteers. It's essential to regularly recruit new testers, ensure participation is optional, clearly communicate the purpose and value of testing, and always acknowledge participants' efforts. A dedicated dogfooding lead should coordinate between testers and product teams, managing logistics, tracking progress, and holding teams accountable.

Product teams should formally request feedback from inclusion champions, clearly stating their goals, timelines, and criteria. Communication between Dogfooders, testers, and product teams must be clear, regular, and appreciative. Following up after testing sessions to gather insights, provide updates, and share learnings is crucial for sustained engagement.

Google Duo improved video quality for darker skin tones through focused adversarial testing with diverse testers. Project DIVA enabled users with disabilities to independently access Google Assistant through iterative, user-driven testing.

Ultimately, inclusive dogfooding and adversarial testing lead to products that genuinely serve diverse user groups. These practices uncover overlooked issues early, foster innovation, and help expand market reach by addressing genuine user needs from historically underserved communities.

Chapter 10: Making Your Marketing More Inclusive

Marketing is integral to product inclusion because it connects products to diverse users. To resonate, marketing must authentically combine three critical elements: people, product, and storytelling. Representation across marketing teams and agency partners is foundational, as diverse teams produce more inclusive campaigns. Authentic storytelling should challenge stereotypes and provide realistic portrayals of underrepresented groups, reflecting their true experiences rather than superficial diversity. Beyond casting diverse talent, marketers must consider every creative detail, including narrative, settings, wardrobe, music, voiceover, and the diversity behind the camera.

Organisations should establish clear accountability, regularly auditing their creative work to uncover areas needing improvement. Google's Inclusive Marketing Consultants task force demonstrates that proactively involving underrepresented marketers early in campaign creation prevents bias and enhances authenticity. Inclusive marketing must extend beyond individual ads or initiatives; it requires embedding an inclusive mindset across all marketing activities, from blogs to events, and should always be grounded in genuine organisational commitment to diversity.

Practitioners must also recognise the importance of adapting global principles to local contexts, engaging communities directly to ensure authenticity. Effective inclusive marketing uplifts marginalised voices, transforms brand perception, and creates genuine connections that drive long-term success.

Chapter 11: Measuring Product Inclusion Performance

Measuring product inclusion performance requires clear, quantifiable metrics that align closely with organisational objectives. Practitioners must first define their objectives explicitly such as increasing leadership commitment to product inclusion, enhancing diversity on product teams, improving user experiences for historically underrepresented users, or expanding market reach within specific communities. Metrics should always relate directly to these goals, providing concrete evidence of progress.

Metrics fall into two primary categories: input metrics, which measure resources invested or actions taken, and output metrics, which measure actual outcomes or impacts resulting from these inputs.

Key input metrics include:

• Number of leaders engaged in product inclusion.
• Number of product areas/business units with product inclusion OKRs:
• Number of employees mobilised or volunteering to support product inclusion (dogfooders, testers, working groups) signalling grassroots momentum and genuine engagement.
• Team representation: Assessing diversity within core product teams (such as research, design, and engineering) across dimensions like race, ethnicity, gender, age, ability, and socioeconomic background helps ensure a range of perspectives inform product decisions.
• Budget allocated to inclusion efforts.

Important output metrics practitioners should monitor include:

• User engagement (or total number of diverse users): Evaluates whether inclusive product improvements expand the product's reach, particularly among historically underserved or underrepresented communities.
• Conversion rates among targeted user demographics: This tracks whether product inclusion efforts lead directly to increased adoption or sales among specified user segments, showing tangible business value.
• Customer satisfaction and brand loyalty among historically underrepresented groups: Measures how effectively product inclusion efforts resonate with and satisfy these user groups, indicating long-term success.
• Frequency and severity of negative user experience reports or escalations: This tracks issues raised by users related specifically to accessibility, cultural insensitivity, or functional limitations. A decrease indicates improvements in product inclusivity.
• Number and quality of innovations designed specifically for historically underrepresented users: Captures the effectiveness of inclusive product development processes by quantifying meaningful enhancements or new features that directly address user needs.

Teams should also classify metrics into additional practical categories for clarity and effectiveness:

• Socialisation Metrics: These reflect the organisation's internal progress in awareness and adoption of product inclusion. Examples include the number of internal training sessions held, or the number of new hires from underrepresented backgrounds who have been onboarded to product teams.
• Product Inclusion (PI) Metrics: These focus on specific outcomes in product design and user experience. Examples include accessibility scores from usability tests, adoption rates of new inclusive features, or reductions in bias-related user complaints.

To implement these effectively, teams should take baseline measurements before introducing product inclusion initiatives. Baseline data provides essential reference points against which progress can be evaluated. Measurements should then occur regularly - monthly, quarterly, or semiannually - allowing the team to adapt swiftly based on insights.

Clearly defining who collects, analyses, and reports data is critical. A centralised analytics function can handle data aggregation and broader analysis, while individual teams track more granular, context-specific metrics. This combined approach ensures coherence and depth of insight.

Finally, each metric must have a clear deadline and be tied explicitly to actionable next steps. Practitioners should map metrics to timelines with milestones, ensuring accountability and transparency. For example, an objective to "increase diversity representation on product teams by 15%" might be coupled with quarterly reviews to adjust hiring practices or enhance retention efforts proactively.

Incorporating these detailed, well-defined, and systematically tracked metrics into the product inclusion strategy empowers practitioners to clearly demonstrate impact, guide informed decision-making, and drive sustained commitment across their organisations.

Chapter 12: The Many Shades of Nude: Product Inclusion in Fashion and Retail

Fashion and retail businesses significantly enhance profitability and customer loyalty by embedding inclusion throughout products and experiences. Underrepresented consumers frequently experience frustration and exclusion due to limited colours, insufficient sizes, and insensitive marketing. Authentic inclusion unlocks new markets and demonstrates care for diverse customers.

Expanding colour inclusivity beyond traditional defaults (like pale pink "nude") helps diverse consumers feel represented. Campaigns such as Gap's "True Hues" successfully increased customer engagement, social visibility, and sales, highlighting the importance of involving underrepresented users in product design.

Addressing size inclusivity by catering beyond standard body types without segregating or imposing premiums is ethical and profitable, tapping into underserved markets like plus-size consumers. Successful brands offer broad, customisable sizing to reflect real consumer diversity.

Brands must proactively prevent insensitive products and marketing by gathering diverse perspectives early. Inclusive marketing must align authentically with genuinely inclusive products to build trust and avoid backlash.

Increasing gender diversity in fashion leadership is critical since gender-balanced companies outperform others. Transparency in promotions, clear sponsorship programmes, and flexible working arrangements help women advance, reflecting their dominance as fashion consumers.

Retail environments must intentionally promote physical accessibility, train staff on inclusion, and avoid biased security practices. Inclusive product displays and marketing should authentically represent diverse identities, body types, and abilities.

Ecommerce retailers must prioritise digital accessibility, including keyboard navigation, colour contrasts, alt-text, responsive design, detailed product descriptions, and optimised performance for slow connections. This improves experiences for all users, including those with disabilities.

Genuine organisational commitment, senior leadership support, dedicated diversity councils, and diverse employee participation strengthen inclusion efforts. Cross-industry partnerships, such as designer Chris Bevans' collaboration with Google, amplify inclusive creativity and business success. Embedding inclusion from ideation to execution positions brands to thrive, fostering customer loyalty and profitability.

Chapter 13: Looking to the Future of Product Inclusion

Product inclusion is increasingly central to business growth as companies recognise that diverse consumer needs drive profits, innovation, and brand loyalty. Consumers increasingly demand products aligned with their values, incentivising companies to prioritise inclusion.

Future success in product inclusion depends on collective action rather than isolated efforts. Diverse teams collaborating across functions such as design, engineering, marketing, leadership ensure sustainable and innovative inclusive products.

Industries including eyewear, healthcare, architecture, fitness, entertainment, and toys are demonstrating meaningful progress by adopting inclusive practices. Eyewear companies like Warby Parker acknowledge diverse physical needs, creating broader consumer appeal. Healthcare is improving cultural competence and research diversity, enhancing accuracy in diagnostics and personalised medicine.

Architecture and fitness companies are designing inclusive physical spaces and representations to accommodate diverse abilities, sizes, and experiences. Inclusive toys and authentic representation in entertainment positively shape children's identity and broaden audience appeal, illustrated by successful diverse films like Black Panther and Crazy Rich Asians.

Higher education, exemplified by institutions like OCAD University, is actively embedding inclusion into curricula, preparing future inclusive product leaders.

Fashion continues proving inclusion's strategic value, as seen through successful initiatives from brands like Gap and Harlem's Fashion Row, driving significant market engagement and revenue.

Businesses ignoring inclusion risk lost opportunities and limited growth, while those embedding inclusive practices fully realise their potential. Product inclusion has become essential, not optional, for future success.