Building For Everyone

CHAPTER 320 Essential Product Inclusion Questions to Light the Way

In many ways, product inclusion is one big learning process. When you are doing it right, you are continuously learning about groups that are underrepresented, how to build more diverse and inclusive teams, how to integrate diverse perspectives into your product design and development process, how to access resources to support your efforts, and much more.

This learning process is most productive when you and your team have a natural curiosity and ask the right questions. When you are getting started, however, you may not know enough to ask the questions that elicit the answers and guidance required.

In this chapter, I present two sets of 10 questions—10 questions every team needs to ask itself (and answer) and 10 questions our diversity and inclusion team is commonly asked (and our answers). Along the way, I explain the significance of each question, and I answer each question or provide guidance on how to answer it yourself or with the assistance of other team members.

The 10 Questions Every Team Needs to Ask and Answer

Approximately one year into Google's product inclusion journey, questions were streaming in from across the company at a pace faster than I could answer them. To meet everyone's needs while fulfilling my other responsibilities, I decided to hold office hours; I set aside one hour of every day to meet with fellow Googlers about product inclusion. People could sign up for 20‐minute appointment ...