In 2024, the term Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) is ubiquitous. From our favourite television shows to the marketing campaigns of trusted cleaning products it’s an inescapable fact that companies and the products they create are making a concerted effort to appeal to a diverse range of consumers like never before.
Whether this is a token effort undertaken to satisfy a growing demand found in social media, or a genuine effort to increase profitability and target hard to reach markets: companies, now more than ever, are trying to appeal to a wider customer base with varying levels of success. With this in mind, a series of interesting questions comes to mind: why do some companies succeed doing this in an organic way? Why do others fail? And what role does user research play in delivering tangible results and higher revenues?
What is Diversity Equity and Inclusion, and Why Should Product Teams Care?
According to Dictionary.com, DEI is: “a conceptual framework that promotes the fair treatment and full participation of all people, especially in the workplace, including populations who have historically been underrepresented or subject to discrimination because of their background, identity, disability, etc.”
While this definition at first glance may be focused on HR decisions, we can apply this framework to the management and development of products marketed towards consumers too.
Reaching wider demographics is crucial to maximising sales potential and expanding market reach. By appealing to diverse customer groups, companies can tap into new markets and attract a broader range of users. While it’s important to remember the necessity of having an effective product that solves problems: taking advantage of both market and user research data allows us to understand and meet the needs of different consumer groups, leading to more tailored and effective offerings.
There is a wealth of market research data indicating that closing gaps in uptake between White and Black and Ethnic Minority (BAME) customers is a very lucrative task indeed. In 2022, the Black Pound Report (UK) found that:
“16% of the British population falls into the BAME category, and a majority does not feel catered for by major retailers.”
The report goes on to state that this cohort has a massive amount of purchasing power. The formerly mentioned report indicates that this segment of British consumers have £4.5 billion disposable income to spend every year.
The challenge is clear to see: how can organisations build products, services and/or effective marketing campaigns to better serve this demographic and subsequently boost profitability?
Harnessing the Power of Representative User Research
The obvious answer to the question above, is to actually speak to potential and current users of our products and services who over report consumer dissatisfaction and disengagement from the product development process.
Representative user research which goes out of its way to speak to those who may be interested in a product if it was marketed to them, or developed with them in mind is critical to this process.
This means using user researchers who (if not part of the target demographics themselves) are aware of the inequalities facing our customers, and can champion qualitative feedback without filtering it through a biassed lens to help uncover blind spots otherwise missed – avoiding botched NPIs and unnecessary marketing blunders.
Opportunities abound when embracing this mindset. Products (and their associated marketing campaigns) launched in countries with a relatively small BAME population should be validated by quantitative and qualitative data indicating it suits the needs of a new market with a larger BAME population before it reaches the shelves, or has a beta version released.
Ethnic minorities are not a monolith, and with a conscientious effort to understand the complex product needs of new markets, we can identify new verticals providing sales and marketing teams products that fulfil the cultural geographical needs of our new target markets.
An Example of where this goes wrong (a personal observation):
Cards on the table: I am, indeed, a black man. As you can imagine this is a topic close to my heart. An example where an organisation has missed the mark in creating a product that embodies the values of inclusion and diversity in my personal view is RyanAir’s document validation process for bookings made via third parties.
As you can see here, bookings made via external platforms are subject to biometric checks which according to RyanAir are: “to ensure that they (as the passenger) make the necessary security declarations and are informed directly of all safety and regulatory protocols required when travelling, as legally required.”
Beyond the myriad of privacy concerns such a process raises, there is a serious issue that has been under-reported with respect to the facial recognition technology used to verify travel documents: for people with darker skin tones this technology is notoriously unreliable and inaccurate. According to data collected by gendershades.org: the facial recognition technology platforms tested “perform better on lighter subjects as a whole than on darker subjects as a whole with an 11.8% – 19.2% difference in error rates.” Furthermore, failure rates are actually higher for dark skinned women.
On the return leg of a business trip to the UK, I had to verify my identity using facial recognition technology and had an awful time. Using a variety of devices and lighting sources I had no luck for around 40 minutes. Eventually, the travel gods shone their light on me and eventually I was able to verify my documents and catch my flight as intended, but the experience stuck with me. Beyond the clearly anti-consumer, protectionist motivations of introducing this step in their booking process: RyanAir – in this case, inadvertently forced a user to use a product that systematically failed their demographic. And I knew it.
There is no secret that facial recognition technology platforms have had a myriad of challenges when tasked with correctly identifying individuals with darker skin tones. In the USA, reports indicate that:
“Many systems deployed in the U.S. are trained using datasets that are imbalanced and disproportionately rely on data from White individuals. As a result, these systems have higher false positive match rates for racial minorities.”
– nationalacademies.org
Whether it was true or not, I felt at that moment that RyanAir did not appreciate the potentially exclusionary nature of the products they had made an integral part of their booking process, and as such indicated that their service was not developed with me in mind. I haven’t booked a flight with them since.
How Could Representative User Research Help to Avoid Such Issues?
A great starting point would be to have a representative user research team, empowered by an organisationally user centred design approach – equipped to bring such issues to the fore.
Rather than using the personal anecdotes of researchers on a company’s team – the focus should be on delivering extensive ethnographic studies and user acceptance testing with a representative group of beta users, including hard to reach groups including BAME consumers who’re likely to provide valuable insights; giving pause for thought when introducing such measures.
In the scenario above, I struggle to believe that extensive usability testing with a BAME cohort would not have provided the quantitative/qualitative data indicating the product disproportionately did not meet the expected success threshold for such consumers, nor the deep rooted suspicions and stigma associated with such technology.
Of course, all this is dependent on having a management culture that truly values DEI and takes the recommendations of their market and user research teams to heart with the aim of providing user experiences which are accessible to all – increasing uptake and maximising profits all the while.
When it comes to DEI – especially in the context of product management, it’s not enough to employ BAME team members with a hope that their own experiences will shape the decisions of our product teams: we must also bring our ideas to those who will be using our products and illicit the insights that reflect their experiences as a user, subsequently adapting our offerings to match their requirements.
Using such insights we can better understand why certain demographics are not using our products, services nor responding well to marketing campaigns; increasing revenue and in the process make the world a better, more inclusive place.
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