What’s happening:
Accessibility isn’t seen as valuable work.
Product managers say accessibility is important, but will have to wait until after a feature is deployed, which is always a lie.
The standard conversation
There is a pattern to the conversation accessibility teams have with product managers.
Yeah, those ADA guidelines are important, but we have to launch on time. — Product manager
We can’t argue with the need to meet deadlines and budgets, so we’re left with arguing about requirements.
Right, but accessibility is a requirement. — Accessibility team
But product managers can always outmaneuver us with this one simple trick:
We already shipped it, but we’ll fix those 508 bugs later. — Product manager
Now it’s a remediation project.
How to help
With leadership buy-in, we can re-write the default product goals with inclusion.
Recognize the product owner is making rational decisions based on unconsciously biased values. Without a deliberate change in the formula with which they make decisions, no change can occur.
Leadership buy-in is a pre-requisite
This kind of decision making is habitual, and without leadership expecting specific change, is very difficult to change.
What are product goals?
Product goals are part of the 2020 Scrum Guide update. Whether your organization is using Scrum, KanBan, SAFe Agile… or is just truly agile, every feature has a definable goal — formally or informally.
Product goals follow a specific format:
- Do something
- for the user and/or business
- with this purpose
Accessibility must be involved in goal creation, and with leadership’s backing — put inclusion in those goals.
Why do product goals matter?
Goals set the values for a product, and if goals aren’t intentionally inclusive they will be bias what a team values against accessibility.
Values are determined at every feature kickoff meeting, and without saying, will include:
- On time
- On budget
These two default values — that nobody said were the overriding cultural values of the entire organization — will bias every project to ignore anything perceived as a mismatch.
Weak goals produce barriers
Unconsciously biased product goals leave out people.
A product kickoff meeting’s goals often look like this:
- Improve onboarding to increase retention
- Streamline the online shopping experience to increase revenue
- Collect surveys to refine recommendations and increase purchase satisfaction
- Increase accuracy of search to improve discoverability
Bias creeps in by default
None of these goals mention people, the customer or users. When it’s clear to the accessibility expert a feature is being designed without accessibility at its core, it’s difficult to start a meaningful conversation because inclusion isn’t a stated goal; increasing retention is.
For the product manager, time and budget are finite (and often the number one indicator whether they’re getting a bonus) — so these become the defining values by default for the work.
Write people-centric product goals
What those product goals lack is people centric values. Let’s place people into the core purpose of those goals.
- Improve onboarding for all customers to increase retention
- Inclusively streamline the online shopping experience to increase revenue
- Collect surveys from all visitors to refine product recommendations and increase purchase satisfaction
- Increase accuracy of search functionality to improve discoverability for all people
Product goals change the conversation
When the stated goal of a product emphasizes all people, inclusion and accessibility are now part of the discussion in a way that’s undeniable.
Accessibility is important, but our goal is to launch on time. — Product manager
Without inclusion being part of the goal, we don’t have a lot to talk about with the team.
Remember, the goal is to improve onboarding for all people. — Accessibility
If the feature fails to meet accessibility goals, accountability is assignable but in a useful way.
You didn’t meet your goal to improve onboarding for all people. Why not? — Management
In this way, we can override the default values of time and budget, and change the conversation. A product that creates barriers for people is a mismatch with the stated goal and values of this feature.
If this doesn’t work
As always, don’t be the police.
If a team continues to resist, follow your team’s escalation procedures and leverage leadership to define priorities.