Ethical Dilemmas in Product Management: A candid conversation with Rich Mironov

It's not often that we get to talk about Product Ethics in such a candid way. But, recently I sat down with Rich Mironov to explore the topic. And there were basically three topics that emerged: Products built that purposely crossing ethical lines, products built with no intention of being unethical but end up being used that way, and the responsibilities we have as product managers and leaders to prevent them both.

You can watch the video or read the full transcript below, but here is the tl:dr version.

1. Whenever we talk about ethical dilemmas and what actions a person is responsible to take, it is key to recognize that often taking those actions are unavailable to everyone and we need to check our privilege.

2. There are two big types of ethical issues when developing products -- those which are intentionally designed to harm (most often discovered by how money is made) and those which are being used in ways which weren’t intended and are causing harm (surfaced by utilizing devil’s advocate techniques, diverse teams, and groups responsible to pretend to act maliciously).

3. It is everyone’s responsibility to speak up (see point 1 about privilege) when they realize a product can cause harm. A good test is to ask yourself if you’d be ok telling your friends, parents, or partner about what is happening. This is especially true for product leaders who need to create environments where raising one’s hand is encouraged even if it is to share bad news and potentially ethical guidelines to help start the conversation.

 Full transcript available here.