Chapter 4.
Engineering for Equity
Date: 08/08/2025
★ In this chapter, we’ll discuss the unique responsibilities of an engineer
when designing products for a broad base of users.
★ Further, we evaluate how an organization, by embracing diversity, can
design systems that work for everyone, and avoid perpetuating harm
against our users.
★ Understanding how to engineer products that empower and respect all
our users is still something Google is learning to do.
★ We have had many public failures in protecting our most vulnerable
users The path forward to more equitable products begins with
evaluating our own failures and encouraging growth.
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Contents of Chapter4
★ Bias Is the Default
★ Google Misses the Mark on Racial Inclusion
★ Understanding the Need for Diversity
★ Building Multicultural Capacity
★ Making Diversity Actionable
★ Reject Singular Approaches
★ Challenge Established Processes
★ Values versus Outcomes
★ Stay Curious, Push Forward
★ Conclusion
Bias Is the Default[ Bias is a disproportionate weight in favor of or against an idea
or thing, usually in a way that is inaccurate, closed-minded, prejudicial, or unfair. Biases can be innate or
learned. People may develop biases for or against an individual, a group, or a belief. In science and
engineering, a bias is a systematic error. ]
[Unconscious (or implicit) bias is a term that describes the associations we hold, outside our conscious
awareness and control. Unconscious bias affects everyone. Unconscious bias is triggered by our brain
automatically making quick judgments and assessments. They are influenced by our background, personal
experiences, societal stereotypes and cultural context. It is not just about gender, ethnicity or other visible
diversity characteristics - height, body weight, names, and many other things can also trigger unconscious
bias. Unconscious bias can have a significant influence on our attitudes and behaviours, especially towards
other people. It can influence key decisions in the workplace and can contribute to inequality, for example in
selection and recruitment, appraisals, or promotion.]
[ Managing unconscious bias in the workplace: When left unchecked, our own personal perspectives and
biases can sometimes create miscommunications in the workplace. This can lead to further conflict, and
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impact us and all those that we work with. However, through conscious, deliberate action, we can work to
understand and counteract bias in the workplace, enabling better communication and working relationships
for ourselves and our colleagues.]
[ Types of bias and suggestions for action:
This is not a comprehensive list but consider these types of unconscious bias:
Affinity or similarity bias
This bias can be described as the tendency to favour people who are like you in some way. For example,
when hiring people, we may favour candidates who are similar to us or seem familiar, considering them a
'good fit' for the team. Instead, we should value diversity and be asking 'what will this person add to our
team?'
Confirmation bias
Once we make a decision or form an opinion, we tend to look for, and value, further information that confirms
this. You can think of confirmation bias as 'cherry picking' or 'wishful thinking'. We may end up interpreting
things in a certain way, or ignoring other information that contradicts our confirmation bias. This can cause
problems in the workplace if we fail to notice an issue or make misjudgements.
The halo effect
This occurs when one perceived positive feature or trait makes us view everything about a person in a
positive way, giving them a 'halo'. However, we may not actually know that much about a person, and the
halo effect can lead us to ignore other aspects. This is something to consider when making formal
assessments for example. The 'horn effect' is the opposite - when we focus on one particularly negative
feature.]
● When engineers do not focus on users of different nationalities,
ethnicities, races, genders, ages, socioeconomic statuses, abilities, and
belief systems, even the most talented staff will inadvertently fail their
users.
● Such failures are often intentional; all people have certain biases, and
social scientists have recognized over the past several decades that
most people exhibit unconscious bias, enforcing and promulgating
existing stereotypes.
● Unconscious bias is insidious and often more difficult to mitigate than
intentional acts of exclusion.
● Even when we want to do the right thing, we might not recognize our own
biases.
● By the same token, organizations must also recognize that such bias
exists and work to address it in its workforce, product development, and
user outreach.
● Because of bias, Google has at times failed to represent users equitably
within their products
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● The lack of representation of such users in our workforce 1 means that
we often do not have the requisite diversity to understand how the use of
our products can affect underrepresented or vulnerable users.
Google Misses the Mark on Racial Inclusion
[ Racial inclusion in the workplace means creating an environment where employees of all
races feel valued, respected, and have equal opportunities for advancement and belonging.
This goes beyond simply having a diverse workforce and focuses on fostering a culture where
everyone can thrive, regardless of their race or ethnicity. ]
● In 2015, software engineer Jacky Alciné pointed out that the image
recognition algorithms in Google Photos were classifying his black friends
as “gorillas.” Google was slow to respond to these mistakes and incomplete
in addressing them.
● As late as 2018, Google still had not adequately addressed the underlying
problem
● In all of these cases, the technology itself is not really to blame.
● Autocomplete, for example, was not designed to target users or to
discriminate. But it was also not resilient enough in its design to exclude
discriminatory language that is considered hate speech. As a result, the
algorithm returned results that caused harm to our users.
● How could this happen? After all, Google hires technologists with
impeccable education and/or professional experience; exceptional
programmers, who write the best code and test their work.
● One way to address these problems is to help the software engineering
organization itself look like the populations for whom we build products.
Understanding the Need for Diversity
● At Google, we believe that being an exceptional engineer requires that
you also focus on bringing diverse perspectives into product design and
implementation.
● It also means that Googlers responsible for hiring or interviewing other
engineers must contribute to building a more representative workforce.
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● If you interview other engineers for positions at your company, it is
important to learn how biased outcomes happen in hiring.
● Engineers should focus on people who are different from themselves,
especially people who might attempt to use our products to cause harm.
● Engineering teams need to be representative of their existing and future
users.
● In the absence of diverse representation on engineering teams, individual
engineers need to learn how to build for all users.
Building Multicultural Capacity
[ Multicultural capacity, in the context of sociology and political philosophy, refers to a society's ability to
effectively manage and leverage cultural diversity. It encompasses the acceptance of different cultures,
the active support of cultural differences, and the capacity to navigate the complexities arising from a
multicultural environment. This includes addressing issues like language barriers, discrimination, and
fostering trust within diverse communities. ]
● One mark of an exceptional engineer is the ability to understand how
products can advantage and disadvantage different groups of human
beings.
● Engineers are expected to have technical aptitude, but they should also
have the discernment to know when to build something and when not
to.
● We must extend our focus beyond our own communities to the next
billion users or to current users who might be disenfranchised or left
behind by our products.
● Over time, you might build tools that billions of people use daily—tools
that influence how people think about the value of human lives, tools
that monitor human activity, and tools that capture and persist sensitive
data
● As an engineer, you might wield more power than you realize: the power
to literally change society.
● Focusing on underrepresented users is a clear opportunity to promote
equity.
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● Shifting the focus of your industry experience to include more
comprehensive, multicultural, race and gender studies education is not
only your responsibility, but also the responsibility of your employer.
● Technology companies must ensure that their employees are
continually receiving professional development, and that this
development is comprehensive and multidisciplinary.
● Change requires that each of us, individually or as leaders of teams,
invest in continuous professional development that builds not just our
software development and leadership skills, but also our capacity to
understand the diverse experiences throughout humanity.
Making Diversity Actionable
[ Making diversity actionable means translating the concept of diversity into concrete, measurable
actions that foster inclusion and belonging within an organization. It's about moving beyond simply
acknowledging diversity to actively creating an environment where all individuals feel valued,
respected, and have equal opportunities. This involves implementing specific strategies and initiatives
that address potential barriers and promote equity. ]
● Systemic equity and fairness are attainable, if we are willing to accept
that we are all accountable for the systemic discrimination we see in
the technology sector.
● We are accountable for the failures in the system.
● Deferring or abstracting away personal accountability is ineffective, and
depending on your role, it could be irresponsible.
● It is also irresponsible to fully attribute dynamics at your specific
company or within your team to the larger societal issues that
contribute to inequity.
● As a hiring software engineer manager, you’re accountable for ensuring
that your candidate slates are balanced.
● Are there women or other underrepresented groups in the pool of
candidates’ reviews?
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● After you hire someone, what opportunities for growth have you
provided, and is the distribution of opportunities equitable?
● Every technology lead or software engineering manager has the means
to augment equity on their teams.
● It is important that we acknowledge that although there are significant
systemic challenges, we are all part of the system. It is our problem to
fix.
Reject Singular Approaches
[ The phrase "reject singular approaches" generally means to avoid using a single, isolated method or
perspective when addressing a problem or situation. Instead, it advocates for a more comprehensive,
multi-faceted approach that considers various viewpoints and potential solutions. This is often applied
in problem-solving, decision-making, and even in discussions about language usage.]
● We cannot perpetuate solutions that present a single philosophy or
methodology for fixing inequity in the technology sector.
● We must disrupt singular approaches to advancing representation in
the workplace, even if they are promoted by people we admire or who
have institutional power.
● One singular narrative held dear in the technology industry is that lack
of representation in the workforce can be addressed solely by fixing the
hiring pipelines. Yes, that is fundamental step
● Also, We need to recognize systemic inequity in progression and
retention while simultaneously focusing on more representative hiring
and educational disparities across lines of race, gender,
socioeconomic, and immigration status
● If you manage a diverse engineering team, focus on psychological
safety and invest in increasing multicultural capacity on the team so
that new team members feel welcome.
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● A common methodology today is to build for the majority use-case first,
leaving improvements and features that address edge-cases for later.
But this approach is flawed
● Instead, by building inclusive design from the start and raising
development standards for development to make tools delightful and
accessible for people who struggle to access technology, we enhance
the experience for all users.
● Designing for the user who is least like you is not just wise, it’s a best
practice.
● It begins with more comprehensive user-experience research. This
research should be done with user groups that are multilingual and
multicultural, and that span multiple countries, socioeconomic class,
abilities, and age ranges.
● Focus on the most difficult or least represented use case first.
Challenge Established Processes
[ Challenging established processes involves questioning the status quo, identifying areas for
improvement, and proactively seeking better ways of working. It's about taking initiative, pushing for
change, and learning from any difficulties encountered along the way. ]
● Challenging yourself to build more equitable systems goes beyond
designing more inclusive product specifications.
● Building equitable systems sometimes means challenging established
processes that drive invalid results.
● On its face, expediting the evaluation process and helping jobseekers
save time is a great goal.
● Ratings, although an important way to measure performance during a
specific period, are not predictive of future performance, and should not
be used to gauge readiness for a future role or qualify an internal
candidate for a different team.
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● This equity analysis definitely took up significant project time, but the
positive trade-off was a more equitable internal mobility process.
Values versus Outcomes
● Google has a strong track record of investing in hiring.
● It also continually evaluates our processes in order to improve equity
and inclusion.
● More broadly, Google’s core values are based on respect and an
unwavering commitment to a diverse and inclusive workforce.
● The struggle to improve its equitable outcomes persists despite the
policies and programs in place to help support inclusion initiatives and
promote excellence in hiring and progression.
● The failure point is not in the values, intentions, or investments of the
company, but rather in the application of those policies at the
implementation level.
● So, what’s the way out?
○ 1. Take a hard look in the mirror.
○ 2. Don’t build for everyone. Build with everyone.
○ 3. Design for the user who will have the most difficulty using your
product.
○ 4. Don’t assume equity; measure equity throughout your systems.
○ 5. Change is possible.
Stay Curious, Push Forward
● The path to equity is long and complex.
● However, we can and should transition from simply building tools and
services, to growing our understanding of how the products we
engineer impact humanity.
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● Challenging our education, influencing our teams and managers, and
doing more comprehensive user research are all ways to make
progress.
● Although change is uncomfortable and the path to high performance
can be painful, it is possible through collaboration and creativity.
● As future exceptional engineers, we should focus first on the users
most impacted by bias and discrimination.
● Together, we can work to accelerate progress by focusing on
Continuous Improvement and owning our failures.
● Becoming an engineer is an involved and continual process. The goal is
to make changes that push humanity forward without further
disenfranchising the disadvantaged.
● As future exceptional engineers, we have faith that we can prevent
future failures in the system.
Conclusion
● Bias is the default.
● Diversity is necessary to design properly for a comprehensive user
base.
● Inclusivity is critical not just to improving the hiring pipeline for
underrepresented groups, but to providing a truly supportive work
● environment for all people. Product velocity must be evaluated against
providing a product that is truly useful to all users.
● It’s better to slow down than to release a product that might cause
harm to some users.
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