Practice : Ethics & Trust Indicators
Purpose and Strategic Importance
Ethics & Trust Indicators measure how responsibly products are designed and perceived. They track whether products meet expectations of fairness, inclusivity, and security.
Without such indicators, ethical concerns surface late, leading to reputational damage and compliance risk.
Description of the Practice
- Indicators include privacy breaches, bias incidents, accessibility scores, and trust survey results.
- Metrics are reviewed regularly as part of governance.
- Data informs ethical impact assessments and product improvements.
How to Practise It (Playbook)
1. Getting Started
- Define baseline indicators relevant to your product.
- Collect data from incident logs, surveys, and audits.
- Share indicators in leadership reviews.
2. Scaling and Maturing
- Standardise ethical KPIs across product portfolio.
- Automate monitoring (e.g., accessibility scans, security dashboards).
- Engage diverse stakeholders in reviewing metrics.
3. Team Behaviours to Encourage
- Courage to raise ethical concerns openly.
- Pride in building trustworthy products.
- Collaboration across product, legal, and compliance.
4. Watch Out For…
- Metrics treated as compliance only.
- Narrow focus on security while ignoring equity or accessibility.
- Indicators not acted on when trends worsen.
5. Signals of Success
- Qualitative: Customers express trust in surveys and interviews.
- Quantitative: Reduction in ethical incidents or complaints.