Do product managers need a code of ethics? What would a code do? How would it affect the profession? Why should we adopt it? What should it include? What's next?

1. Phil Wolff, @evanwolf, pevanwolf@gmail.com

4. ▪ OpenOakland tech/design volunteers
worked with the City to automate bringing
young people to summer jobs
▪ Found making it easier to apply would
bottleneck agencies, waste user time,
discourage job seekers
▪ Our team walked away

5. ▪ We acted on conscience
▪ But we were volunteers. No profit motive or
jobs to keep. No conflicts.
▪ We could have gone ahead, accepting the
harm as a cost of partnering with the City
and agencies. Partners over Users.

7. ▪ Doctors, Nurses
▪ Lawyers, Judges
▪ Police Officers
▪ Accountants
▪ Engineers

10. ▪ Should I take a paid speaking gig
▪ from this outside company
▪ when their actions harm my
customers?

11. ▪ What should I do if,
▪ when I take over a product,
▪ I discover it has Dark Patterns?

12. ▪ What should I do if my product
▪ is legal where I live
▪ but illegal in other countries?

13. ▪ What should I do when I see a product
manager behave unethically?

14. ▪ If my product brings more harm into the
world than good,
▪ what are my obligations?

15. ▪ If my product harms a few people
▪ but is of great good and value for the rest,
▪ what should I do?

16. ▪ If I have to retire my product
▪ but many people’s live depend on it,
▪ how should I approach this?

17. If my product’s customers are not its users,
▪ like a product sold to an employer
for its employees,
▪ how do I prioritize
customer needs vs. user needs?

18. Not in order (yet)…

19. ▪ Committing product managers to higher
duties than career, company, profit.

20. ▪ Help those who rely on product managers to
trust practitioners and the profession.

21. ▪ “You are the voice of the customer” conflicts
with “You are the CEO of the product.” How
do you balance those goals?

22. ▪ Offer the practitioner guidance when moral
conflicts and conflicting duties apply.

23. ▪ Help product managers understand how to
hold ourselves accountable for mistakes and
breaches of faith.

24. ▪ A well-used code of ethics defends the
profession from scallywags, rapscallions, and
other ne’er-do-wells who’s words and
behavior sully our collective reputation.

26. ▪ Are we doing “one thing” or “many things”?
▪ We’re an occupation. Are we a profession?
▪ Does our job balancing many duties make it
impossible to write an ethics code?

27. ▪ Get involved
▪ What should a Product Manager’s code of ethics
accomplish? (Quora)
▪ What should be in a Product Managers' code of
ethics? (Quora)
▪ Twitter: #prodmgmt
▪ Where you talk with other product managers.
▪ Needed: Real World Cases

28. PHIL WOLFF
pevanwolf@gmail.com
@Evanwolf
1-510-343-5664
LinkedIn