Seed Catalog > ResponsibleTech.Work pledges
ResponsibleTech.Work pledges
Regardless of your job title, you can pledge to make your work more responsible. Each pledge helps you learn a bit more about responsible product development by providing discussion and action points for you and your team.
1. Respect people I build products for and treat them as friends, not users.
A friend listens, respects your choices, helps you grow, and is there when you need help. A friend doesn’t waste your time, track your every move, lock you in a walled garden, or use dark patterns to force you to give up your personal data. I pledge to treat the people who use our products as our friends instead of numbers to optimize, data to exploit, or users that we’re trying to get addicted to our product.
2. Protect people against abuse and harassment made possible by our product.
I recognize that people sometimes use products in harmful ways and that some people are more vulnerable to abuse and harassment than I am. I pledge to design and build better moderation and safety tools that will protect people at risk, regardless of whether they are our paying customers. I will aim to do so before something harmful happens on our platform.
2. Make our product more accessible to people with different abilities.
We take a lot of our physical and cognitive abilities for granted. I pledge to design and build features that will make our product more widely accessible to people different from me, in different settings and life situations. Most of us will face some degree of temporary or permanent disability in our lives, and minor adjustments can mean a world of difference to many people.
4. Consider the broader social impacts of our product.
The promise of artificial intelligence is to free humans from tedious jobs, but it is also putting people out of jobs, reinforcing existing or introducing new biases in decision-making, and creating invisible, poorly paid ghost workers that we take for granted. I pledge to question the working conditions in which our product is made and maintained and pay attention to unintended side effects that affect people at large.
5. Consider the environmental impacts of everyday product decisions.
The environmental impact of digital products is often hidden from view. I pledge to question the environmental impact every step of the way and reduce our product’s overall carbon impact through more efficient and sustainable design and development. I also pledge to question the environmental impact of the products and services we use to make and maintain our product and make sustainability a deciding factor when choosing third-party providers.
6. Work with and learn from a diverse team of people.
Nobody knows everything, which is why it’s crucial to include a diverse team of people in product development and recognize the limits of our personal experiences. I pledge to seek outside help from experts and the impacted communities when I come across an issue I don’t know enough about and be open-minded to diverse perspectives and needs. I will continue to learn about new experiences and perspectives.
7. Take personal responsibility for my own work and impact, regardless of job title.
We are proud to work on products that touch thousands or even millions of people’s lives. Yet, we often avoid taking personal responsibility for the intended or unintended effects of our work. While it might not be easy to measure my impact, I pledge to aim to be a more responsible tech worker and tech consumer and question product decisions and business as usual, even when that’s not officially part of my job.