Lean Startup and Lean UX give you powerful experiment driven methods to learn about customers, products and services. But you’re not dealing with test tubes and chemicals. You’re dealing with people. The customer backlash from some of Facebook’s experiments last year shows that what companies can do doesn’t always match up with what customers think they should do. How do we keep doing valuable experiments without hurting our customers or damaging our reputation? There’s a word you hear from experimental scientists you don’t often hear on product teams: Ethics. How does your organisation help you create ethical experiments? Professional scientists have people & processes to help them deal with ethical issues — experiments pass both professional and institutional standards. Is anyone thinking about ethical standards inside your company — or is the issue being ignored completely?

1. https://www.flickr.com/photos/87007001@N04/15126712086
Experimenting With Experimental Ethics
Adrian Howard (@adrianh)

2. https://www.flickr.com/photos/marcopako/2390914273

3. http://www.pnas.org/content/111/24/8788.full

4. https://www.flickr.com/photos/frenkieb/385690862/
Most of what we read under
the name business ethics is
either sentimental common
sense, or a set of excuses for
being unpleasant
– For Business Ethics: A Critical Approach
(Jones, Parker & Bos)

6. https://www.flickr.com/photos/kubina/347687853/

7. https://www.flickr.com/photos/45131642@N00/4433233650
The Trolley Problem

8. https://www.flickr.com/photos/45131642@N00/4433233650

9. https://www.flickr.com/photos/45131642@N00/4433233650

10. https://www.flickr.com/photos/45131642@N00/4433233650

11. http://photo.credit.goes.here/
The needs of the many, outweigh
the needs of the few, or the one

12. https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikewise/405031536

13. KEEP
CALM
IT’S
COMPLICATED

14. 1. Own it

15. … the myth of
the designer’s
lack of control
–Victor Papanek

16. … the myth of the
designer’s team’s
lack of control
–Victor Papanek

17. 2. Articulate it

18. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocratic_Oath#/media/File:HippocraticOath.jpg

19. – Code of Professional Conduct of the User Experience Professionals Association
Ethical Principles
• Act in the best interest of everyone
• Be honest with everyone
• Do no harm and if possible provide benefits
• Act with integrity
• Avoid conflicts of interest
• Respect privacy, confidentiality, and anonymity
• Provide all resultant data

21. 3. Apply it

22. Implied Consent

23. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ASDA_in_Keighley.jpg

24. Informed Consent

26. What’s the worse that can
happen?

27. 0.006

28. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lower_Manhattan_from_Jersey_City_November_2014_panorama_3.jpg

29. 4. Improve it

31. All models are wrong, but some are useful.
Void where prohibited. Some assembly
required. Batteries not included. Any
resemblance to real persons, living or
dead is purely coincidental. Apply only
to affected area. May be too intense for
some viewers. Caveat emptor. Article is
provided as is without any warranties.
Other restrictions may apply.

32. 1. Own
2. Articulate
3. Apply
4. Improve

33. 1. Own
2. Articulate
3. Apply
4. Improve
5. Share

35. discoveryethics.com
@discoveryethics

36. Want more?
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