Reciprocity: The Key to Unlocking Equitable Product Co-Creation

Lived experiences, cultural backgrounds, and personal stories are the seeds from which new art and innovation grow. Creative expression plays a vital role in bringing together like-minded individuals, fostering understanding, and cultivating empathy. However, systemically underinvested and marginalized communities frequently encounter barriers, such as ableism, social disparities, systemic exclusion, and limited access to technology, which hinder their ability to share their stories. These obstacles can diminish, or even eliminate, their ability to participate in mediums of self-expression and storytelling.

To create equitable products and drive innovation, it is essential to gain insights from communities traditionally excluded from conventional research demographics. Achieving this, however, requires more than just data collection—it demands shared decision-making, mutual learning, and a commitment to solving the challenges faced by marginalized communities in a way that builds trust and ensures mutual benefit.

Adobe’s Product Equity team defines this practice as equitable co-creation. It prioritizes trust, reciprocity, and the active inclusion of underinvested communities as partners at every stage of the product design and development process. In this session with Akshita Goyal, you’ll explore Adobe’s approach for advancing product equity and participate in a positionality and intersectionality activity designed to help you define your journey as a product equity practitioner.