Practitioners looking to bring responsible technology to their work often face a challenge: how can we persuade our colleagues, boss or client to prioritise responsibility? I believe that most people building technology want to do the right thing. However, it can be difficult to see how topics like ethics and responsibility fit into our existing processes. As fascinating as this work might be, it can feel like a distraction from the fast-paced work of designing and shipping software.
Consequence Scanning is one technique that can help makers bring responsible technology into their wider team’s process. It is a collaborative workshop that can help to identify the intended and unintended consequences of a new technology (and mitigate the negative ones). It is designed to work well within an agile product team. And best of all, it takes less than an hour.