A key question to building any software in the modern age is: “In the wrong hands, who could this harm?”

Decades ago, software seemed harmless. In 2019, when facial recognition is used to deport refugees and data provided by online services have been used to jail journalists, understanding who you’re building for, and who your software could harm, are vital. These are ideas that need to be incorporated not just into the strategies of our companies and the design processes of our product managers, but the daily development processes of our engineers. These are questions that need to be asked over and over again.

It’s no longer enough to build with rough consensus and running code. Empathy and humanity need to be first-class skills for every team – and the tools we use should reflect this.

Source: Pull requests and the templated self