The Handprint of Digital Products
Key takeaways:
While the footprint looks at input resources, the handprint looks at outcomes and impact.
Digital products can have an impact on social practice and the environment.
This handprint can be positive or negative.
What are the consequences of digital products? While the footprint examines the input, the handprint sheds light on a product’s impact on the world.
Handprint of Digital Products
Solving the core problem at hand
Changing the behaviour of individuals
Changing social practices
Influencing ecological states
Two examples may illustrate this cascade.
Stages | Video Call Software | Social Media Software |
|---|---|---|
1. Problem-Solving | Talk to one or more persons in real-time | Update people about their activity |
2. Individual Behaviour Change | Have more virtual and less in-person meetings | Create posts and status messages |
3. Social Change | Fewer business trips, more home office | Feed algorithm re-inforces own beliefs |
4. Ecological Influence | Fewer mobility emissions | More activism for/against climate change |
The consequences above are neither inevitable nor universal or complete.
Problem-Solving
Key takeaways:
Digital Products solve a customer’s problem.
Successful products solve a problem. This makes customers spend money to buy or use the product. A product that does not solve a problem will cease to exist.
The scope of digital products is as broad as the digital world. Therefore, multiple product classifications help to structure the product landscape (e.g. B2B/B2C, industries, business models).
The immediate benefits of digital products are saving time, saving costs, improving convenience, or generating new information or new quality. The more value a product delivers for money, the more happy a customer is with a product.
Typically, solving a customer problem is the main horizon of product teams. If the product solves the problem, the main accomplishment is achieved. The consequences of these solutions are not necessarily relevant for the product provider. But they likely happen.
Individual Behaviour Change
Key takeaways:
Digital Products change the behaviour of affected users.
A digital product changes the behaviour of people:
People no longer buy and use physical maps but a navigation app instead.
People no longer buy CDs and DVDs but stream music and video.
People no longer write down the details of an order but store this information in an order management system.
People no longer fill out a holiday request form but use a digital tool.
People no longer need to write a specific software functionality; they can use a library or service instead.
A product changes the situation to a better state. People adapt to that new situation. People may have to provide input in a different form (e.g. fill out forms), have to change the way they interact with the product (e.g. writing prompts instead of creating text and videos themselves) or will get a different result than before (a product ordered through a system/interface and not a person coming to the counter).
As many products have multiple user roles, this impact can affect different users differently. While this may benefit everyone, it could also lead to advantages for some and disadvantages for others.
Social Change
Key takeaways:
If many users are affected by a digital product, this can change social practice.
Social change can bring advantages to some and disadvantages to other people.
Social change is hard to control but can be considered at the design stage of a product.
A digital product can impact how people behave on a large scale. This may not be true for all digital products; only a few are transformative for society. However, the impact on small communities, teams, and organisations can already be substantial.
Social change can mean:
Different thoughts, skills, or awareness by people
Different behaviour by many people
More/less frequent interaction among some groups of people
Better/worse access to certain services for people
Different allocation of income or wealth
Different life situations of people
The more people use a product, the more structural factors influence the change direction. This makes controlling this change more challenging and harder to predict. Nevertheless, possible paths to change can be considered during the product design stage.
Further resources:
What is social impact by Phineo, https://www.phineo.org/en/magazine/what-is-social-impact
Ecological Influence
Key takeaways:
Large-scale social change can have an impact on the environment.
This impact can be beneficial for the environment or not.
Ecological consequences are hard to control but can be considered at the design stage of a product.
When people change their behaviour, the environment will likely be affected.
An increased/decreased desire for a certain outcome will increase/decrease resource need (e.g. fast-fashion needs fueled by social media).
A change in human mobility will influence resource needs (e.g. less phyiscal trips enabled by digital communication tools).
A better ability to track natural assets may lead to a better management of natural resources.
When large scale social change is hard to control and to predict, ecological influence can be even more difficult. We only understand a part of all natural processes, ecosystems and interdependences. Therefore, foreseeing ecological influence may be difficult.
The impact of products on the environment might then also trigger new individual behaviours and social consequences. People who enjoy a certain result, might step into a virtuous circle. Other people who oppose ecological consequences, may try to mitigate risks.