This blog post is a call to arms for ethically-minded product people to unite, knowledge share, and up-skill so we can use the agency our role affords for the betterment of each other and society at large.
Get involved, here!
Does Product for Bad exist?
In 2021, Frances Haugen, a product person turned Facebook (now Meta) whistleblower, told us that she believed the company put profit before public safety and that the organisation was turning a blind eye to internal research that asserted the platform was contributing to..
- The spread of misinformation
- A rise in online hate and division
- Poor teenage mental health
“The thing I saw at Facebook over and over again was there were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook. And Facebook, over and over again, chose to optimise for its own interests, like making more money,” she said.
This seems to be a rather nailed on example as product for bad (sorry to any Meta PMs).
If Frances is correct, it would seem Meta is happy “in the knowledge that its platform is causing harm to society, and actively avoiding fixing these issues due to a desire to turn greater profits.
So, what is the alternative?
I presume, maybe naively, that many of us opted to become product people based on a desire to create things, improve lives and change the world for the better as opposed to a pure profit motive.
I also suspect that many public sector product people avert the lure of the private sector dollar due to a commitment to public service whilst lots private sector product folk would love to be able to prioritise things that improved society rather than just turned a profit.
And whilst there are lots of amazing Tech for Good initiatives, I wonder if we could think more specifically as to what we as product folk can do to?
After all, as product people, we are the prioritisers – the ones tasked with influencing and challenging stakeholders. I believe this role provides us a unique opportunity to put things on roadmaps, or introduce ways of working that synergise an organisation’s goals with public good.
I firmly believe we can and should use our agency to ensure our teams and our organisations are building the right things in the right way – in ways that protect privacy, encourage inclusivity and aren’t causing unnecessary harm to the planet’s finite resources.
We have an opportunity to be forces for good but how?
How can we make changes to our individual practices and the habits within our organisations to drive ethical innovation?
Hopefully, in the right departments or companies the product work we do itself can benefit society.
But I wonder whether we can go further?
If the product community were to focus on upskilling itself with the skills and knowledge to create, manage, and scale tech products that truly make a difference, or to work within orgs in an ethical manner, what an impact could we make?
And what sort of things would we have to know and learn to leverage technology to drive positive societal impact?
Want to get involved?
This is just a kernel of an idea on a topic too big for a single person to do anything meaningful with.
Therefore, I’d like to see if others out there would like to join forces to start discussing how we can collectively make a difference.
As a starter for ten, I imagine we might start with a few discussions such as…
- If there was a course on Product for Good, what topics would you want/expect it to cover?
- If all public sector / private sector product people took this course early in their careers, what impacts can you imagine for society?
If this sounds like something you’d like to be a part of, fill out this Google Form and let’s see where the journey takes us.