Changing the world…?
tl;dr — we are responsible for defending the world against the dangers of our products, because if not us, who else?
Today’s goal is to reflect on what it means to have positive impact.
I want to create products that make lives better. I’m listening to Sunset by DAVICHI today.
When I look over the product areas I’ve contributed to at Google — Docs, Sheets, Slides, Calendar, Gmail, Tables, etc. — there’s a clear theme: I really love working in the space of human productivity. I’ve always wanted to help people save time and automate the unnecessary parts of their lives.
And yet, one day, a close friend asked me:
“How do you know whether improving productivity is going to create positive change and how do you know it’s worthwhile working on?“
This threw me for a loop. :) I had never questioned whether the products I worked on or the idea of helping people get things done faster could potentially have negative consequences.
Some important questions to remember to ask ourselves:
- What are we trying to achieve or improve, and for whom?
- How should people use our products, and what shouldn’t be allowed?
- What does success look like, and how does it impact the world?
The reality is, many of the digital tools we create and manage can be double-edged swords: they can carve trails to amazing new opportunities and experiences, but they can also be used as weapons to hurt people and communities.
But what are we supposed to do? Are we, as product owners, responsible for how nefarious people decide to use our well-intentioned products? Isn’t it kinda like making the chalkboard manufacturer responsible for bullies writing mean things on their chalkboards?
We should be responsible for trying our best to defend the world against the dangers of our products, because who else can? We won’t be able to solve or mitigate every risk or danger, but we should do our best, because we’re the ones with the power to make those changes. Like my favorite super hero’s uncle likes to say: “With great power comes great responsibility,” and we should take that seriously as product owners.
What is a worthwhile cause?
How do I know if improving productivity is a worthwhile cause? To be honest, I don’t have a perfect answer and I don’t know if I ever will, but for me it comes down to the people I’m trying help.
Do I definitively know that my work and my products create net positive good for the world? I don’t, and I’m not sure I can ever truly measure that. But if the people I care about making a difference to — my family, friends, communities, and the everyday people who sit behind desks all day and find themselves lost in a chaos of emails, documents, and too much copy&paste — if they find that my work empowers them to spend their time doing more meaningful things with their lives, then that’s worth it to me.
Why? Because I believe there’s a lot of good people out there who want to do less mundane work. Because I’d want someone to do the same for me.
