I write on the why, what and how of Product Management, with a particular passion for climate-positive practices as a champion of the "Voice of the Planet", our ultimate customer.
I write on the why, what and how of Product Management, with a particular passion for climate-positive practices as a champion of the "Voice of the Planet", our ultimate customer.
We are running out of time to reverse our destruction of the planet — our home. The evidence is overwhelming. Given the size of the issue, every job is now a climate job, to quote Jamie Alexander of Project Drawdown. At the same time, every company is a software company, to paraphrase Satya Nadella.
You don't have to work on a climate tech product to make a difference.
Whether you are building internal solutions, dashboards for hardware, or SaaS products — this one is for you. It's a win:win for your business and the planet because climate-positive development often translates to a better bottom line.
The Sustainability Square is an alternative to the "Iron Triangle" of cost, quality and speed. The Square includes a fourth vector: carbon efficiency. This makes the climate cost of your prioritization and trade off decisions explicit, rather than relying on cost considerations as a proxy.
The Impact vs Complexity quadrant (or "two by two") breaks ideas down into:
We can make the climate impact explicit by adding an additional plane for carbon efficiency. Each white dot on the graph represents impact/effort in the traditional way. A corresponding green dot represents carbon efficiency. Prioritization decisions would consider the spread between white and green dots. If the green dot is lagging in the lower hemisphere, it will undermine the initial attraction of that option.
