In one of the most inspiring conversations we’ve had this month, we worked with DEFRA to convene a set of northern-based product leaders to discuss how product development can be more sustainable by default and deliver more sustainable outcomes. We discussed in the room, ‘the greening of code, and the greening by code’. What emerged isn’t ground-breaking, but it did reveal the role of product managers and leaders in delivering net positive results in an increasingly digitized world.
Firstly, it’s about understanding your agency as a product manager or leader. Perhaps the biggest and most thought-provoking theme to emerge from the discussion was the idea that many of us have a high degree of agency when building products. For a product manager, that might be prioritising a backlog. For a product leader, it’s recognising the unique position you hold, at a very unique point in time. Fundamentally, if we want to develop less damaging and more beneficial services and products, we need to recognise the changes we can make both tactically and strategically.
John Steward, Head of Product at DEFRA, who co-hosted the event with us, remarked that oftentimes it’s about identifying the small things within your influence that you can change to deliver a more positive outcome. Even asking ‘what’s the one thing I can do within the next two weeks to deliver better sustainability outcomes?’ is a good place to start.
We wouldn’t be product people if we didn’t talk about measurement. The problem with sustainability is that it’s hard to get the same level of transparency that we’ve all come to expect when delivering products. It’s also hard to draw a boundary. Do we consider the whole end-to-end of developing a product? And do we consider the knock-on implications of a product decision? For example, are we measuring (can we even measure?) the impact of service failure, such as a shipment being returned or sent back?
We discussed how to manage this. At one end, there are easier metrics to start with. Carbon intensity is a good example, and there are some good entry-level tools out there. At the other end, there is a broad equation and question to ask. Are the benefits of this decision outweighed by the costs? It was interesting to see Jonathan Bell from Sprout talking about not using AI because the benefits don’t outweigh the costs. I think we’ll start to see more of this in the future.
Ultimately, it’s hard money that matters to the people who product managers are often trying to influence. It was good to get consensus then that generally, measuring money can create a positive case for sustainability. Making things more sustainable often makes them more efficient and therefore cheaper. It’s a win-win.
Claire Robinson, Transform’s Director for Sustainability recommended that all businesses start looking at their digital waste to reduce the size of their digital estate (thereby also reducing the cost of hosting) likening it to ‘space trash’. Like the debris orbiting the earth from satellites launched eons ago, most organisationsfrequently produce and publish content, new processes and websites, but few consider the processes of retiring or managing end-of-life for digital assets. Cleaning up can stop unnecessary carbon being emitted, reducing environmental impact as well as cost.
Beyond money, there are the hard levers of legislation. Claire also pointed out that accessibility wasn’t properly considered in product development until Dominos was sued over accessibility legislation. Existing sustainability legislation, and future legislation is likely to make this more common and a quantifiable risk to businesses of not baking sustainability into their products.
There is simply too much to write up into a single blog post, but I did want to share some of the other great tips that emerged in the discussion:
If you want to learn more about building more sustainable products and services, we’re hosting a free training session in London on 12th September for anyone interested. Claire Robinson will be leading a half-day workshop, together with our Associate Director, Sinead Doyle, guiding attendees through approaches to more sustainable service design. Take a look.
If you want to get in touch about future product leadership events, drop me a note, I’m Product Director for Transform and keen to hear how we can help and support you.
Thank you to John Steward, Head of Product at DEFRA, who co-hosted the roundtable. John has led product delivery across the public sector, including for the DfE and GDS. He’s now embedding sustainable product practices into the product team at DEFRA.