Radical Product Thinking

CHAPTER 8

DIGITAL POLLUTION

The Collateral Damage to Society

Iteration-led products find local maxima by optimizing financial metrics, but in the process, they often have unintended consequences on society. The iteration-led approach is so common that we have learned to accept a dichotomy: you can be successful, or you can make the world a better place.

We see mounting evidence of a generation of disillusioned employees in the technology industry coming to terms with this dichotomy. Employees at Google and Amazon have staged walkouts to protest how their employers’ products and practices are failing society.¹ Uncanny Valley, the memoir of a young professional trying to find meaningful work in the tech industry, became a New York Times bestseller. ...