Building Regenerative Products: a practical guide
Principles & levers to build regenerative products for organizational leaders and product managers
Part 1 — Introduction
Before diving into this guide, I recommend reading my previous article, which makes the case for regenerative products and explains why they are essential for the future. You can also proceed without reading it. Now, let’s focus on the practical aspect: how do we actually build regenerative products?
If you want to go straight to the methodology, skip to Part 2.
What is the purpose of this guide?
This guide is designed as a complement to traditional agile methodologies like Scrum, Kanban, and the Spotify squad approach, which are widely used in Silicon Valley startup culture.
While these methods are effective for product management, they don’t fully address the systemic impact of the products we build. They also only offer methodology for a specific type of organization, a VC-funded startup. The Regenerative Product Method bridges that gap.
Is This ESG for Startups?
In short, no. While ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) frameworks focus on managing a company’s supply chain and externalities, this guide is more concerned with the technology itself, particularly software products’ human impact.
That includes their effect on health, culture, society and politics.
The Regenerative Product Method is designed to be a voluntary framework that could, over time, evolve into a certification standard or even influence regulation. Early adopters will help shape the blueprint for what’s possible in this space.
As The Centre for Humane Technology states, the field of humane technology is 20 years behind the field of sustainability.
For Whom is This Guide?
This guide is tailored for a range of organizations building products, including:
Impact Startups: Companies that aim to create positive social change.
NGOs & Non-Profits: Organizations that need to manage their impact as carefully as they manage their resources.
Governments: Public institutions seeking to design services and products that align with broader societal goals.
Corporations: Businesses that want to understand and mitigate their systemic impact.
A Disclaimer before We Begin
Before diving into the specifics, it’s important to note that this approach requires a more data-intensive process than traditional product management. Much like ESG initiatives, it involves measuring a wide array of impacts, which can initially seem daunting. However, with advances in AI and automation, the costs and complexities of these processes are expected to decrease significantly over time.
While there is pushback against the idea that businesses should bear the responsibility for systemic impacts, the reality is that businesses drive much of the world’s operations. As such, they must lead in adopting alternative organizational models that function as products — and excel at systemic product management.
The Shift to Product Thinking
Many services we take for granted today will eventually become products, governed by product management principles. This applies not just to businesses but also to NGOs, non-profits, and even government services. If your organizational governance and development approach doesn’t reflect a commitment to impact, it’s time to reconsider claiming that identity.
Remember the saying, “Show me the incentives, and I will show you the outcome.” It’s not enough to rely on the values of a CEO; systemic design and incentives play a far greater role in determining outcomes. Personal convictions are important, but they are often outweighed by the structures and incentives within an organization.
A Work in Progress
This guide is a work-in-progress, evolving as new applications and insights emerge. It’s based on a decade of experience building software products, creating systemic ventures, and consulting for NGOs, non-profits, and government bodies. As the field of regenerative products grows, so too will this method.
Shout out to systemic ventures for their contributions to this evolving field!
Part 2 — The Principles
How to read the principles
The following principles provide a framework for implementing an effective regenerative product methodology. While these principles establish a foundation, they should be adapted to the unique needs and context of your organization. This includes the careful selection of metrics and KPIs that align with your specific goals and operational realities.
Section 1. Organizational Governance
For this methodology to have a meaningful impact, your organization’s governance and design must align with regenerative principles. Without this alignment, the effectiveness of these principles will be limited.
1.1 Incentives across the Organization
Incentives must be closely tied to systemic impact, rather than purely financial gains. If profit and revenue remains the sole reward at the highest levels of your organization, this approach will fall short. It’s not enough for founders to care deeply about these principles — organizational structures need to reflect them as well, because founders can be replaced, and without systemic incentives, their values might not be sustained.
Example: SocialWeave, a social networking startup dedicated to fostering genuine human connections, recognizes that their CEO’s passion for improving social cohesion isn’t enough if the rest of the organization isn’t aligned. To ensure the whole team is on the same page, SocialWeave introduces an incentive structure where employee bonuses are linked to metrics like encouraging real life meetups, positive interaction rates, and the reduction of divisive content on their platform. This ensures that all employees are motivated to enhance social capital through their work.
1.2 Aligning Capital and Customers with Regenerative Goals
The sources of your fundraising and the characteristics of your customer segments play pivotal roles in shaping the trajectory of your business. Fundraising sources come with their own incentives, reporting requirements, and return expectations, all of which can significantly influence your strategic decisions.
To maintain alignment with regenerative principles, it’s crucial to seek out investors who are committed to long-term impact rather than just short-term gains.
Similarly, understanding your customer segments is essential; knowing what they value — whether it’s health, social impact, or ethical governance — will help you ensure your product maintains integrity in those respects.
Example: CulturaLink, an NGO dedicated to preserving indigenous cultures, carefully selects its funding sources to ensure they align with its long-term mission of cultural preservation. Instead of accepting grants from organizations focused solely on economic returns, CulturaLink partners with foundations that prioritize cultural sustainability. Additionally, they engage with communities that value and support their mission, ensuring that both their funding and their beneficiaries are aligned with their goal of enhancing cultural capital.
1.3 Scale appropriate and modular
Businesses that grow too large and homogeneous can face significant risks. However, adopting modularity in your business design, similar to Shopify or other B2B2C models, can allow for larger-scale operations while maintaining regenerative principles.
Example: Neighborly Cities, a government-funded initiative aimed at enhancing community resilience, adopts a modular approach in its urban development projects. By partnering with local organizations it design neighborhood-specific solutions. Rather than imposing a one-size-fits-all model, Neighborly Cities can scale its impact across different regions while maintaining a strong connection to local needs and practices. This approach minimizes the systemic risks associated with large-scale, homogenous urban projects, ensuring that each community’s unique weave is preserved and strengthened.
1.4 Systems risk officer
Finally, consider appointing a Systems Risk Officer — an individual dedicated to championing the systemic impact of your product within the organization. Depending on the size of your company, this might be a part-time role initially, but for organizations with 100 or more employees, it should be a full-time position. The Systems Risk Officer ensures that regenerative goals remain a priority as the organization scales.
Section 2. Baselining the product
2.1 Clear vision
The foundation of any successful regenerative product is a clear and well-articulated vision. This vision should define the world you want to create and the societal impact your product aims to achieve. It’s important to consider the integrity of this vision — does it stand up under scrutiny, and how will it navigate disruptions? A strong vision will guide your product development and ensure that every decision aligns with your regenerative goals.
2.2 Integrating a Theory of Change into Problem Definition
The starting point for any regenerative product development process is a clear theory of change that incorporates systemic and stakeholder-driven problem definitions. This means identifying the overlap between the problems you aim to solve and the needs of your stakeholders.
This process should be revisited annually to ensure that your product remains relevant and aligned with its intended impact as it evolves.
2.3 Systemic risks baseline
Establish a systemic risks baseline to thoroughly assess and understand the systemic risks associated with your product. This baseline should be established early and revisited at least once a year. A rigorous methodology is essential for scoring your business against these systemic risks, ensuring that your organization remains aligned with regenerative principles.
Example: StorySphere, a digital platform for cultural storytelling, establishes a systemic risks baseline to assess how its content might impact cultural capital. The team examines potential risks such as content quality depreciation, the commodification of cultural narratives, and the erosion of creative incentives. This baseline is reviewed annually, allowing StorySphere to adjust its strategies as needed to ensure that its platform enhances cultural capital while mitigating the risk of undermining the very cultures it aims to preserve.
Section 3. Ongoing development processes
3.1 Core impact KPI dashboard
As your product evolves, it’s crucial to keep track of core impact KPIs. These indicators should be directly related to your regenerative goals and monitored as features are developed and released. Unlike the more in-depth systemic risk assessments, these KPIs should be automatable and provide ongoing insights into your product’s performance. A well-maintained KPI dashboard allows for continuous improvement and alignment with your broader impact objectives.
Example: SafeCities, a public safety initiative, develops a KPI dashboard to track metrics related to social and political capital. These include indicators like the reduction of crime rates, the increase in community trust, and the improvement of institutional integrity through transparent governance. By regularly updating these KPIs as new policies are implemented, SafeCities can continuously measure its impact and make data-driven adjustments to better serve the community.
3.2 Embedding Systemic Metrics in Product Epics and Roadmap prioritization
When planning product epics, it’s essential to integrate systemic metrics into BOTH the prioritization AND success criteria. These metrics should be aligned with your regenerative goals and reviewed regularly in product leadership meetings.
By embedding systemic considerations into your roadmap and epics, you ensure that every feature developed contributes to the overall impact of your product.
Example: ArtConnect, a platform that connects artists with communities, embeds systemic metrics into its product epics by focusing on enhancing cultural capital. For example, each epic might include goals related to improving artist valuation, fostering creative incentives, and maintaining high content quality standards by hiring an art critique board internally. These metrics guide both the prioritization of features on the product roadmap and the evaluation of their success, ensuring that every aspect of ArtConnect’s growth contributes to the preservation and enrichment of cultural capital.
3.3. Regular Review of Systemic Metrics in Leadership Meetings
To maintain focus on your regenerative goals, systemic metrics should be a regular topic of discussion in product leadership meetings. These reviews, held every six weeks, allow you to assess progress, identify challenges, and make adjustments as needed.
This ongoing evaluation helps ensure that your product development remains aligned with regenerative principles.
Example: GlobalHealth Alliance, an international coalition of NGOs focused on improving global health outcomes, holds regular leadership meetings where systemic metrics such as health equity, access to care, and community resilience are reviewed. These discussions help the Alliance ensure that its initiatives are aligned with its mission to enhance health capital worldwide, guiding adjustments to strategy and operations as needed to maximize impact.
Conclusion
If you’re interested in implementing these principles, and want to get to a more practical and implementational level, please reach out to me at hello@regenerativeproducts.io.
Let us build systemic products together!