product thinking vs policy thinking
Leaders of organizations often need to design products and policies, especially if they are building their organizations from scratch. I often find that “product” and “policy” are ill-defined terms and that leaders make mistakes trying to design both these things the same way.
A product serves the needs of a particular kind of user in a particular kind of situation. It's useful and demanded to the extent that it meets those needs. Customization may be its great virtue. Often the best products thrill and delight their users.
A policy often serves multiple kinds of audiences in multiple situations. It may even need to account for ~everyone. It’s useful to the extent that it reckons with hard tradeoffs, externalities, and changes in incentives. Often the best policies leave everyone a little disgruntled or at least challenged.
If you bring policy thinking to your product design, you may end up making something that’s not very useful or demanded (despite its elaborate array of features). If you apply product thinking to your policy design, you may run roughshod over important groups or impose unfair debts on the system you’re designing for.
A product move that’s worth trying in both cases is prototyping. See if you can limit your risk by testing a small, cheap version for an early audience.
-eric
