SoC #49: My Favourite Net-Positive Products

I'm Lisa - welcome to this week's edition of Stream of Consciousness - the newsletter for product leaders who want to build products and their careers more consciously, in ways that are inclusive, holistic, ethical, accessible, and sustainable.

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Sponsorship Opportunity ✨

I recently started offering sponsorships to help keep this free to the reader. I'm actively looking for sponsors for upcoming editions that share similar missions and values as Conscious Product Development. If you fit the bill or know someone who might, I'd appreciate a share! 🙏

I recently wrote a longer-form piece about why we should be focusing on building net-positive products, like Bill and Melinda Gates' "Reinvent the Toilet Challenge".

Since then, readers of SoC and people I've met through social media have asked - "What are some other examples of net-positive products?".

Before jumping into some of my favourites, this is what my "net positive" barometer check currently looks like:

1. Is the product solving a meaningful problem that, if solved, will have a measurable, positive impact on people, the planet, or both?

2. Is the problem clearly defined? Specifically with respect to how big of a problem it is, who, specifically, it impacts, and how it impacts them.

3. Does the solution address the problem in a net positive way (i.e. does not produce unintended byproducts that cause more problems)?

Here are a few really creative examples that fit all 3 criteria:

1. Qvin 🩸

Problem: Over 70% of the decisions our doctors make are influenced by blood test results. But drawing blood requires that we overcome two friction points - a trip to the lab and needles or finger pricks to monitor existing health issues or screen for others.

Solution: Every month, 1.8 billion people across the world menstruate. However, the blood our bodies naturally deliver every month has never been explored as a testing source. Qvin uses period blood gathered through a pad with a removable collection slip that you then mail to the lab as the first truly non-invasive blood test.

Note: Qvin hasn't officially launched the product for full-scale public use yet, but they are YCombinator backed, have over $12M in funding, and have several clinical trials underway with 2 patents approved.

2. Insight Timer 🧘‍♀️

Problem: We often aren't sleeping well, are riddled with anxiety, aren't breathing well, and are inundated with stressors that are impacting our mental health and causing physical symptoms.

Solution: An app that is accessible (they operate with a freemium model but there's a massive amount of content and features that are available for free), puts the user first (respects intention, attention, and prioritizes supporting our basic human needs vs. pestering users with notifications to improve engagement), and offers guided meditations of varying lengths and from varying instructors to help improve sleep, breathing, stress, anxiety, confidence, relationships, parenting, dealing with fear, depression, pain, addiction, trauma, burnout and exhaustion, manifestation, resilience, and more. It's also got live classes you can join, yoga sessions, a journal you can record entries in, and calming music. My favourite parts are the UX and the filtering - the UX is so thoughtful (i.e. the loading screen displays a quote that has a 99% hit rate at helping me feel better or more wise) and the filtering allows the user to select by type (i.e. meditation), length (i.e. 0-5 mins), and audio preferences (i.e. female voices only, without background music).

3. Pavegen 👟

Problem: We are depleting the earth's natural resources in order to generate energy through non-renewable sources (i.e. coal, natural gas, oil, lithium, and nuclear energy). Once these resources are used up, they can't be replaced which will pose (and already is posing) a major problem for humanity.

Solution: Tiles that can be installed in cities that can convert our footsteps into energy through our steps. When a tile is stepped on, mechanical energy is converted to electrical energy that can be stored in batteries and then used later.

Note: I don't have visibility into how much of a carbon footprint the tile manufacturing process leaves and would love to dig into this more.

What are some of your favourite net positive products?

Let me know!

Soulwork 💜

• The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk (I'm reading this right now and I've been like this the whole time → 😱. We often don't think about HOW connected our physical challenges are to our emotions and trauma).

1 Actionable Career Planning Tip 🧭

You don't have to take everyone's advice. Everyone operates under very different values, context, and constraints. What worked for them or what they learned in their setting may not actually be the right move for you to make right now in yours.

Be intentional about whose advice you seek out.

A filter I have adopted is, "Do our values seem to be aligned?" If the answer is no, I usually will not intentionally ask X person for their advice. If the answer is yes, I'm a lot more inclined to be able to integrate it.

Thanks for Reading!

If you're looking to improve as a conscious product leader and achieve the outcomes you desire, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. The Product Manager's Career Guide: If you are an early stage product manager with 0-5 years of experience and want to design your career more consciously this is for you. Get clarity on what to focus on and why, define the trajectory you are moving towards, and use my practical tools and downloadable templates to help you iterate on the systems you are using to reach your goals.

2. Stitch: The Best Resources for Product Managers: The most comprehensive resource for anyone in product looking to save hundreds of hours Googling to search for anything from "How to do customer interviews", "How to get promoted", "Roadmap templates", "How to build accessible products", "Stakeholder alignment", "Product pricing", and more. Over 2000 practical resources organized by product area in a single .pdf.

3. 1:1 Product Career Coaching and Support: Let's meet to define your desired outcomes and create a system together to help you move towards them starting now.

Have a great week!

-Lisa ✨

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