Introducing the Product Ethics Canvas

The canvas is a workshop tool for product teams which links ethics with product strategy

The ideas I presented in Your Product’s Ethical Stack received a good reception, and from there I was able to gather some useful feedback.

I found out that the “stack” concept was an effective metaphor for talking about all the different facets of ethics in a way which spoke the language of PMs.

Yet to be more helpful, it needed translating into something tangible that could be used in workshops.

With that in mind, I’ve iterated on the ideas to create the Product Ethics Canvas.

The canvas frames how ethics links to product strategy

Ethics is increasingly on the agenda of product teams.

Yet most product teams lack the frameworks to meaningfully consider ethics in their product strategy.

That’s where the Product Ethics Canvas comes in.

It’s a workshop tool to helps product teams to explore the ethical dimensions of their product.

Taking the team through 8 steps, each framed with a key question, the outcome of the exercise is an overview of the ethics of the product and clearly identified steps to increase its integrity.

The canvas is flexible and can be used for all kinds of products

The Product Ethics Canvas is a framework designed to be used for all kinds of product, be that digital or physical, consumer or enterprise.

Rather than focus on specific ethical issues such as digital ethics, or sustainability, it is aimed at giving a big picture, strategic view — which sets the stage to zoom in to these important areas.

The Product Ethics Canvas’s categories are based on contemporary moral philosophy and applied ethics, from diverse schools of thought: namely, consequentialist ethics, virtue ethics, deontological ethics, and applied ethics.

It is designed to prompt you to consider different aspects of ethics, but not to guide your team in a particular direction. That is, other than that it is better for a product to have integrity, with all the identified aspects working coherently with each other.

The canvas is for PMs, extended product teams and ethics specialists

For PMs, the canvas can help you bring ethics into your product strategy thinking by giving you a framework for analysing ethics and for discussing ethics with your team.

For Strategists, User Researchers and Designers, the canvas can help you describe important ethical features of your product. If you are researching the ethics of your product, the canvas can help you structure the research.

For Ethics Specialists, the canvas can help you frame key ethical concepts for your clients. It can be a tool for initial workshops before going deeper into specific ethical problems.

Use the canvas in a workshop, dialogue or for solo deep work

The idea of the canvas is to prompt a constructive conversation about ethics.

You can use the workshop in a workshop setting, in a dialogue with a go-to colleague, or even alone as a deep work session — at least, as a first pass.

Of course, ethics is a complex topic. No matter what format you choose to use the canvas, it is important you take your time, bringing a reflective stance, and ready to challenge your assumptions by getting other views.

Putting the Product Ethics Canvas into action

You can download a PDF of the canvas at productethicscanvas.com.

Here you can also find more information on the thinking behind the canvas, and examples of it being used for different products.

An open question right now is how much prior ethics experience and knowledge teams need to use the canvas.

My hope is that with open-minded reflection, the prompts alone should be a helpful starting point for releasing new thinking and structuring the output into something useful.

But I’m also sure the result of the exercise will be even better if someone on the team has ethics knowledge.

If you are planning to use the canvas, here’s a background reading list to dip into: The 5 Freshest Books on Ethics that Technologists Must Read.

I also recommend TU Delft’s free online course: Responsible Innovation: Ethics, Safety and Technology.

Next steps for the canvas

I’m looking forward to opportunities to test drive the Product Ethics Canvas with different product and innovation teams.

Any requests to facilitate workshops or present on the topic, please reach out via LinkedIn.

Thanks for reading.