Positive Sum Design: Re-Framing Value Definitions to Unveil Non- or Anti-Rivality

What is value, and how do we create it? This may seem like a question for an economist — one with a fairly cut-and-dry answer. However, as economist Mariana Mazzucato, founding director of the University College of London Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, points out in her 2019 TEDSummit Talk What is Economic Value and Who Creates It?, the broadly accepted approach to measuring value in economics has changed several times over the past three centuries. Early economists defined value largely as agricultural production, a definition that yielded to industrial production with the arrival of the industrial revolution and has now further yielded to the more subjective, preference-centered theory of value prevalent in neoclassical economics. This is all to say that the definition of value, despite centuries of study and theorizing, is fluid. That is good news for Positive Sum Design.

As currently developed, Positive Sum Design posits that a positive-sum re-framing of a design problem should introduce non-rival or anti-rival value (a further generalized version of non- or anti-rival goods) in order to create positive-sum dynamics. The question then becomes “How do we unveil this non- or anti-rival value?” One way to answer this question takes a queue from the economists: re-frame definitions of value. Some of the easiest forms of non-rival value to discover are those with high asymmetry, where one design stakeholder puts much more stock in the form of value than other stakeholders. These forms of value create positive-sum dynamics because they create opportunities to shift forms of value to those parties for whom they will have the most impact with the least investment or sacrifice from other parties. This can be used to great effect in situations where each stakeholder cares deeply for a different, high-asymmetry form of value. A designed system can redistribute these high-asymmetry value forms to the participants that care most about them, thereby creating a highly positive-sum interaction. A quintessential example of this sort of positive-sum system is a live-donor organ donation chain, whereby chains of donors and patients that are compatible can be assembled to enable life-saving organ donations that would otherwise be impossible.

Re-framing value definitions to identify high-asymmetry value forms is best described as a generative research or co-design methodology. When practiced well, the designer will work with design stakeholders to examine the forms of value each stakeholder holds most dear, and those the stakeholder does not. One important step is to get past universal forms of value such as currency, which are unlikely to be highly asymmetric. There are many ways to probe these various forms of value, such as:

1. In the context of an interview, ask questions intended to reveal underlying goals. Analyze answers with an eye towards how goals may be a source of value for the stakeholder. If the design can affect those underlying goals with little negative effect on other stakeholders, you have discovered a high-asymmetry value form.
2. In the context of a co-design session, work with stakeholders to imagine what they could do for one another. While this approach may create tension, it also removes the designer from the mix and can improve efficiency and potentially yield more creative options as stakeholders can immediately respond to each other. The designer must be careful to keep in mind that power dynamics can have deleterious effects on this sort of method, however, as a power imbalance can lead to one stakeholder agreeing to a distribution of value forms that they would not otherwise.

Further thinking on how to re-frame value definitions in order to unveil non- or anti-rival forms of value is necessary as Positive Sum Design is further developed. For instance, generative research methodologies might seek to discover what sorts of value could be generated through various forms of cooperation (or even competition) between stakeholders. The possibilities are numerous and our only restriction is our creativity as Positive Sum Design methodologies are further considered and iterated upon.

References:

What is Economic Value and Who Creates It? By Dr. Mariana Mazzucato: https://www.ted.com/talks/mariana_mazzucato_what_is_economic_value_and_who_creates_it?language=en#t-461468