Choosing a HMW

Challenge: Design for an equitable data economy

“How might we” (HMW) questions are short questions that help narrow a challenge space and launch brainstorms. Over the past week, my team has been working to narrow the data privacy problem space down to an actionable HMW. It’s been challenging to scope such a broad space into a question that is broad enough for a wide range of solutions but narrow enough that there is a clearer direction forward.

We have been exploring the data and privacy space for a few weeks and found that while people know their data is being used, they have little idea of what for and how it might impact their everyday lives.

A few how might we’s I was noodling on:
HMW help people understand what data can do so that they have influence over it’s application?
HMW help people leverage data for behavior change so they are excited about technology’s potential impact on their everyday lives?
HMW help individuals participate in the process of data collection so they might understand the implications of emerging technologies?

As a team we finally landed on:
How might we help people understand how data is being collected and used so that they have transparency in what powers emerging technologies?

It’s still a little big, but we’ll be exploring and refining this HMW over the next few weeks. Stay tuned.