Planet-Centric systems mapping
At Vincit, we are developing our planet-centric design offer through which we want to help our clients build sustainable digital products and services. This tool is part of what we are building.
Project development, whether it is design-, business- or technology-driven, it is a common practice to map stakeholders. As the projects that we develop get more complex, so do the networks of stakeholders, organisations and organisms associated with them. Therefore, for complex problems and projects, we should be mapping the whole systems where they are integrated, in order to have a meaningful impact.
Powers of Ten is a tool that helps us to consider the different levels in which a problem is integrated, having a more clear idea of the scale of problems. Therefore, we based our systems map on it. This tool originates from the documentary Powers of Ten, released in 1977, by Charles and Ray Eames.
As a tool, it is used to help people think in scale. A very simple example is that it can be used in ideation, by adding constraints to brainstorming sessions, that change the magnitude of the solution space:
- What if 1 person uses it? What if a million people use it?
- What if it was physically larger than this room? Smaller than a deck of cards? Had no physical presence?
- What if it took more than 4 hours to complete the experience? Less than 30 seconds?
But wait, why should we think of scale?
Not understanding scale is a big setback nowadays, as the problems that we face are dependent on the relations between very big and very small threats and opportunities. We can’t really understand and navigate this complexity if we don’t understand the basics, such as:
- What size is everything?
- What am I actually dealing with?
- What is the relationship between the size of a one thing and the other?
Powers of Ten helps us navigate this complexity.
So, what is scale?
Scale is the relative size of things. We measure the sizes of things with units of measurement like a meter or a pixel. In mathematics, a power of 10 is ten multiplied by itself a certain number of times.
Increasing and decreasing scale involves linear or exponential growth or decline. In linear growth, change happens constantly. In exponential growth, not only things are changing, but the rate that they are changing is changing.
A good example of exponential growth was given by Vera Rubin, who found the first evidence of dark matter:
If you ask people how long it will take to count from one to a million, people don’t really have an idea, but it is four to five days if we counted continually.
Having this number in mind, how long do you think it takes to count to a billion? People generally say ten days, but it’s actually something like twenty years.
So we are really good at understanding linear growth but not so much exponential growth. The tricky thing is that most natural and societal phenomena are exponential.
Another example is: consider that 10⁰ is one meter. If we think of global warming, it is caused by carbon dioxide, among other gases. A carbon dioxide molecule is tiny, probably at the size 10-⁹, all together at the scale of the planet 10⁷, they are one of the contributors for the global increase of temperatures, which in turn has an effect on us on our human scale.
So big and small are always interconnected.
Ok, all background information is checked, let’s move on to our tool!
Powers of Ten macro tool
This tool shows the different orders of magnitude from which we look at a specific project, company, product or service. In each level, we ask different questions:
1. Usage: think of the project, company, product or service, and its usage.
- What do we do?
- How does it work?
- How does the user acquire, use and discard our product/service?
- How is it a part of their life?
- What are the fundamental needs that it fulfils?
2. Interactions: think of the interactions it has with other products and organisations.
- With what other products/services is our project, company, product or service interacting with?
- Consider — what is it made of? Where are those components sourced from?
- What are the external forces playing to our advantage and against us?
3. System: think of the systems and networks it is integrated in:
- How does our project, company, product or service exist in relation to society, technology and legislation?
- What is it in line with and what is it not in line with?
- Think back to the fundamental needs, what are our competitors, that fulfil the same end-user needs?
- How does our service exist in relation to our industry?
4. Society: think at a higher level, of all the potential impact and influence of your project, company, product or service.
- How does it shape culture?
- How is it shaped by culture?
- How do we want the world to be in 10 years?
- How are we contributing to that?
After thinking through the questions above, reflect on the overall picture with a few concluding questions:
- What problems repeat across different levels?
- Identify intervention areas/problem areas.
- What are our small next steps?
Now it’s your turn!
What do you think? Would you use it? What would you change?
We would love to hear your feedback, so please contact us or comment below with your perspective on the overall article or parts of the tools. Thank you!
References:
- Thinking big and small: Tools for teaching and understanding the importance of scale. Retrieved from: https://www.eamesoffice.com/education/powers-of-ten-2/
- Ceschin, F., & Gaziulusoy, I. (2016). Evolution of design for sustainability: From product design to design for system innovations and transitions. Design Studies, 47, 118–163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2016.09.002
