Key takeaways:

While the footprint looks at input resources, the handprint looks at outcomes and impact.
Digital products can have an impact on social practice and the environment.
This handprint can be positive or negative.

What are the consequences of digital products? While the footprint examines the input, the handprint sheds light on a product’s impact on the world.

Handprint of Digital Products

The impact can reach up to four stages:

Solving the core problem at hand
Changing the behaviour of individuals
Changing social practices
Influencing ecological states

Two examples may illustrate this cascade.

Stages	Video Call Software	Social Media Software
1. Problem-Solving	Talk to one or more persons in real-time	Update people about their activity
2. Individual Behaviour Change	Have more virtual and less in-person meetings	Create posts and status messages
3. Social Change	Fewer business trips, more home office	Feed algorithm re-inforces own beliefs
4. Ecological Influence	Fewer mobility emissions	More activism for/against climate change

The consequences above are neither inevitable nor universal or complete.

Problem-Solving

Key takeaways:

Digital Products solve a customer’s problem.

Successful products solve a problem. This makes customers spend money to buy or use the product. A product that does not solve a problem will cease to exist.

The scope of digital products is as broad as the digital world. Therefore, multiple product classifications help to structure the product landscape (e.g. B2B/B2C, industries, business models).